,
Mrs. Dexter, who directed me to hand you each a new ten-dollar bill,
with her best wishes for a Merry Christmas added."

"I am afraid that Mrs. Dexter intends that as a reward for what we were
able to do for her last fall," cried Dick, flushing. "We tried to tell
her, at the time, that we didn't want any reward and that we wouldn't
feel comfortable in taking one."

"Nothing was said in Mrs. Dexter's letter about a reward," replied the
lawyer dryly. "She directed me to hand you the banknotes in place of
Christmas cards. I suppose you young gentlemen have no objection to
receiving Christmas cards?"

Lawyer Ripley took out several banknotes. One of these he now held out
to Prescott.

Dick flushed again, looked embarrassed, then reached out his hand slowly
and took the money.

"Will you send Mrs. Dexter our thanks, sir, and tell her that we enjoyed
the cards very much?"

"Especially the pictures on them," added Dan Dalzell, as he received his
banknote.

"I will send all your messages," nodded the lawyer, as he continued the
distribution.

"Say--whoop!" suddenly exploded Greg Holmes.

"What's the matter--yours counterfeit?" laughed Dan.

"Say, fellows," Greg went on, "we were wishing we had the funds to build
some sort of a camp. We can do it, now, can't we?"

"What kind of camp?" inquired Lawyer Ripley, looking mildly interested.
"And for what would you use a camp?"

"Why, for camping, I suppose," confessed Greg.

"You wouldn't live in a tent, at this time of the year, would you?"

"If we had to," assented young Holmes. "What we were talking about was
building some kind of a shack in the woods somewhere."

"Rather a bad time of the year for building operations," smiled Lawyer
Ripley dryly.

"But this wouldn't be so very much of an operation, sir," urged Greg.
"Now that we've sixty dollars between us, we ought to be able to buy
enough lumber to put up quite a shanty."

"Yes; and probably have enough money left to pay for the teaming of the
lumber a few miles," agreed the man of law. "But there wouldn't be
enough to pay the carpenters."

"We might be able to build a small shack ourselves," proposed Tom Reade.

"Why, so you might," admitted the lawyer, half smiling. "However, any
task that is worth doing is much better done by one used to that kind of
work. When do you want to go camping?"

"Why, right after to-morrow, Christmas," replied Dick. "We could stay in
the woods, if our parents let us go,