Percy Keese Fitzhugh

“ I don’t want you to be shouting about belt-axes and jack-knives and things like that in front of Skinny McCord. I’m telling you that and I want you to remember it. And I’ve got good reasons, too. Scouts aren’t made out of belt-axes and jack-knives and badges. They’re made out of ideas, as you might say. You just remember what I tell you and don’t be springing this stuff about the emblem of the woods and all that. A belt-axe costs two dollars—haven’t you got sense enough to know that. And do you know how much it costs to take the scout oath? ”

“ Ellsworth went to see Skinny and his mother, and then he went to see the doctor, and he found out that Skinny wasn’t going to die right then, but that something was the matter with his lungs, and that he’d keep getting sick all the time probably and wouldn’t grow up. Oh, boy, when Mr. Ellsworth once gets on your trail, good night! That’s just the way he hauled Tom Slade into the troop, head over heels. And look at Connie Bennett, too. Mr. Ellsworth had to hypnotize Connie’s mother and now Connie’s a first class scout. ”

“ I told him. “Haven’t I got command of the Silver Fox Patrol? Anybody who can command the Silver Fox Patrol ought to be able to command a few languages and things. I could command a whole regiment even,” I kept up, for I saw that Pee-wee was getting worked up, as usual, and all the fellows were laughing, even Mr. Ellsworth.
“If you could command a division,” Westy Martin said, in that sober way of his, “you ought to be able to command English all right.” ”

“ I said; “I’m a big fool, that’s what I am, but tell me all about it.”
“There isn’t anything to tell,” said Westy, “except that Skinny always wanted to be a scout, but he didn’t have any money and all like that. But anyway, he got the Handbook and studied it all up and it got him.”
“Same as it gets any fellow that looks inside of it,” I said.
“And the part that interested him most of all was tracking and signalling. You see how he carved the tracking emblem on one of his shoes——”
“You needn’t show it to me,” I said, “I saw it.” ”

“ One thing, we wanted to decide about our campaign for collecting books for soldiers, and another thing, we wanted to decide how we could all go up to Temple Camp in our cabin launch, the Good Turn.
This large and what-do-you-call-it launch—I mean commodious launch—is a dandy boat, except for one thing—the bow is too near the stern. If we were sardines instead of boy scouts, it would be all right, but you see there’s twenty-four of us altogether, not counting Captain Kidd, our mascot—he’s a parrot. ”

“ I got to thinking about the house-boat and the fun we’d have cruising up the Hudson and how Skinny would get fat and eat a lot, and especially how he’d stare when he saw Jeb Rushmore. He’s our camp manager, and just wait till you see him, that’s all I say.
But mostly I was thinking about the fun we’d have presenting Skinny to the Elks, and, oh, boy, I could just see Mr. Ellsworth laugh with that funny laugh he has—trying not to. And you can bet I was glad we had Skinny started. Because when a fellow once gets on the trail, he’s a goner. ”

“ Oh, jingoes, but we’ve got one dandy scoutmaster. I don’t care what you say, he’s the best one in America. And when he said that, Skinny kind of smiled and then you could see how thin he was, because the wrinkles came all around his mouth.
Well, on Saturday Westy and Dorry Benton and Ralph Warner (they’re all in my patrol) went into the city to get Skinny’s outfit, so we could give him a surprise at the meeting on Monday night. I didn’t go because I wanted Westy to have the say, and I didn’t want him to think I was butting in, because Skinny belonged to him, as you might say. ”

“ And he’s always getting new suits and things, because his father is rich. Pee-wee’s all right only he’s daffy about all the scout stuff that you see in the pictures and he always has his belt-axe dragging on his belt, even when he’s home, as if he expected to chop down all the telegraph poles on Main Street.
“You have belt-axes on the brain,” Westy told him.
“He’s got them on the belt anyway,” I said.
“You ask Mr. Ellsworth about it and see what he says,” Ralph Warner said. “He’ll tell you it’s better for Skinny to wait till he can earn a little money and then buy a belt-axe. ”

