The Mystery of the Night Explorers. Mary Adrian

second step in building their tree house.

      At last they saw him coming. He stopped a few moments outside his workshop and then, taking long strides, continued to the oak tree.

      The boys were so glad to see him that they grinned from ear to ear.

      “I’m sure happy you’re on vacation, Dad,” said Jimmy, “because we don’t know what to do next.”

      “No, we don’t,” chimed in Randy, wondering how the floor boards were going to be laid. He soon found out that some boards were long enough to go across the whole foundation. Others needed to be sawed off to short lengths so that they could be nailed to the stringers.

      Randy had never used a saw before. As a result he had a big blister on one finger at the end of the day. He did not complain, though. A tree house was worth it, he told himself. Besides, he was learning to be a carpenter.

      The next morning the boys with Mr. Moore’s help nailed the floor boards to the foundation.

      By afternoon they started work on the railing and the roof for their house. This took several days to finish. First the boys sawed ten pieces of two-by-four’s (posts that are two inches thick and four inches wide). After nailing them to the floor, they sawed more wood until they had enough pieces for the railing. Once these were nailed in place, they built a flat roof over one end of the house. Two stringers were nailed to the posts for the roof, and boards were laid lengthwise and nailed down to the stringers. Then the boys camouflaged the railing with branches and leaves. The branches were nailed in such a way that between their leaves there were peepholes for the boys to look through.

      Now Jimmy and Randy stood at the foot of the giant oak tree and looked up at their house. Mr. Moore was with them.

      “It’s a fine tree house,” he said. “Before we call it finished, we had better add two supports from the foundation to the tree so that your house will be solid. You’ve done a good job building Hidden Lookout.”

      “Thanks, Dad. We couldn’t have built it without your help.” Jimmy rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “I can hardly wait for tonight to come. The red fox and other animals will never see us in Hidden Lookout because it does look like a squirrel’s summer nest, except that it’s much bigger.”

      Randy agreed. He felt as proud as Jimmy did of their camouflaged tree house. There was one thing that bothered him, though. He dreaded sleeping there.