Charles Pierce Burton

“ What if I was hiding in Plunkett's woods and you were on the way to the cave and I should be attacked by Injuns or something. I might hiss until I was black in the face [33] and who'd hear me? You could hear me caw almost to Peck's Falls."
"Yes, that's so about snakes," I told them. "I don't think much of snakes myself. But I don't know about crows. The eagle is such a noble bird."
"Noble nothin'!" said he. "What did an eagle ever do that was noble any more than a crow? Besides a crow can talk if you split its tongue. I read it in a book. You can't draw an eagle. ”

“ The greatest enemy that he or his country can have will be found right inside his own heart. There is where we all have a fight on hand continually. But, remember, you are Scouts and a Scout's honor is to be trusted."
"Benny, what is the next law?"
"A Scout is helpful."
"There you have it. The highest type of man is the useful one. There was once an old philosopher who said that he counted that day lost in which he did no good deed. A Scout ought to feel the same way. You must try to do something for somebody every day." [76]
"They don't have giants and dragons, any more," said Skinny. ”

“ Anyhow, we boys can't help cheering when the mountain shakes off his bonds and stands forth like a giant Scout, telling us to be cheerful and brave and reverent and all that.
The great rains did more than scar the face of Greylock. They kept us from starting on our trip at the time we had planned to go.
"Wait until the woods dry out," Mr. Norton told us. "The roads are too muddy now to think of starting, and you couldn't have any fun if the woods were wet. A week of sunshine will fix things all right." ”

“ The noose tightened; and there was the most surprised bear you ever saw, tied fast to the tree! Skinny stood on the limb above like a big crow, cawing to beat the band and so excited that he came near falling again. [176]
"Gee, but that bear was mad," said Skinny, when he was telling us about it. "He growled and he snapped and he rolled on the ground; then he ran around and around the tree, until he had wound himself up short, but he couldn't get away. It was great, only I didn't dare jump on him again. He was too crazy."
"Great snakes, Skinny!" exclaimed Bill. "You always have all the fun." ”

“ Skinny stood up and folded his arms.
"A Scout is trustworthy," said he.
"It is a great thing to be trustworthy; to be dependable," said Mr. Norton. "In a few years, you boys and others like you will be running this country and the other countries which make up what we call the civilized world. To you doubtless that time seems far off. Let me tell you that it will be here almost before you know it. It seems only yesterday when I myself was a youngster like you."
"I'm going on twelve," Benny told him, "and I have begun to grow again." ”

“ He pulled out a fine silk banner from his pocket, as he spoke, and shook it out until it hung full length in the moonlight, and, looking, we saw in one corner a black raven and "Patrol 1, Troop 3 [313] Mass."; then, in large, gold letters, the Scout motto:
"BE PREPARED."
How we did cheer! And our folks cheered louder than anybody.
"Guess what!" said Benny, after all was still again. "When we grow up, we are going to try and be like Mr. Norton, our Scoutmaster."
"Bet your life we are!" shouted Skinny, springing to his feet and waving the banner. ”

“ In the elecution of its purpose to give educational value and moral worth to the recreational activities of the boyhood of America, the leaders of the Boy Scout Movement quickly learned that to effectively carry out its program, the boy must be influenced not only in his out-of-door life but also in the diversions of his other leisure moments. It is at such times that the boy is captured by the tales of daring enterprises and adventurous good times. ”

“ The very next morning the Ravens met to do the final stunts that would make us First Class Scouts.
For more than a week we had thought of little except the fourteen-mile hike. It took several meetings before we could decide where to go. Our first idea was to tramp up into the mountains somewhere, but that scared our folks and we had to give it up.
"It isn't as if you were all going together," said Pa. "In that case, if one should get hurt the others could take care of him and go for help. If one of you alone should break your leg on the mountain we might never be able to find you. ”

“ I asked, after I had told him that I was a Boy Scout, for I could see that he was feeling badly about something.
"It's my dog," he told me, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes. "Somebody broke his leg with a stone and I've got to kill him. He's all I have."
"A Scout should be kind to animals," I said to myself. "A Scout is a friend to all." "A Scout should be useful."
Then I answered myself back. [95]
"What's the use? This ain't any damsel-in-distress business, like Skinny is going to do. Besides, if I hurry maybe I'll get a chance to signal to Benny from the turn in the road on ahead." ”

“ We came in sight of Florida Mountain on our homeward trip, not far from Hoosac Tunnel. The longest part was behind us, but the hardest part, the climb over the mountain, was ahead.
Wild? Say, if you want to see a wild country, follow Deerfield River as it fights its way down from Vermont, until finally it breaks through the mountains and runs off to join the Connecticut. When you get in among those mountains you will think that you are Christopher Columbus discovering America.
"The Rockies are higher," said Skinny, when we had stopped to rest and look around a little. ”

“ Bill didn't have to talk. He could do things that made us know what he meant, without saying a word.
"To be dependable," went on Mr. Norton, "means more than to fight for your rights, or for your country's rights. It means that in all walks of life you must be ready to 'deliver the goods.' When a Scout gives his word of honor that settles it. That which he says is true, is true; you can depend upon it, and he will do exactly what he says he will do. That is a quality which we greatly need in men as well as in boys, who soon will be men."
"Corporal, what is the second law?" ”

