Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/303

Rh it is a question of some frolic? Let him have to work, and then the temperature at once becomes an important question, and there is  danger of getting overheated; but with play,  no such slight matters are taken into consideration. Although the bonfire was dying down, the fun was still at its height. The boys were poking the embers up into a pile, preparatory  to the prudent sport of jumping over them,  when Ted suddenly exclaimed,—

“Bert! Boys! The little barn!”

Near the bonfire, much, very much nearer than they realized, stood a small building, half  barn, half shed, that for years had been used for  storing hay. It was a favorite place with the boys on rainy days, and they never wearied of  playing hide and seek through a maze of  elaborately constructed tunnels, or of lying on  their backs in the sweet-smelling mows, discussing school, club, baseball, and other vital  interests. Here Fred had held a sort of court the first time he had joined the boys in the old  way; and here he used often to be with them,  during the long weeks of the summer. But this was all over now, as far as the little barn