Part 11 (2/2)

”Well I'm an empty one,” said Roy

”Saree about so He seemed to walk on air ”I'h Westwood and get so to eat there”

”Carried by an unanimous majority,” said Roy

It was just exactly like Warde Hollister to give himself up to frank elation at this achievearded it He had been the only second class scout in the troop, and those words _second class_ had not been pleasant to his ears With hih

To the natural enthusiasm of the new scout was added his own natural enthusiash spirit He did not want to be a star scout; he le scout He did not want the bronze cross or the silver cross; he would win the gold cross The tenderfoot and second class ranks were not steps _in_ scouting, they were steps to scouting

And until now he had thought of hi in this, of course, but that was Warde Hollister

Since Warde was in the troop it was a kind of disgrace to the troop and to his patrol that he should not be a first class scout So he thought

The tests in the handbook he had found not difficult to pass In the case of this final one it was just a question of appropriate opportunity Until this day he had scorned to lay down his work For that also was a test You see that all the tests are not in the handbook, and that is the trouble Wherever a scout goes he bumps into tests which the very wise men who made the handbook never drea To _stand_ a test is soreat test that awaited him

CHAPTER XVI

RIGHT SIDE OUT

And so Warde Hollister, with the gateway leading to every e and scout honor now thrown open to him, hiked back with his two companions, and was not weary, for there is no weariness when joy dances in the heart

Their hike back took the hero with his formidable envelope still stuck in his belt must have looked like an official come to read the riot act or a proclae But they are a fearless race in Westwood and only sh, and one inquisitive little girl asked her mother why he had his hat on inside out

The bakery in Westas closed so they deferred their refreshe southward Warde did not see much of the town for wherever he looked the first class scout badge seeer than towns and villages

Their way took theh terraced houses to the right and to the left the lowthe road they had to pass several villages before reaching the point where it would be well to leave the road and cut through the country eastward to camp

Into the post office of one of these places strode Scout Harris He sta done his good turn he proceeded to turn his hat right side out, and his conscience was at rest

So it happened that two or three days later old Mrs Haskell, in her tu-dohite house, read the letter which her soldier boy had written her more than two years before Little did she dream as she laid this reverently aith that blunt, harsh notification of his death, that a scout had taken off his hat to her as scouts do across all those miles and miles of country

CHAPTER XVII

A REVELATION