“ Perhaps you never heard about the Band; how we found a cave at Peck's Falls, part way up the mountain, and had all kinds of fun playing there and on Bob's Hill. There are eight of us in all. Skinny is captain. His folks call him Gabriel but we don't like that name. Skinny is a good name for him, he is so fat. He can run though, even if he is heavy, and you would think that he could fight some if you had seen him once, when the Gingham Ground Gang got after us.
Benny Wade is the littlest fellow in the bunch but he feels just as big as anybody and sometimes that is almost as good as being big. ”

“ After Bill had left Wallie the first morning of his trip, he walked along lively, knowing that he had a long way to go to Williamstown, and he did a lot of cawing on the road, just as Skinny thought. Nothing happened to him at all until he found himself almost to the Gingham Ground. Then he saw five or six members of the Gang playing ball near where he would pass.
That made him stop. Bill is brave, all right, but what is the good of being brave when they are six to your one, and the whole six have it in for you? ”

“ We've been bandits and we've been Injuns, but Scouts beat 'em all. The woods are full of 'em all over the country, and they go about with uniforms on, doing good and having fun. They are like an army. We are one company, you will be another. I'm the same as captain, only they call me patrol leader. Mr. Norton is Scoutmaster, and there are officers above him, only we never saw them. We learn all about woodcraft and signs and signaling and how to do a lot of things, and we rescue people and do all kinds of stunts and get badges. The Ravens are going across the mountain on an exploring trip. ”

“ Say, if tree climbing had been one of the Scout stunts, Skinny would have won two badges.
It isn't any fun to sit in a tree on a mountain, with a real live bear sniffing around at the bottom and you both getting hungrier every minute. ”

“ We've killed somebody."
"Killed nothin'!" Bill told him. "Didn't you hear her holler?"
"She's running, too," said Benny. "Killed folks don't run, especially girls."
We could hear a crashing through the bushes beyond, and knew that what Benny said was true.
"Let's sneak back and get our arrows, anyhow," said Skinny, when the noise had stopped.
So we crept back again, ready to run if any one should come, but there was nobody in sight. One arrow was lying on the ground where the girl had been standing when we took her for a bear. It was Skinny's; we could tell by the way it was painted. ”

“ We are Bob's Hill boys and Greylock boys. That's why I want it a crow. They sort of belong together."
We never had thought of that before, but when we came to talk it over it seemed that way to us, too. So we chose the crow for our patrol animal, only we didn't call ourselves "the crows" but "the ravens," because it sounded so much nobler. While we can't draw a very good one when we make our signs, it looks some like a bird and we all know what kind it is, as Benny said. ”

“ When Bill Wilson is for anything, he is for it. There is no halfway doings with him. He didn't take to the Scout business very well at first because he didn't know much about it and thought that Indians or bandits would be better. But as soon as he had joined he cared more than anybody.
Trying to do more than the other Scouts did was what got him into trouble. He started for North Adams, the same as Wallie, Benny, and myself, and he took with him a message for Mr. Jenks, as I have said. But a seven-mile walk and back again the next day was not good enough for Bill. ”

“ Skinny was bound to carry a rope. When he marched down Center Street with it coiled around his shoulders, over his blanket, and with his tomahawk in his belt, people ran out of the stores to look at him.
The road that he took is uphill a good part of the way. It goes up through the foothills of the east mountain and isn't easy walking. We slide down that road sometimes in winter. When the coasting is good we can slide nearly a mile, clear into the village; then hitch on to a bob and ride back again for another. ”

“ The law says, 'A Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.' Does that mean that we must be brothers to the Gingham Ground Gang when they get to be Scouts?"
"Surely it does. Why not? Your folks may have a little more money than their folks and not so much as some one else. What of it? There is something better than money, and that something is manhood. ”

“ Skinny had told us, when we were getting ready to start on the hike, "you always ought to carry a rope. Something happens every time when you don't have a rope along."
"It happens when you do," Benny said. "Anyhow, a rope is too much bother. A blanket and a frying pan and things like that are all I want to carry."
"A rope is the thing, just the same. Didn't I lasso the robber last summer out on Illinois River, at Starved Rock? How could I lasso anything without a rope? ”

“ That is why Skinny thinks that George Washington could have licked Napoleon Bonaparte with one hand tied behind his back.
So we have the Fourth of July, and we boys ring the church bells at four o'clock in the morning, when they don't catch us at it, just like old Liberty Bell was rung so many years ago.
One of Skinny's ancestors was killed in the battle of Bunker Hill. That is what makes him so fierce [193] against the Britishers. Every Fourth of July he has us go up on Bob's Hill or somewhere and fight the battle all over again. ”

“ Now, there is a big hole under the mountain, more than four miles long, and trains go through in a few minutes.
After we had eaten and had a good rest, we started up a road, which we could see winding up the mountainside, far above us.
"Now, boys," said Mr. Norton, "we don't have to make this trip all in one day. We are out for fun and to learn something about scouting; if we climb too far in this hot sun it will get to be work [254] instead of play. I propose that we climb slowly, taking plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful views that will unfold before us with every turn of the road. ”