henever possible," explained Uncle Ben.

"Well, well!" ejaculated Mr. Talmage, smiling to himself.

"When I heard Ned outline his plan I decided to encourage the movement
if possible by confiding my pet plan to them to experiment on," said
Uncle Ben.

"When the fathers hear of this they will be as happy as I am. The
problem of keeping a boy actively engaged in some uplifting work is a
sufficient one. Ned and you seem to have solved it for Oakdale,"
admitted Mr. Talmage.

"Think so! Then you get busy and gather the fathers together to-morrow
night for a conference. We will see how many will agree to help along
the work. I will donate all of my ideas accumulated during the past
years."

"I'll telephone everyone I know the first thing in the morning. Where
shall we meet--in the library?" asked Mr. Talmage.

"Yes, and if there are too many of us we will have to adjourn to a
larger place," said Uncle Ben.

Before breakfast the next morning the Starrs' telephone rang, and Mr.
Starr was informed that he was wanted at a meeting to be held in
Talmage's library that night. Meredith and Donald knew nothing of Uncle
Ben's talk with Mr. Talmage, but they felt sure the meeting had
something to do with their plans.

Mr. Wells and Mr. Stevens were the next ones to be invited to the
meeting, and after that a score or more of fathers were invited.

Uncle Ben, who had hoped to take a few days' rest in his brother's quiet
country home, found himself very busy in working out his idea so that it
could be simply presented to the meeting of boys and men. He spent the
entire morning in jotting down ideas as they came to him.

Luncheon over, Ned caught Uncle Ben's hand and said, "You haven't
forgotten the date we made, have you?"

"You wouldn't think so if you had seen me working all morning,"
complained Uncle Ben.

"That's all right then; we boys will meet you in the big empty carriage
house this afternoon at three-thirty," nodded Ned.

"I'll be there!" laughed Uncle Ben, as Ned ran off.

The big room in the carriage house had not been used since the garage
had been built.

Ned and Ike found some chairs in the store-room, and Simon provided
several empty boxes. Long planks were placed across the boxes, making
very good benches for the boys to sit upon. A large packing case stood
a few feet in front of the benches to be used as the speaker's stand.

At three-thirty every boy who had expressed a desire to join the
Bobolinks w