Percy Keese Fitzhugh

“ What Tom did not realize was that this merry, reckless, impulsive young dare-devil, whose very talk, as he jumped from one theme to another, made him smile in spite of himself, could not be expected to bear in mind the record of his whole remarkable accomplishment. He was no handbook scout.
There is the scout who learns a thing so that he may know it. But there is the scout who learns a thing so that he may do it. And having done it, he forgets it. Perhaps there is the scout who learns, does, and remembers. ”

“ Tom strolled up to supper, as excited as it was in his nature to be, and greatly preoccupied.
On his way up he dropped Llewellyn into Tenderfoot Pond, a diminutive sheet of water, so named in honor of the diminutive scout contingent at camp. He would have room enough to spend the balance of his life resting after his arduous and memorable journey. And there he still abides, by last accounts, monarch of the mud and water, and suns himself for hours at a time on a favorite rock. He is ranked as a scout of the first-class, as indeed he should be, but he is frightfully lazy. ”

“ At Temple Camp, when the cheery blaze was crackling in the witching hour of yarn telling, the seasoned habitués of the camp would direct the eye of the newcomer to a little glint of light high up upon the mountain, and edify him with dark tales of a lonesome draft dodger who had challenged that tangled profusion of tree and brush to escape going to war and had never been able to find his way down again—a quite just punishment for his cowardice. ”

“ So you see, my friends, it really made no difference whether our young hero tracked an animal or not. He was an Eagle Scout. He could go no higher. He had reached the pinnacle—no, not quite that. To his triumph he must add the glory of a noble, unselfish deed. Never knowing that the coveted honor was already his, he set out to win it by a tracking stunt which would fulfill the third requirement to bring him the stalking badge, and with it the Eagle award. ”

“ Tom Slade watched spellbound, as the agile form ascended, using every physical device and disregarding every danger. More than once Tom almost shuddered at the chances which his young companion took upon some perilously slender limb. Once, the impulse seized him to call a warning, but he refrained from a kind of inspired confidence in that young dare-devil who by now seemed a mere speck of brown moving in and out of the darkened green above him. ”

“ At five o’clock every seat around the open air platform was occupied. Every bench out of Scout Chapel, the long boards on which the hungry multitude lined up at supper-time, every chair from Council Shack and Main Pavilion, and many a trunk and cedar chest from tents and cabins and a dozen other sorts of makeshift seating accommodations were laid under contribution for the gala occasion. And even these were not enough, for the whole neighboring village turned out in a body, and gaping summer boarders strolled into the camp in little groups, thankful for something to do and see. ”

“ But I think he likes you, Hervey, and he’ll be disappointed.”
“You think he will?”
“You know, Hervey, Tom Slade never won his place by jumping from one thing to another. The love of adventure and something new is good, but responsibility to one’s troop, to oneself, is more important. How will your father feel about the bicycle he had looked forward to giving you? You see, Hervey, you regarded the winning of the Eagle award as an adventure, whereas the troop regarded it as a commission—a commission entailing responsibility.” ”

“ Tom Slade was right.”
“You said something!” some one shouted.
“To be enough of a scout to win the Eagle award is much. To be scout enough to ignore it is more. But twenty-one badges is twenty-one badges, and the animal first aid badge is as good as any other. The technical question of whether a bird is an animal——”
“Sure a bird’s an animal!” called a voice from a far corner which sounded suspiciously like the voice of Pee-wee Harris. “Everybody’s an animal—even I’m an animal—even you’re an animal—sure a bird’s an animal! That’s not a teckinality! Sure a bird’s an animal!” ”

“ Tom asked. “Nobody is supposed to go after a thing in scouting the same as he does in a game. He’s supposed to learn things while he’s going after something,” he added in his clumsy way. “You went through the bird study test and you didn’t even know it was an oriole’s nest that you rescued. And you forgot all about something else too, and it makes me laugh when I think about it; when I think about you and your tracks.” ”

