Dinner-time came and passed, and Abner was still sleeping sweetly. Therefore Toby could see no reason why he should not join his partners, whom he saw going into the barn before dinner was over.
"The boys have come up to see 'bout the tent," he said to Aunt Olive, "an' I'm goin' out to the barn, where they're waitin' for me. Will you call me when Abner wakes up?"
Aunt Olive promised that he should be informed as soon as the sick boy could see him, and Toby joined his partners with never a fear but that Abner would soon be able to participate in all his sports.
That the boys had come to Uncle Daniel's barn on very serious business was evident from their faces, and the two large packages they brought.
Two rolls of what looked to be sail-cloth were lying on the barn floor, and around them Bob, Reddy, Joe, Ben, and Leander were seated, with a look on their faces that was very nearly a troubled one.
"What's them?" asked Toby, in surprise, as he pointed to the bundles.
"The tent," and Reddy gave a big sigh as he spoke.
"What, have you got two?" asked Toby, a look of glad surprise showing itself on his face.
"What's the matter? If there ain't two tents here, what makes the two bundles?" And Toby was almost impatient because he could not understand the matter.
"Well, you see, this is just how it is," said Reddy, as he began to untie the fastenings from the rolls of canvas. "When I told you I could get a tent, I'd asked Captain Whetmore to lend me two of the sails what he took off his schooner, an' he told me yes."
"An' you've got 'em, haven't you?" and Toby looked meaningly at the canvas.
"Yes, we've got 'em," replied Joe; "but now we don't know how to fix 'em, 'cause you see we've got to put 'em up like a roof, an' we ain't got anything for the ends."
Reddy had planned to use each of the sails as a side to the tent, fastening them along the top to a ridge-pole; and it had never occurred to him, in all the time he had had to think the matter over, that as yet he had nothing with which to form the ends.
It was a question that puzzled the boys greatly, and caused their faces to grow very long, until Toby said:
"I'll tell you how we can fix one end. We can put it right up against the barn, where the little door is, an' then we can have the stalls for a dressin'-room."