Part 12 (2/2)

”Perhaps you know by this time the cause of my 'scout smile' Do you still think Walter Harris is a turtle?

ESTHER”

Scout-Pace Pee-wee got possession of this card,it up in the Ravens' tent, where it remained ostentatiously displayed until the bitter day of reckoning, which ca after

To Toram had been to call names and throw stones, the camp routine, the patrol rivalries and reprisals, the hikes, the stunts, the cans in a kaleidoscope

Observant persons noticed how he began to say ”I saw” instead of ”I seen”; ”those” instead of ”them,” and how his speech iely in the interest of the signalling, about which he had come to be a perfect fiend It sent him to the dictionary to find out how to spell words which were to be flashed or agged; and fro them properly he came to pronounce them properly

When he found that it was possible to tell a piece of oak froood, why, that was a knock-out blow for cigarettes He wasn't going to let the Ravens get aith that species of scouting proficiency

Next to signalling work the thing that engrossed To and which he now looked to as the one re accomplishment which would advance him to the Second Class

More than a ible in that particular; he was ready, though a trifle shaky, on the ”first aid” business; as for signalling, he had but one rival and that was Roy; and he could jog along at scout pace with anyone except Pee-wee

He was prepared to chop his way into the Second Class with knife or hatchet, as per requirements; he could kindle a fire in the open and cook you a passable h he would never be the equal of Roy as a chef

He knew the points of the cos about which he was still in doubt These were the tracking and the financial business He felt that if he could do a good tracking stunt itproficiency and for his omission in another particular

It was now the aht of it by day and dreaed persistence with those things in which he was not skillful because they were not in his line

It was in the interest of this a as the latter was starting out from camp on one of his ”auto confabs,” as the boys called his strolls, for on these he ont to formulate new policies and sche, To you want to say?”

”Yes, sir I think I can do that tracking stunt in Paragraph Four an'

if I do an'if--I s'pose--would you--would you think those potatoes I cooked yesterday were all right?”

”Very fair, Toht?”

”Oh, I think maybe so; we all have our specialties, Touess you can get aith that all right”

”Well then,” said To to prevent--that is, if I do the tracking stunt”

”Yes? What's that?”

”It's about the ot that five dollars Mr Schave me for the extra hen he opened the branch store”

”Where've you got that, Tom?”