ck, Rob?" asked Tubby, when the other chum turned to them again.

"He's cram full of sleepers to-night, and couldn't give us even a cot,"
explained Rob. "When I said we'd put up with the hay, he gave me to
understand we could pick out any place found unoccupied."

"Gee whiz! 'unoccupied,' you said, didn't you, Rob?" cried Tubby
hastily. "Now, does that mean the place is apt to be _swarming_ with
these peasant women and children, and shall we have to listen to babies
bawling all night long, not to speak of roosters crowing, dogs barking,
horses neighing, pigs grunting and cows mooing?"

"'Beggars should never be choosers,' they say," Merritt warned him.

"And, after all, let's hope it won't be quite so bad as all that," said
Rob.

They sought the stable. It was in the rear of the inn, and a rather
decent looking structure in the bargain.

"Why, this isn't half bad," admitted Tubby, as they entered and found
that the kind proprietor of the house had hung up a lighted lantern, by
means of which it was possible for the boys to see the stack of hay.

"It smells like a sweet new crop," Rob remarked, glad to find something
to commend when surrounded by such dismal prospects.

"And so far as I can see we're the only barn guests," Tubby announced
jubilantly as he started to burrow in the hay.

He had hardly made much progress before he came backing out in a hurry.

"There's a great big dog sleeping in there!" he declared excitedly.

"What makes you think so?" asked Rob, who could hardly believe it
possible.

"I tell you he tried to bite me," urged Tubby, holding up one finger of
his right hand, and on which a tiny speck of blood was visible.

"Shucks! you only stuck it on a thorn, that's all!" protested the
unbelieving Merritt, "and I'll prove it by crawling in the same hole."

"Look out, now!" warned Tubby, anxious, and yet with some eagerness, for
he hoped to have his words proved in a fashion even Merritt could not
doubt.

Immediately there was more or less excitement in the hay; and then came
the unmistakable scolding of a setting hen. Merritt backed out,
laughing.

"There's your ferocious bulldog!" he told Tubby; "but we'll leave old
Biddy to her eggs, and try another place. Plenty of room in this hotel
without chucking the other guests out of their nests."

After a while they made themselves comfortable. Tubby, before turning
in, had prowled around a little. He told the others that as a true scout
he wa