ir we'll be
saving lives, actually saving lives."
Roger looked about earnestly from one grave face to another. All were
in sympathy with him and all waited for the development of his plan,
for they knew he would not have laid so much stress upon it if he had
not thought out the details.
"I've talked it over with Grandfather and he rose to it right off.
Here's where the house comes in. He said he was going to build a new
cottage for his farm superintendent this spring--you know it's almost
done now--and that we could have the old farm house if we wanted to fix
it up for a Fresh Air scheme."
"Mr. Emerson is a brick. I pull my forelock to him," and Tom
illustrated his remark.
"Where's the money to come from?" asked James, who was both of Scottish
descent and the Club treasurer, and so was not only shrewd but
accustomed to look after details.
"Grandfather said he'd help in this way; if the Club would study the
old house and decide on the best way to make it answer the purpose he
would provide two carpenters for a fortnight to help us. That will
mean that if we want to do any whitewashing or papering or matters of
that kind we'll have to do it ourselves, but the carpenters will put
the house in repair and put up any partitions that we want and so on."
"Is it furnished?"
"There's another problem. The superintendent has had his own furniture
there and what will be left when he goes is almost nothing. There are
some old things in the garret, but we'll have to use our ingenuity and
invent furniture."
"The way I did for our attic." Dorothy reminded them of the room where
the Club had been meeting ever since its members returned from
Chautauqua where it had been formed the summer before.
"Just so. We'll have to make a raid on our mothers' attics and also on
the stores in town that have their goods come in big boxes, and I
imagine we shall be able to concoct things that will 'do,' though they
may be remarkable to look upon."
"The mothers and children will be out of doors all the time, so they
won't sit around and examine the furniture," laughed Delia.
"It will be scanty, probably, but if we can get beds enough and a chair
apiece, or a substitute for a chair, and a few tables, we can get
along."
"There's your house provided and furnished after a fashion--how are you
going to run it?" inquired Helen. "It takes shekels to buy even very
plain food in these days of the 'high cost of living," and we'v
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