The Grammar School Boys Snowbound | Page 7

your parents to any such madcap scheme as going off into
the woods to camp, day after day, in mid-winter."
"There might be some difficulty about that, sir," replied Prescott. "But
now it looks as though the one really big problem would be to get a
camp on the money that we now have, and to be ready to go into it in
season during this school vacation."

"That would really be but a very slight difficulty," rejoined the lawyer.
"I wish I could see how you make that out, sir."
"Why, as it happens, in the property that Mrs. Dexter's grandfather left
her there's the strip called Hobson's woods, you know. The forest is a
pretty big affair. In fact, it's what's generally called wild country. But
there are a thousand acres of the woods, worth about four dollars an
acre, that now belong to Mrs. Dexter. She authorized me to find a buyer
for that bit of the forest, but it seems to be out of the question. Now, on
Mrs. Dexter's land, in about the middle of it, and less than two hundred
feet off the main trail, is one of the few real old log cabins left in this
part of the United States. The cabin is in pretty good repair, too, I fancy,
for Mrs. Dexter's grandfather used to do logging out that way. Later in
his life, when he had amassed money, the old gentleman used to go out
to that cabin to live for a while, two or three times in every year. The
place was in excellent repair when he died. It is still, I imagine."
There was a breathless silence as the lawyer ceased speaking. How the
thought of that log cabin, out in the deep forest, appealed to the
imaginations of such Grammar School boys as these!
"Well, sir?" asked Greg breathlessly, at last.
"Young men, if your parents should consent to your going on such a
wild, madcap picnic in mid-winter, I would let you have the use of that
cabin. But you may have the use of the cabin at any other time, as long
as the cabin remains in Mrs. Dexter's name, so I would suggest your
going in the spring or summer."
"Oh, pshaw!" leaped to Greg Holmes's lips, but he choked back the
exclamation. What use would boys have for a log cabin in summer,
when there was a chance to use it in mid-winter? Besides, the summer
seemed a long way off.
"Is there any water near the cabin, Mr. Ripley?" asked Tom Reade, who
possessed a practical head in such matters.

"Yes; a spring, within perhaps twenty or thirty feet of the doorway,"
nodded the lawyer. "Inside the cabin is one of the big, old-fashioned
fire-places----"
"O-o-oh! A-a-ah!" gasped the youngsters in chorus.
"There are also eight bunks in the place, each with a straw or dry-leaf
mattress," continued Mr. Ripley. "There are table and chairs, hand
made and of the crudest kind, and some few tools."
"Say, wouldn't that make an ideal camp?" demanded Dick Prescott,
turning to his chums, his eyes glowing.
All their faces were flushed with the excitement of the thing. Now that
it was so close, and practical, all the boys of Dick & Co. felt a wild
desire to be up and away for camp at once.
"And you say we may have the cabin, sir, and the right to cut some
firewood in the forest?" Dick asked.
"I said you could, if you had your parents' full and free permission to
go," replied Lawyer Ripley. "That, I fancy, is a very different thing."
"But if we get that permission, sir," urged Dick, "and come back and
tell you so, then you will let us----"
"If you get home permission, you won't need to come back to me at
all," replied Lawyer Ripley, smiling, as he rose. "Just go and help
yourselves to the cabin and what few improvements it contains. But I
am afraid, boys, you are going to be very much disappointed if you
expect that your parents will consent. I think it very unlikely that you'll
get any such permission. I will send your thanks to Mrs. Dexter, and
will also tell her what I have told you about the use of the camp. As
to-morrow will be Christmas, I shall not be back here to-day. If you go
camping, boys--which I don't believe you will--don't burn the old cabin
down unless you find it necessary in order to keep warm enough."
As Lawyer Ripley now made it plain that he was about to leave, the

boys hastily repeated their thanks and left the office.
Not until they got down into the street did any of them feel like
speaking.
"Say, fellows, if that isn't the grandest----"