They swept out cabins and replaced door hinges, painted trim and put new putty around the windows, installed signs on buildings with drills and wood screws, chopped firewood, installed oar locks on the rowboats, cleaned the bathrooms, and generally ran around like squirrels storing away nuts for the winter and they had just arrived. Had they known about the history about the camp and Steve Christy's personal problems, they might have understood his anxiety. As it was, they were having reservations about the laid-back summer they'd been hoping for. If this was any indication of what they could expect, it could turn out to be a real hassle. Who the hell needed a camp director who thought he was a troop commander? Still, the work needed to be done and setting up a camp properly always took a lot more time and effort than running it did. The sooner they got it done, the sooner they'd be able to relax. For the time being, they decided to give Steve Christy the benefit of the doubt, but he did seem awful nervous.

They broke for lunch, sandwiches and chips which Alice threw together because the new cook hadn't arrived yet. Steve took another trip into town to pick up more supplies. It hardly seemed possible that it was only lunchtime, considering all the work they'd done but they were making rapid progress. Even Steve started to relax a bit once he saw things were going. He sat down a box and helped Alice balance a rain gutter she was attaching to the roof.

"Here, let me give you a hand with that."

"Thanks," she said, speaking around the nails in her mouth. She needed three hands to balance the gutter, keep her own balance on the ladder, and hammer in the nails. They were all getting tired.

"Got it?"

"I got it."

Alice drove the nails in, climbed down and moved the ladder. Steve picked up a sketch pad she left lying on the deck in front of the cabin. He flipped the pages slowly. They were drawings she had made of the campsite, of the lakeshore, and of him.

"You draw very well," he said.

"Thanks," she said, "I wish I had more time to do it."

'Take the hint, Steve,' she thought, 'For God's sake, relax a little.'

"When did you do this?" Steve said.

"Last night," she said. She started hammering nails again. Steve stared at the drawing she had made of him.

"Do I really look like that?"

She glanced over her shoulder.

"You did last night," she said. She took the remaining nails and pounded them in, then climbed down the ladder.