“Bully good!” replied Charley.  “A hundred feet oughtn’t to cost much of anything.  The rub’s going to be to get the oars.  You say they want five dollars for the cheapest pair at the hardware store, and the sporting goods store wants six-fifty.”

“The robbers!” cried Lew.  “Think of it.  Six-fifty for about fifteen cents’ worth of wood.  Maybe we can get a pair of second-hand oars somewhere.  Six-fifty is as much as we can afford to spend on the whole outfit.”

“It will be all right to get second-hand oars,” said Charley, “for we can get new ones later, when we have the money.  Besides, we want to put most of our money into the boat itself.  As long as we are going to build it, we want to make it the very best boat possible.  We want the best wood in the market and we want our boat light enough so that the two of us can carry it.  I reckon it may cost two or three dollars if we buy such good wood as that.  But it will be worth while.  We can get along with cheap oars for a time.  Let’s go down to the lumber-yard and get our boards.”

The two chums left the shop and hurried down the street toward the lumber-yard.

“If we can get our lumber to-day,” said Charley, “I’m certain we can get our boat made before the spring vacation.  We ought to be able to put in three hours apiece every afternoon after high school lets out, and we can get in another hour apiece before school, if we get up early enough.  That’s four hours apiece, or eight hours a day.  We certainly ought to get it finished and painted inside of ten days.”

“Sure,” replied Lew.  “We’ll have her done all right.  And we’ll have just about the finest boat in town.”

“And I reckon we’ll have just about the finest trip ever,” went on Charley.  “If we start right after school closes for the Easter vacation we can row up-stream that afternoon as far as Hillman’s Grove, and camp there for the night.  That will give us almost half a day’s extra time.  Then we can reach our old camping ground the next day and get the tent up and our wood cut and maybe even catch some fish before dark.  We’ll have everything ready so we can jump right into the boat and pull out the minute school is over.”

“Sure,” assented Lew.  Then, after a moment’s pause, he added, “Ain’t it a shame none of the other members of the Wireless Patrol can go along?  We’ll miss ’em, particularly Roy.  And now that he’s wireless man on the Lycoming, he’ll probably never go on another trip with the Camp Brady Patrol.”

“It’s too bad for us, but mighty nice for Roy,” said Charley.  “Just think of being the wireless man on a great ocean steamship when you’re only nineteen.  He’s made for life.  Gee!  I wish I knew what I am going to do.”

“I know how you feel, Charley.  Maybe something will turn up so that you won’t need to go into the factory after all.  But here we are at the lumber-yard.  Let’s get the boards and begin our boat at once.  We’ll have a good time this vacation, no matter what happens afterward.”