“ Mr. Ellsworth says sometimes a fellow might get killed for writing poetry. I should worry—a scout is brave.
You can bet that if Pee-wee had his way we’d have all gone into the city that very night and broken into a store to get Skinny’s outfit. But nix on that hurry up business when it comes to Mr. Ellsworth. “Scouts are not made in a day,” he said to Pee-wee, “and the outfit doesn’t make the scout anyway, remember that.”
“Any more than a merry-go-round makes a good turn,” I said. ”

“ Scouts of the Elk Patrol, we present you with this testimonial (my sister said that was a good word to use) of our steam—I mean esteem. You get fifty green trading stamps besides. This youth is positively guaranteed to grow, if kept in the sun and to win the pathfinder’s badge before the summer is out. He is made of fast colors and will not run—except when he’s tracking. He should be kept away from explosives such as Pee-wee Harris.
With love and kisses from the
Silver Foxes.
“Oh, it will be great!” Westy said, “we’ll do it before Mr. Ellsworth takes up the collection for the cruise, hey?” ”

“ All I know is that when the fellows came back they had everything for Skinny, or most everything. Because they came up to Camp Solitaire (that’s the tent I have on our lawn) and we opened the whole business. Pee-wee was there and the first thing we knew he was shouting that there wasn’t any belt-axe.
“We used all the money we had,” Westy said, “and it isn’t worth while asking Mr. Bennett for any more, even if there’s one or two things missing.”
Oh, jiminy, Pee-wee went up in the air. “Why didn’t you get a belt-axe,” he shouted; “don’t you know a belt-axe is the most important thing of all? ”

“ Pee-wee screamed, “do you mean to say that if a fellow does a good turn to another—an old man—and it turns out to be a good turn on somebody else, and he says—the other one that has a boat—that he’ll make a lot of trouble for the other one we did a service for—do you mean to tell me that the other one has a right to say he’ll make trouble for him, and if he does we haven’t got a right to let him do a good turn to us, so that the other one we did a good turn for can get under a bridge—it’s a good turn to let him do us a good turn, isn’t it? ”

“ He could track an airplane—that’s what the fellows used to say. But he was over in France and the only other fellow in our troop who is a cracker-jack at tracking, is Westy Martin. I don’t say that just because he’s a Silver Fox, because I have to admit that Artie Van Arlen and Wig Weigand are heroes, and they’re not Silver Foxes. But, honest, Westy is a winner when it comes to tracking, and you’ve got to remember that, because now I’m going to tell you some other things about him and maybe you won’t know just what to think. ”

“ He’s good on all the different kinds of signalling. He’s a Raven, but he can’t help that, because there wasn’t any Silver Fox Patrol when the Raving Ravens started.
The Ravens were the—what do you call it—you know what I mean—nucleus of the troop. That’s how it started. There are about half a million scouts in America and all of them can’t be Silver Foxes, even if they’d like to.
Wig has the crossed flags—that’s the signalling badge; and the fellows say he can make the sky talk. Believe me, he can make it shout. ”

“ Whenever a scout comes late for campfire up at Temple Camp or at a troop meeting either, he always gets a look from T. E. At camp we have breakfast at 7:42 and lunch at 1:23 and supper at 7:13, just to teach the fellows to go by minutes.
Anyway, I started working with my patrol, who were painting the deck. I stuck right to it, but all the time I was wishing that Westy would show up. Every time I heard a sound I looked up. Because maybe you don’t know that a patrol leader is responsible for his patrol and if one of them falls down, it’s just the same as if he fell down. ”

“ If you’re not a scout maybe you don’t know anything about camping, but it’s one of our rules not to defile the woods with rubbish and Mr. Ellsworth always told us a tomato can didn’t look right in the woods. Well, jiminety, that spark plug sure did look funny lying on that piece of net moss. It floated right near my shoulder and I lifted it off and, oh, crinkums, but it made me think of Bridgeboro. ”

“ Because, of course, I knew we’d have to send the name to the infernal revenue people—I mean internal or eternal or whatever you call it—because you have to do that to get your license number.
“It’s a good name,” I said, “you don’t see it every day.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Doc Carson said, “it’s as long as a spelling lesson or Pee-wee’s tongue.”
“It’ll be a pretty expensive name; it’ll take a lot of paint,” Brick Warner said.
“We should worry,” I said.
So then I made some coffee, because I’m the troop cook, and we thought it was best to eat before we started. That bunch is always hungry. ”