“ I think we shall have to take Hervey Willetts as we find him, and be satisfied.
“Hervey Willetts,” he continued, “you stand here to-day the easy winner of the greatest honor it has ever been my pleasure to confer. Stand up, my boy, and never mind your stocking. (Laughter.) You have won the Eagle award, and you have made your triumph beautiful and unique by working into it one of the best good turns in all the history of scouting. I doubt whether a youngster of your temperament can ever really appreciate what you have done. But of course you could not escape Tom Slade—no one could. ”

“ In trying for a high award a scout is not running a race with other scouts. There is no spirit of contest in scouting. To be a hero, even that is not enough. One must be a scout hero. He must not use the animals and birds and the woods to help in his quest of glory, whether it be troop glory or individual glory. ”

“ Hervey asked in puzzled dismay. “You can bet that every time I look at that little old gold eagle on top of the flag pole I say, ‚Me for you, kiddo.’”
“I like Star Scout better,” Tom said, unmoved by his companion’s consternation.
“Why, that means only ten merit badges,” Hervey said.
“It’s fun studying the stars,” Tom added.
“Oh, sure,” Hervey agreed. “But star and eagle, they’re just names. What’s in a name, hey? Is that the badge you meant that I forgot about? The astronomy badge?”
“No, it isn’t,” Tom said. “You’re too excitable to study the stars. It’s got to be something livelier.” ”

“ Upon the makeshift rustic platform sat the high dignitaries, scoutmasters, trustees—the faculty, as Hervey was fond of calling them. In the big chair of honor in the center sat Mr. John Temple and alongside him Commissioner Something-or-Other and Committeeman Something Else. They had come up from the big scout wigwam, in the dense woods on the corner of Broadway and Twenty-third Street, New York.
Resounding cheers arose and echoed from the hills when old Uncle Jeb Rushmore, retired ranchman and tracker, and scout manager of the big camp, took his seat among the high dignitaries. ”

“ But Hervey was not of that order. He had made a plunge for each merit badge, won it and, presto, his nervous mind was on another. It takes all kinds of scouts to make a world.
Perhaps Hervey was not the ideal scout, but there was something very fascinating about his blithe way of going after a thing, getting it, and burdening his mind with it no more. He lived [Pg 52] for the present. His naïve manner of asking Tom for a tip as to a trail had greatly amused the more experienced scout, who now could not understand how Hervey had used the handbook so much and knew it so imperfectly. ”

“ And he thought of that other scout coming down through those woods, tracking that mysterious animal indeed, and stopping short, and sitting down on a log and throwing away his triumph like chaff before the wind. ”

“ Early the next morning Tom and Hervey hiked down to Catskill.
“I don’t see why we don’t hike straight for the mountain,” Hervey said; “it would be much nearer.”
“Didn’t you ever sail up the Hudson?” Tom asked him. “All the trails up the steep mountains are as plain as day from the river. If you want to discover a trail get a bird’s-eye view. Don’t you know that aviators discover trails that even hunters never knew about before? If the kidnappers went up that mountain, they probably went an easy way, because they’re not scouts or woodsmen. ”

“ What does he care? If he’s scout enough to be an Eagle Scout, and gives it up, he doesn’t even bother to tell anybody. Being willing to give it up is part of winning it, as you might say.
“Maybe you people didn’t know who you were cheering when you cheered Alfred McCord. But I’ll tell you who you were cheering. You were cheering the only Eagle Scout in Temple Camp. And he doesn’t care any more about the Eagle badge than he does about what every little tin scout in his own troop thinks of him, either. ”

“ Tom said.
“Do you know where there are any wild animal tracks?” Hervey blurted out with amusing simplicity. “I don’t mean just exactly where, but do you know a good place to hunt for any? A couple of fellows told me you would know, because you know everything of that sort. So I thought maybe you could give me a tip where to look. I found a horseshoe last night so maybe I’ll be lucky. All I want is to get started on a trail.” ”

“ Tom said, apparently on the point of scaling the turtle into the lake. “Some scout or other cut his initials here, that’s all. I don’t see any use in keeping him; he isn’t so very sociable.”
“Lots of times you crawl in your shell and aren’t so sociable, either,” Pee-wee shot back at him. “I say let’s keep him for a souvenir.”
“We’ll have a regular Bronx Park Zoo here pretty soon,” a scout said. “We’ll have to give him a name just like Asbestos.”
Tom set the turtle on the ground and everybody waited silently. But the turtle was not to be beguiled out of his stronghold by any such strategy. ”

