hear your
father say something about going to camp this Summer, but warm weather is
a long way from us yet. We'll see."

"Oh, I believe we can go camping!" cried Nan to Bert in an excited
whisper, as they entered the store elevator. "Won't it be wonderful?"

"Great!" said Bert "I wouldn't want anything better than to camp on an
island in some lake."

By this time they were up on the top floor of the big department store
owned by Mr. Whipple, and at one end the twins and Laddie could see a
number of persons.

"That's the camp," said Mr. Whipple. "I don't believe you've seen it this
year, have you, Laddie?"

"No, Uncle Dan. Is it different from last year?" for the store-owner had
the camp set up each Winter.

"Yes, it's a little different. There is a new kind of tent, and the men
are different."

Mr. Whipple found a good place for the children to look in on the store
camp. As he had said, there were the two tents, and, on some earth and
moss between them, a real camp fire was burning, while a man, dressed just
as you have seen campers in pictures, was cooking something in a pot over
the blaze.

In one tent a table was set for a meal, and while the Bobbsey twins and
the others looked on, the two men and a boy, who made up the store camping
party, put their food on the table and began to eat.

They acted as though they were in a real camp, and as though they were not
being watched by hundreds of eyes. They talked among themselves, washed
their dishes after the dinner and then shot at a target with a small
rifle, which sent out real bullets.

The boys--Bert, Freddie and Laddie--liked this part very much.

"It certainly looks like the real thing," was Bert's remark. "And the best
part of it is, everything is so new and clean."

"It makes me feel hungry to look at 'em eat," was Laddie's comment.

"Oh, look at them shoot at that target!" cried Freddie excitedly. "I'd
like to do that."

"You'd have to be careful, so that you didn't shoot yourself," replied his
brother.

All about the tents in the store camp were things Mr. Whipple sold for
those who wanted to take them to a real camp.

"There are some things here I'd like when I go camping," said Bert. "I'm
going to ask my father to get them," he told Mr. Whipple.

"That will be nice. I asked your father to meet us here and have lunch,"
said the store owner, for there was a restaurant in his building. "I
thought perhaps he'd like to see the camp himself."