Part 15 (1/2)

d.i.c.k once more busied himself with making weak coffee. Tom and Harry set the dishes on the table with a cheery clatter. Then six fearfully hungry boys sat down to table.

”There's no jam on the table,” grunted Harry.

”Oh, wait until we get outside of the solid stuff before we bother with sweets,” begged Darrin.

It was nearly seven when the glorious meal was over. As nothing but potatoes and coffee had depended on a cook, nothing went wrong with the meal.

”Now, we can clean up and wash the dishes,” proposed d.i.c.k Prescott.

”What's that?” demanded Tom Reade belligerently. ”Work? Right on top of a supper like that?”

”I guess we do all feel more like taking a nap,” laughed d.i.c.k. ”Well, we'll rest for half an hour and see if we feel more like effort then.

What do you say if we all pull our chairs up to the fire?”

”How close to the fire?” asked Dan, screening his eyes with his fingers as he glanced at the blazing logs.

”Oh, not too close for comfort, of course,” agreed d.i.c.k. ”But come on.

We can swap stories.”

”Will they be anything like the spanking story that good Old Dut told you last September, d.i.c.k?” teased Dave.

”Not right away, I guess,” smiled d.i.c.k. ”I don't believe any fellow, after that big supper, feels as if he had energy enough to tell a spanking story. But what kind of stories shall we tell?”

”I'll wait for some one else to start it,” yawned Tom, as he took his seat in the semi-circle at a respectful distance from the blaze.

”Who else is going to be a quitter or a loafer?” inquired Dave scornfully.

There was a pause. No one appeared to have a story that he wanted to try out on such a critical audience.

At last d.i.c.k remarked thoughtfully:

”As the man on the clubhouse steps said----”

Then he paused, as if he had forgotten the matter.

”Well,” insisted Greg presently, ”what did the man on the clubhouse steps say?”

”Eh?” inquired d.i.c.k, gazing at him with mock blankness.

”What did the man on the clubhouse steps say?” repeated Greg.

”Oh--er--that is--it's really a secret,” d.i.c.k replied provokingly.

”Now, see here, none of that!” growled Tom.

”Eh?” demanded Dan, awaking from a light doze, with a start and a subdued snore.

”d.i.c.k Prescott, you tell us what the man on the clubhouse steps said!”