They found a second-hand tent which could be bought for eight dollars; four dollars more would pay for the lumber, and so they would live rent-free for the next five months! They went far down the shore of the lake, looking for a place to camp, and picked out a rocky headland, a mile from the nearest farmhouse, and completely out of sight of all the world. The rich woman who owned it was in Europe, but the agent gave permission; and then Thyrsis looked at his watch and made a wild suggestion--“Let’s get settled this afternoon!” “Why, it’s nearly three o’clock!” cried Corydon. “It’ll be dark!” “There’ll be a moon,” he replied, “and we can work all night if want to.” “But suppose it should rain!” “I don’t see any signs of it. And what’s the use of spending a night in the town, and wasting all that money?” And so it was decided. They went to the store and purchased their housekeeping equipment. What a sense of power and prosperity it gave them as they made their selection--two canvas-cots and two pairs of blankets, a lamp and an oil-can and a tiny oil-stove, two water-buckets and an axe and a wash-basin, a camp-stool and a hammock and a box full of groceries! They got a team to carry all this, in addition to their lumber and their trunks. They stopped at a farm-house, and arranged to get their milk and eggs and bread and vegetables, and also to borrow a hammer and saw; and then till after sundown Thyrsis toiled at the building of the platform and the cutting of stakes and poles for the tent. Corydon fried some bacon and heated a can of corn, and they had a marvellous and incredible supper. Afterwards they raised the tent, and she held the poles erect while Thyrsis tied the guy-ropes. They had been advised to choose a sheltered place, back in the woods; but they were all for adventure and a view of the water, and so they were out on the open point. There were pine-trees, however, and Thyrsis had strong ropes with which to anchor the tent fast. When he finished, about ten o’clock at night, he stood off and admired the job by the light of the moon, and declared that a storm might tear the tent to pieces, but could never blow it over. They hauled in their trunks and the rest of their belongings, and set up the cots and spread the blankets. Then by the light of the oil-lamp they gazed about. “Oh, Thyrsis,” she cried, “isn’t it glorious!” “It’s our home,” he said. “A home we made all for ourselves!” “And a home without a landlady!” she added. “And with no saloon underneath!” said he. “And no street-cars and no screaming children in front of it!” Instead there was the night with its thousand eyes, and the lake, with the moon-fire flung wide across it, and the pine-trees singing in the wind. “Brr! it’s cold!” exclaimed Corydon. “We’ll have to sleep with our clothes on for a while,” said he. And yet they laughed aloud in glee. “It’s all we want!”