But the eight rooms in the main part of the house on this second floor were all of good size, well lighted, and completely furnished. Some of them had probably not been slept in for fifty years, for when the girls' mother, and even Aunt Jane, were young, Dr. Apollo Phelps's immediate family was not a large one. "The furniture is all old-fashioned, it is true," Lyddy said, reflectively. "There isn't a metal bed in the whole house----" "And I had just as lief sleep in a coffin as in some of these high-headed carved walnut bedsteads," declared 'Phemie. "You don't have to sleep in them," responded her sister, quietly. "But some people would think it a privilege to do so." "They can have _my_ share, and no charge," sniffed the younger girl. "That bed downstairs is bad enough. And what would we do for mattresses? That's _one_ antique they wouldn't stand for--believe me! Straw beds, indeed!" "We'll see about that. We might get some cheap elastic-felt mattresses, one at a time, as we needed them." "And springs?" "Some of the bedsteads are roped like the one we sleep on. Others have old-fashioned spiral springs--and there are no better made to-day. The rust can be cleaned off and they can be painted." "I see plainly you're laying out a lot of work for us," sighed 'Phemie. "Well, we've got to work to live," responded her sister, briskly. "Ya-as," drawled 'Phemie, in imitation of Lucas Pritchett. "But I don't want to feel as though I was just living to work!" "Lazybones!" laughed Lyddy. "You know, if we really got started in this game----" "A game; is it? Keeping boarders!" "Well?" "I fancy it's downright hard work," quoth 'Phemie. "But if it makes us independent? If it will keep poor father out of the shop? If it can be made to support us?" cried Lyddy. 'Phemie flushed suddenly and her eyes sparkled. She seized her more sedate sister and danced her about the room. "Oh, I don't care how hard I work if it'll do all that!" she agreed. "Come on, Lyd! Let's write to Aunt Jane right away." CHAPTER X THE VENTURE But Lyddy Bray never made up her mind in a hurry. Perhaps she was inclined to err on the side of caution. Whereas 'Phemie eagerly accepted a new thing, was enthusiastic about it for a time, and then tired of it unless she got "her second wind," as she herself laughingly admitted, Lyddy would talk over a project a long time before she really decided to act upon it. It was so in this case. Once having seen the vista of possibilities that Lyddy's plan revealed, the younger girl was eager to plunge into the summer-boarder project at once. But Lyddy was determined to know just what they had to work with, and just what they would need, before broaching the plan to Aunt Jane.