ty low, what with buying so many things needed for our sports. Well,
that part of it has been settled. A magician bobbed up just when we
needed one the worst kind."

Steve no longer reclined at full length on the lounge; he sat up
straight and turned a pair of dancing eyes on the speaker. As for Toby,
he actually leaped out of the depths of his chair, and threatened to
execute a Fiji Island war-dance on the spot.

"Go on, tell us some more, please," urged Steve. "Who is this kind
gentleman who has taken such an interest in our crowd that he'd actually
offer to stand for the expense of our outing?"

"Well, in the first place," Jack explained, "strange as you may think
it, it happens that it isn't a gentleman at all, but a lady who offers
to pay for everything we'll need, to have the greatest camping trip of
our lives."

"Re-markable!" gurgled Toby Hopkins. "Well, all I can say is that I'm
more than surprised. But it's mighty evident to me that she does this
because of the admiration she feels for our chum, Jack Winters; and I
guess, Steve, once more we're lucky to have such a general favorite for
a comrade."

"Listen, fellows," remonstrated Jack, hastily, "there are several
reasons why the lady is doing this for us. One of them is admiration for
the way we acquitted ourselves in the baseball games lately played. She
has a healthy regard for the proper bringing up of boys, though she has
never been married herself, and therefore knows them only from hearsay.
She is interested in the projected gymnasium, and means to invest some
of her means in the enterprise, believing that it will pay enormous
dividends to the young people of this community. But you mustn't ask me
for her name, because I am not at liberty to mention it even to you
fellows just yet. Later on the promise of secrecy may be withdrawn,
after we've come back from our trip."

"Then there is another reason for her generosity besides the desire to
reward a select few of the Chester nine on account of their good work on
the diamond, eh, Jack?" asked Steve, persistently.

"Yes, I own up to that," he was told, "but that's also a secret for the
present. She has made one provision which is that we are to take a
quantity of pictures of the region while there, and that will certainly
be an easy way of returning her kindness, especially since she stands
sponsor for everything, and we are not limited to the amount of our
expenses."

"Whew! that sounds like a fai