In three hours the hut was practically completed, and it
remained only to lay a floor until they could hold their first meeting
in the new club-house. The floor itself was down by noon, and the club
then served a memorable dinner to mark the completion of the
structure.
A hole was dug in the ground outside the door, and a furnace made. A
skillet was brought from Archie's house, together with some dishes and
a coffee-pot, and Dan Sullivan brought some more dishes, and six eggs
from his nests under the barn. The boys were obliged to make several
trips to and from the houses, but finally nearly everything was ready,
and the eggs were carefully cooked by Archie, who was really a good
housekeeper, from long experience in the kitchen with his mother. Some
potatoes were fried in the grease remaining in the skillet after the
eggs were cooked, and then the feast began. The eggs may have been
rather black with grease, and the potatoes were certainly not done,
but the boys all pronounced it the finest meal of their lives,
notwithstanding the bitter coffee, and the dirty bread, which had been
allowed to fall into the gutter beside the railway track. They were
eating in their own house, and they had cooked in the open air, "just
like tramps," Harry Rafe said, and it was little wonder that they
enjoyed the novel experience.
The only trouble came when the meal was finished.
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