giving
little light, still the figures of some score of stooping boys might have
been discovered, advancing in broken formation along the road.

The leader silently opened the gate leading to the dooryard of Growdy's
place. His barns stood near the house, so that the confusion which
reigned was all the more noticeable. Its equal had never been known
around Stanhope; and could only be expected in the case of a place where
a woman's influence for cleanliness had been totally absent during the
past ten years.

Over to the stable went some of the boys.

Paul had talked it all over with them as they walked, and each knew what
part he was to take in the general clean-up.

To some of them it was simply another form of a lark. Boys are queer
creatures even to those who imagine they know them well. They must be
doing something all the time. Once get them started in the right
direction, and they will labor just as sturdily to bring about a good
object, as under other conditions, they would work to play a joke. It all
depends on how they begin. And thanks to the sagacity of Paul, he had
succeeded in interesting them in the novelty of his proposal.

Some secured rakes and hoes, and began to systematically gather up the
scattered loose material that covered the place, ankle deep. Others
pushed the wagons, and the old dilapidated buggy, back into the shed in
systematic order.

They worked like busy bees, chuckling, whispering and evidently getting
considerable fun out of the strange frolic.

Paul himself went over the job to make sure that it had been thoroughly
done, and that nothing remained uncared for.

Up to this time fortune had favored the busy workers, since no sound had
come about to betray their presence.

"How is it, Paul?" asked Jack Stormways, as he ran across the other in
making his rounds.

"About at the end. The boys are putting the old tools back where they
found them; and then we can go home. It's the best half hour's work
any of us have done for a good while, I tell you, Jack."

"Some of the boys don't seem to think it quite so funny now as when they
started in. They say they can't see where the pay is going to come in,
and have begun to grumble," whispered the other.

"Perhaps it never will, and again, who knows what might come out of this?
Anyhow, the ladies will be glad to see this dirty place clean for once.
Some others I know may take a notion that if Old Growdy can clean up they
ought to. List