Mr. Whipple found a good place for the children to look in on the store camp.  As he had said, there were the two tents, and, on some earth and moss between them, a real camp fire was burning, while a man, dressed just as you have seen campers in pictures, was cooking something in a pot over the blaze.

In one tent a table was set for a meal, and while the Bobbsey twins and the others looked on, the two men and a boy, who made up the store camping party, put their food on the table and began to eat.

They acted as though they were in a real camp, and as though they were not being watched by hundreds of eyes.  They talked among themselves, washed their dishes after the dinner and then shot at a target with a small rifle, which sent out real bullets.

The boys—­Bert, Freddie and Laddie—­liked this part very much.

“It certainly looks like the real thing,” was Bert’s remark.  “And the best part of it is, everything is so new and clean.”

“It makes me feel hungry to look at ’em eat,” was Laddie’s comment.

“Oh, look at them shoot at that target!” cried Freddie excitedly.  “I’d like to do that.”

“You’d have to be careful, so that you didn’t shoot yourself,” replied his brother.

All about the tents in the store camp were things Mr. Whipple sold for those who wanted to take them to a real camp.

“There are some things here I’d like when I go camping,” said Bert.  “I’m going to ask my father to get them,” he told Mr. Whipple.

“That will be nice.  I asked your father to meet us here and have lunch,” said the store owner, for there was a restaurant in his building.  “I thought perhaps he’d like to see the camp himself.”

“I’m sure he would,” said Bert.  “I hope he comes.”

Then the Bobbseys and others looked at the camp some more, Bert being very much interested in a small canoe, which, he said, would be just right for him and Tommy Todd to paddle.

“Wouldn’t you let me paddle with you?” asked Nan.  “I know how—­a little.”

“Sure I’ll let you,” agreed her brother.  “Oh, I do hope Dad will let us go camping!”

Mr. Bobbsey came in a little later, and he liked the store camp very much.  He said he and his wife had talked of going to a camp in the Summer, and taking the children with them, but it was not all settled as yet.

“There’s no better fun than camping out,” said Mr. Whipple.  “I used to do it when I was a boy, and I made up my mind that if ever I kept a store, which I always wanted to do, I’d sell camping things in it.  And that’s just what I’m doing,” he added with a laugh.

“Doesn’t this place make you think of our woods at home?” asked Nan of Bert.

“Yes, it does look like the woods around Lake Metoka,” was his answer.

“And it’s just like the place where Uncle Jack has his camp!” cried Freddie.

“Have the children an uncle who is a camper?” asked Mr. Whipple.