Lansing White completed the quartette of boys. Lanny was sixteen, having reached that mature age within the past fortnight, a lean, capable-looking youth with flaxen hair and eyes so darkly brown that at first glance they seemed black, an illusion probably due to the contrast with the very light hair. He was perhaps the most popular boy in high school, and his popularity was not entirely due to his athletic prowess. He had the fine faculty of making friends instantly and keeping them afterwards. There wasn’t a kinder-hearted or more thoughtful fellow in town than Lanny White, and if he had an enemy no one knew it. Lanny was captain of the eleven, caught on the nine and was a sprinter of no mean ability.
It was May Burnham who explained the project, since it was she who had originated it, and afterwards they all discussed it. Mr. Grayson’s birthday fell on the twenty-fifth of October, and, as Morris pointed out, they had only some five weeks in which to prepare for it. Louise read from a list the articles necessary to a thorough refurnishing of the Principal’s office at the High School. There must be a new rug, a flat-topped desk, a swivel-chair, an easy-chair, a straight-backed chair, a revolving book-case and a filing-cabinet; although, as Louise explained, the latter wasn’t so important since the one now in use was in good condition.
“Only,” she said, “we thought the other furniture ought to be mahogany, and the filing-cabinet there now is oak and it would look sort of funny, I suppose, with the other things.”
“How much would all that cost?” asked Lanny anxiously.
“We don’t know exactly. We can get the furniture from a New York store where papa buys things and they will give it to us at a discount.”
“How much of a discount?” asked Dick.
“Thirty per cent.,” replied Morris. “That would make quite a difference. Read the prices we figured, Louise.”
“Rug, sixteen dollars,” announced his sister, referring again to the paper; “desk, forty-five; revolving book-case, twelve; swivel-chair, twelve; easy-chair, twenty; straight chair, five; filing-cabinet, eighteen. Total, one hundred and twenty-eight.”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Gordon whistled expressively. Dick shook his head.