"Oh, I think that is lovely!" cried Julie, clapping her hands.

"It is so good of Uncle Verny and you--and we thank you a thousand times!" exclaimed Betty, thinking of grat.i.tude before she gave a thought to the fun they might have in the tent.

"Well, it will make us feel as if we were preparing for a camp-life this summer, even though we may not be able to really afford it," sighed Ruth, despondently.

"Heigh there! Cheer up, can't you? Don't be a gloom just when Verny tells us something so fine!" called Joan, reprovingly.

"But we don't even know the price! Maybe it will take all the savings we have had on hand for our camping purposes," argued Ruth.

"That's so," admitted Julie and Joan, but Betty said:

"How much will it cost us, Verny?"

"Well, as I am going to enjoy this outfit as much as any one of you girls, I am going to pay my share of the costs--exactly one-fifth of the total, girls."

Ruth smiled unpleasantly at this reply, as if to say: "And you with all your money only doing what we girls each are doing!"

Mrs. Vernon saw the smile and understood the miscomprehension that caused it, but she also knew that Ruth would soon overcome all such erroneous methods of thinking and feeling if she but continued interesting herself in the Scout work and ideals.

"How much will the total cost be, Verny?" asked Julie.

Mrs. Vernon took out a slip of paper and read aloud the items that went with the tent, then concluded by mentioning the cash sum asked for the entire outfit.

"Why, it sounds awfully cheap!" exclaimed Betty.

"I think it is, girls, that is why I advise you to take it."

"What under the sun do we want of an ax, a saw, and all that carpenter's outfit? Why not let the man keep them and deduct the sum from the cost of the outfit?" asked Ruth.

"Because, my dear, a good ax, and other tools, are as necessary in camp-work and life as the tent itself. At present, tools are very expensive, and these are of the best quality steel, Uncle Verny says."

"Well, buy them if you want to, but don't expect _me_ to wear water blisters on my hands by handling an ax or spade. Not when _I_ go to camp!" retorted Ruth.

Little attention was paid to this rudeness, as Ruth's friends knew enough of the laws of the scouts to ignore such shortcomings in others, but to try, instead, to nourish that which was worthy of perpetuation in thought and deed.

"Having our own tent where we can rest when we like makes it seem as if the mountains were much nearer us than so far off as the Adirondacks really are," said Betty, happily.

"It may turn out that this camp will be all we shall have for this year," commented Ruth.

"I don't see why you should say that!" demanded Joan, impatiently.

"Because we'll spend our money on this old thing and then have to weed and weed all the rest of the summer to earn the carfares."

"It won't figure up any differently in the end, 'cause we'd have to have some kind of a tent, wouldn't we?" asked Julie.

"We might be able to borrow some--or buy them on the installment plan. I even might tease father to lend us the money to buy new ones when we are ready to go," replied Ruth.

"It isn't one of our rules to borrow or go in debt. We each want to demonstrate independence as we go along. Buying on credit, or with borrowed capital, is a very undesirable method of doing business," said Mrs. Vernon, gravely.

"But paying back for a tent next fall, instead of next week, isn't as bad as you seem to think," insisted Ruth.

"All the same, we girls are going to buy for cash, and never borrow trouble, if we can help it!" declared Julie, sensibly.

"Then it is settled, is it? We take the tent?" said Mrs. Vernon.

"Of course! Even Ruth must admit that it is a bargain," returned the three girls in a chorus.

"I don't know the least thing about costs of camping, and there seems so little hope of my ever partic.i.p.ating in such joys!" retorted Ruth. But they all knew she was well pleased with the purchase.

That afternoon they went to work with a zeal hitherto unfelt, for they had a keen sense of proprietorship in something worth-while. Mrs. Vernon felt happy, too, over the way the girls voted to pay cash as they went, for she knew it meant individual freedom for each; and Ruth would soon be made to understand the meaning of "obligations" if she a.s.sociated with three such practical girls.

The moment the weeding was done for the afternoon, four eager girls a.s.sembled to hear about the "great secret." Mrs. Vernon began by saying:

"Now I don't want you girls to be disappointed in what _I_ consider my fine secret, but I really think it is the only way out for this summer."

Ruth sniffed audibly and sat with lifted eyebrows, as if to suggest: "Didn't I tell you that tent would be all you got this year for your money!"

But Mrs. Vernon continued her preamble without hesitation.

"Even should you girls earn ten times the amount of money you are now receiving each afternoon, you would still lack enough to pay carfares to the Adirondacks, or the White Mountains. And as we agreed from the beginning never to borrow money for our scout work, such a long trip seems out of the question at present.

"Last night I sat puzzling over this situation, when a splendid idea flashed into my mind. I remembered a campsite in the mountains not so far from here, that will give us all the delights of the Adirondacks without the costs. A motor truck can carry our outfits instead of our shipping them by freight, and we can go there in my car, whenever we are ready to start.

"If we decide on such a plan, we could prepare to leave home the week following the closing of school. I think it will take us at least that long to get everything ready, you know."

"Oh, how wonderful!" breathed Betty, joyfully.

"Our dreams come true!" sighed Joan and Julie.

But Ruth, as usual, could not accept any proposition, no matter how pleasant, without argument. So she said: "How do we know this campsite is where we might wish to spend a summer?"

"Mrs. Lee and I spent a summer there when we were girls, and your own mother cried because she had to go with her parents to the farm in the Catskills, instead of camping with her schoolmates. Perhaps your mother will describe the beauties of this place to you, so you will feel sure it is desirable enough for you," said Mrs. Vernon, calmly, but with a faint suggestion of sarcasm in her tone.

Ruth had the grace to keep silence after that, and Mrs. Vernon said: "I'm not going to say more about the idea, but you shall judge for yourselves when I take you there in the auto on Sat.u.r.day."

"Dear me. I feel so excited that I'm sure I won't be able to sleep all week!" exclaimed Julie, jumping up and dancing around.

"I feel as if there were wheels whirring around inside of me," added Joan.

The others laughed, and Mrs. Vernon admitted: "That is the way I felt when it was agreed that I might join my friends for camp-life that summer."

"It will be so lovely to camp in the same place that mother dear did when she was a little girl," said Betty, her voice trembling slightly as she thought of the one now absent from sight, but not in spirit.

"I don't know but what I'd rather try out the first summer in camp with no other scout girls to watch and comment about our mistakes," confessed Joan. "If we start alone this year, we will feel like experienced scouts by next summer."

"I agree with you there, Joan," said Julie.

"Then we are pleased with my plan to ride out and inspect the old campsite on Sat.u.r.day, eh?" ventured Mrs. Vernon.