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