Mrs. Vernon now turned to her sister-in-law and said: "I'm curious to hear what donations you found to bring out?"
"Oh, Pete told me there was a loft full of furniture over the old stables. So I rummaged and found all I could manage."
"That reminds me, Mrs. Ormsby! We have not added your gifts to these because we could not carry them up the slope. They were too heavy," explained Mr. Lee.
"My goodness me! More stuff?" exclaimed Ruth.
"Yes, but I think you will be pleased with my donations," said Mrs. Ormsby, apologetically. "I heard how you had to manage with this poor camp-fire, so I brought a kitchen stove that was stored in the loft. I also----" but the lady got no further at that time.
The scouts laughed so that some of them doubled over and rocked back and forth. Even Mrs. Vernon had to laugh at her relative's pity.
"Oh, oh! This is the funniest thing I ever heard!" said she. "Why, my dear Kate, don't you know that half the sport of camping is trying to do without modern equipment? Every camper tries to use wood-material only for home, furniture and outfit. What would the founders of the girls' scouts say if they heard we cooked our camp meals on a kitchen range in the woods!"
"Do you really mean that you do not want it?" asked Mrs. Ormsby.
"Of course not! We have a fine fireplace and oven, so the stove and stove-pipe may as well go back on the truck."
"Maybe you will scorn the walnut bed I brought as a great surprise? I heard there was a spring and mattress, so I had the bed brought from the loft and moved here on the truck with the other things. But it is so massive and heavy, no one could carry the head and foot boards up the hill. We thought Hepsy could do that," explained Mrs. Ormsby, dubiously to be sure, after the reception her other gift had received.
Mrs. Vernon now laughed as heartily as the scouts had done just before this. "Oh! That awful bedstead that always took an acre lot to hold it! Where could we put it up? Our huts will never hold one section of it."
"I have a brilliant idea, Mrs. Vernon," now said Mr. Gilroy. "Suppose we put up the bed down there in some secluded nook and then with the spring and mattress I can have a wonderful suite of my own for a few nights."