“ Even Mr. Temple smiled as he said, “Come over here, my young friend, and let me congratulate the only Eagle Scout at Temple Camp.”
And so it befell that Hervey Willetts found himself clasping in cordial grip the friendly hand of Mr. John Temple with one hand while he still hauled up his rebellious stocking with the other. It was a sight to delight the heart of a movie camera man. His stocking was apparently the only thing that Hervey could not triumph over. [Pg 125]
“My boy,” said Mr. Temple, “it appears that we know more about you than you know about yourself. ”

“ The next thing he noticed (and that was when they had descended forty or fifty yards below the spring) was that the child’s sweater was frayed near the shoulder.
Down the steep declivity Tom moved, over rocks, now crawling, now letting himself down, now handing himself by one hand from tree to tree, agilely, carefully, surely. Now he relieved one arm by taking the child in the other, always using his free hand to let himself down through that precipitous jungle. ”

“ The one twenty-two train from the city brought John Temple, founder of Temple Camp, sponsor of innumerable scout enterprises, owner of railroads, banks, and goodness knows what all. He was as rich as the blackberry pudding of which Pee-wee Harris (official cut-up of the Ravens) always ate three helpings at mess.
His coming was preceded by telegrams going in both directions, talks over the long distance ’phone, [Pg 103] and when at last he came in all his glory, a rainbow troop consisting of honor scouts was formed to go down to Catskill Landing and greet him. ”

“ Hervey sang out, gayly.
“I think you’re a bully scout,” Tom said.
“If I win the Eagle you’ll say so, won’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“And do you mean to tell me that a scout can [Pg 59] be any more of a scout than that—an Eagle Scout?”
“Sure,” said Tom uncompromisingly.
For a few seconds the young hero of the lofty elm was too astonished to reply. Then he said, “Gee, you’re a peachy scout, everybody says that, but you’re a funny kind of a fellow, that’s what I think. I don’t get you. The Eagle award is the highest award in scouting. It means, oh, it means a couple of hundred stunts—hard ones. ”

“ There’s nothing better than to finish what you begin—nothing. You know, Hervey, I understand you thoroughly. You’re a wizard for stunts, but you’re weak on responsibility. Now you’ve got some new stunt on your mind, and the troop doesn’t count. Am I right?”
Hervey did not answer.
“And now the chance has nearly passed. Tomorrow we all go to the college regatta on the Hudson, the next day is camp clean-up and we’ve all got to work, and the next night, awards. Even if you were to do the unexpected now, I don’t know whether we could get the matter through and passed on for Saturday night. ”

“ Tom said soberly.
“So I am,” Hervey shot back at him; “trails up in the air don’t count. Never mind, I’ll find a trail to-morrow. It’s my troop I’m thinking of. [Pg 53] I’ll land it, all right. When I get my mind on a thing.... Hey, Slady, what in the dickens is that streak of red in the nest? Is it a trade mark or something like that? You’re a naturalist.”
“It’s an oriole’s nest,” Tom said, with just a note of good-humored impatience in his voice. “I thought you’d know that.”
“You see my head is full of the Eagle badge just now,” Hervey pleaded, “but I’m going to look up orioles.” ”

“ Again he started, hurrying around the edge of the cooking shack and to the little avenue of patrol cabins beyond. As he hurried along, the big brass compass flopped about and sometimes banged against his belt buckle, making quite a noise. Several boys laughed as he passed them, trotting along as if possessed by a vision. But no one stopped him or spoke to him. [Pg 9]
In the patrol cabin where he belonged, he rooted in great haste and excitement among the contents of a cheap pasteboard suit case and presently pulled out a torn and battered old copy of the scout handbook. ”

“ Tom said. “Will you promise that you’ll make good? You claim to be a scout. You say that when you get your mind set on a thing, nothing can stop you. That the idea?”
“That’s it,” Hervey answered.
“You wouldn’t drop a trail after you once picked it up, would you? Some animals take you pretty far.” [Pg 30]
“You bet nothing would stop me if I once got the tracks,” Hervey said. ”