"What about the Dental Maturity Club?" suggested Julian; but of course they didn't pay any attention to _him_. After the watermelon had been eaten right down to the rind, the little boys repaired to Craneycrow and the girls went off to visit Mrs. Cheever. Tom Parks sighed and let his belt out a notch. Then he and Julian and Joe, for no particular reason and not really thinking about it, climbed up in the Vogelhart willow tree. Sun and food had made them lazy, and each of them found a perching place and sat there like a sleepy baboon high among the wind-sifting, sun-sifting leaves. Swallows looped and dipped around Judge Chater's tipsy cupola. "You know something, Jule?" Joe Felder said. "I bet you'd never dare spend a night in one of these old dumps. Judge Chater's house, for instance." "I bet I would." "I bet you wouldn't." "I bet I would," but then Julian, who was a fairly honest boy, felt compelled to add: "Not alone, though. _With_ somebody. You, maybe. How about it? I dare you!" It was a bright, lively afternoon. Foster and Davey could be heard sparrow-chirping on their island, and Mr. Payton, distantly, could be heard whistling in his garden. To the left, there was the scatterbrained conversation of hens and a sound of feminine voices as Mrs. Cheever and the girls came out of her house to go berrying. The world was a safe place. Anyone could see that it was safe. "O.K.," Joe said. "You say when." "You too, Tom?" "Well, I guess so." Tom agreed, but not with alacrity. "We'll do it on the night of the full moon," Julian said. "That's only three nights off, Thursday. We'll be able to find our way around better by moonlight, and another thing is--another rule is--that we can't bring any flashlights." "Heck, why not?" "That would make it too easy," Julian said happily. His very eyeglasses sparkled with excitement. "We don't just want this to be an _easy_ sort of thing, do we? Because it has to be in the nature of a--of a test." "Why?" Tom wanted to know. "For discipline," Julian replied. He had a noble feeling in his forehead as he said it. "Self-discipline," he added. "I don't know if I need it," Tom said. "I _get_ discipline. I get it everywhere. I get it at home, I get it at school, I get it in the mornings working at Bilmeyer's store." "Oh, everybody needs it," Julian assured him. "And listen, you guys, this whole operation has to be kept secret. Absolutely secret. From everyone." "Our families, even?" "Especially our families. They might say no." "From the girls, too?" asked Joe. Julian just ignored him. That went without saying. "We'll slip out after dark, see, when everything's quiet. We'll meet here under the tree. I'll be spending the night at the Blakes so I can get here fast, and you guys will have your bikes...." Busily and happily he laid his plans, and soon his companions were infected with his enthusiasm; even Tom. "We'll bring some blankets in case we get sleepy," Julian said.