"I've twenty cents left. Is there money enough in the crowd to buy five ice creams?" asked Tom Reade, displaying two dimes. "I've a whole half dollar, though you won't believe it until you see it," laughed Dave Darrin. "Then there's enough for cream," decided Tom. "I'll put in my half, if you fellows say so," Dave went on. "But we may soon be in need of quite a bit of money. Wouldn't it be better to hold on to our fruit of the mint?" "When we sell the canoe we'll have plenty of money," suggested Danny Grin. "Very true, old Smilax," nodded Dave. "But what if Dick doesn't sell it?" "Then we won't have plenty of money," responded Greg promptly. "If Dick doesn't make a sale to the parties he has gone to see," Dave went on argumentatively, "we may want money to buy him a ticket to some other town. It won't be wise to spend our little capital until we see some more money coming in." "That sounds like common sense," agreed Reade, dropping his dimes back into his pocket. "Still, I'm sorry that we're not rich enough to finance the ice cream proposition and still have enough capital left." "So am I sorry," sighed Danny Grin. "This waiting for Dick Prescott to get back with the news is a wearing proposition." "Come down to my house," suggested Dave. "I've got that catalogue from the tent and camping goods house. Let's go and look over the catalogue, and try to decide just what we want to buy for our camp when Dick gets the money for the canoe." "That would be bully fun, if we really knew that Dick had sold the canoe," smiled young Holmes wistfully. "However, until we do know, I suggest that we avoid all false hopes and keep away from all catalogues." At this instant Tom nudged Dave. Two men were passing, and one of them was saying to the other: "Yes; I sold the double house for eighty-two hundred dollars---a clear profit of twenty-two hundred. Then I put four thousand more with that money and bought the Miller place. Within a couple of years I'll get rid of the Miller place for at least sixteen thousand dollars. I've never known a time when real estate money came in as easily." "Is he talking about real money?" grunted Darrin. "He can't be!" "He is," Tom declared. "That's Buller, of Wrenville. He is a very successful man in real estate. Father knows him." "Humph! Talking of thousands, when a few ten dollar bills would fix us for the summer," muttered Dave Darrin. "I wonder if men ever stop to think how it feels for a boy to go around broke." "I spoke to my dad along those lines once," smiled Tom. "What did he say?" asked Danny Grin. "Oh, dad told me there was no objection whatever to my starting out and earning a lot of money. He explained that was how he had gotten his." The other youngsters were smiling now, for, as was well known to them all, Mr. Reade wasn't credited with possessing a great deal of money.