active 1909-1917 Herbert Carter

“ Think we can leave the rest of the patrol alone for an hour or two this afternoon?" asked Allan, eagerly, as he too cast wistful looks across the shimmering water toward the strange little island that lay nestling there so modestly.
"If they're put on their honor to behave, they'll be all right," replied Thad. "A scout must never dream of breaking his word, once given. That is a part of his creed, you know, Allan; and even Bumpus understands that." ”

“ Please let me try it, Thad. I really want to; and see, I'm not afraid at all; only I do wish I had my shoes on, for the hard ground hurts my feet. I never went barefooted before in all my life."
"Oh! let him try the trick, Thad," called out Davy; "I'm getting cold, too. This here private box is full of draughts you see; and my attire is so very airy. Blankets are what I want most right now. Give Smithy a chance to show what he can do in the wild beast taming line."
"It'll sure be the making of him," echoed Step-hen cheerfully, from his perch. ”

“ When poor Bumpus tried to escape in such a clumsy fashion that he tripped over the stretched guy rope of a tent, he had let go his beloved bugle. What was music to a fellow when his existence hung in the balance. He could get another horn, but never another life.
Thad had by chance discovered the shining bugle even while on his way to the friendly tree, and had snatched it up; mechanically perhaps, for he could not have entertained any fear lest the bear would swallow such a thing. ”

“ Immediately there sounded the stroke of the descending ax.
"Huh! went all the way through, that time," said Step-hen, who was watching the operation closely; "reckon the old tree must be as rotten as punk."
"Make a dandy blaze, all right," ventured Giraffe, whose mind was bent on fires, so that he never lost a chance for making one; and who loved to sit and watch it burn, much as the old fire worshippers might have done in long-ago times.
"Take care, Allan," remarked Thad; "don't strike so hard next time. Why, you'll knock a hole in that stump in a jiffy. It's only a shell." ”

“ You all had the same chance to look around that Giraffe was given. If he was smart enough to notice that he could save time by filling his cup at the spring rather than run away over to the lake, so much the more to his credit. A first-class scout will always discover means for saving time. He will keep his eyes and wits about him to see and hear things that an ordinary person might pass right by. That's one of the first things he's got to learn. 'Be prepared' is the slogan of the Boy Scouts; but in order to get the best out of anything, a fellow has to keep awake all the time. ”

“ As for Smithy, he looked as if he could not understand what all the fuss was about.
"Why, I always sleep this way at home," he stammered, as he glanced around at his hilarious comrades.
"Perhaps you do," jeered Davy Jones, who could take hard knocks without any whimper; "but mother's darling boy ain't home right now. A true scout must learn to sleep in his blanket alone. ”

“ I'd try it on him if I was you, Smithy," suggested Giraffe; who groaned to think of all that good food being wasted on a miserable traveling show bear that had strayed into camp.
"All right, if you feel confident, Smithy;" said Thad; "but watch him close; and if he makes a move as if he wanted to grab you, shin out for the tree again. We'll all stand by, ready to give a yell, so as to scare him off." ”

“ While the others had hastened to the border of the lake to fill their cups with water, the shrewd Giraffe had simply stepped over to a tiny little spring which he had noticed not ten feet away, and there managed to get all he needed.
And the way he shaved that fine kindling was a caution. Giraffe was a born Yankee in that he always carried a keen-edged jack-knife, and could be seen cutting every enticing piece of soft pine he came across. Why, he had applied his match to the tinder before the others returned from the lake; and the smoke of his fire blew in their faces most enticingly. ”

“ Thad was afraid the man who could talk such good English might show some signs of being offended by these frank expressions of Giraffe's views; but instead he laughed quite heartily, as though rather tickled.
"A bear can eat a big amount of stuff in a day," he remarked, "and I don't blame your friend for being afraid he'd clean you out, if he stayed longer. Good-bye, boys. Hope you enjoy your outing to the limit; and that the time may come when I can return that favor of a bully cup of coffee." ”

“ When the delicate boy started to scramble down out of his leafy bower the others tried to encourage him in various ways.
"Good boy, Smithy!" cooed Step-hen.
"You've certainly got more grit than any fellow in the bunch; and I take off my hat to you, suh!" cried the Southern boy, making a movement with his hand as if in salute.
"Try the quarter loaf, Smithy; you'll find it just where Step-hen said, inside the tent where Bumpus is hanging out," Giraffe called. ”

“ Giraffe shrank back, looking crushed. He had been building high hopes on having unlimited chances for carrying out his favorite diversion, once away from the restraints of civilization. But he must learn by degrees, possibly through sad experience, that a fire is just as terrible in the wilderness, once it gets beyond control, as in a settled community. It is a good servant, but a very bad master.
"How far is the lake from here, would you say, Thad?" asked Davy Jones. ”

“ CHAPTER II. THE PRISONER OF THE TREE STUMP.
"Oh! perhaps a wolf has got poor Bumpus!" exclaimed Smithy, who had never had any real experience in the woods, and was therefore a genuine "greenhorn" scout.
"Or a bear!" suggested Step-hen.
Thad was not the one to stand and speculate, when a comrade appeared to be in deep trouble, so he immediately cried out:
"Get your staves, and come along, everybody; no; you stay with our knapsacks, to guard them, Bob White. This may be some trick of Brose Griffin and his cronies to steal our stuff. This way, the rest of you, boys!" ”

“ Still, it's a rocky island, you remember, and there might be some sort of cave on it, good enough to be used to keep a man from the rain, or housing goods, if need be."
"Whew! listen to Thad, would you?" said Step-hen, drawing a big breath, which betrayed his state of mind, and the excitement that was beginning to make his pulses thrill. "Whatever do you suppose these unknown men can be doing around here?"
"You remember what I said before about this country having been stocked with game, and this lake with thousands of young bass years back?" ”

“ When I can attend a fire I seem to thrill all over. Funny, ain't it, Thad, how it affects me? My folks say they'll have to send me to the city, and make a fireman out of me."
"Well, if they asked my advice," remarked the other, "I'd say you ought to be put on a railroad engine to stoke. Inside of a month you'd be so sick of making fires you'd never want to try it again as long as you lived."
"Hey! don't you go to putting them up to that dodge, then," remarked Giraffe, in sudden alarm, "because I don't want to get an overdose of making fires. ”

“ He never will be a first-class scout when it comes to the water tricks; though if you hung up a whole ham as a price it might make him stir himself some."
Of course Giraffe was indignant.
"Why, I could beat Bumpus with one hand tied behind me!" he declared.
"Oh! you don't say so?" mocked Step-hen, who for some reason seemed desirous of arousing the feeling of rivalry between these two scouts, and egged them on as a boy who loved to see dogs fight, would sick one on the other. "Mebbe, you'd be willing to back up that assertion right now, and prove your boast?" ”

“ Imagine me up in the real mountains, when I've never even seen a hill bigger than Scrub-oak mountain, which I could nearly throw a stone over!"
Then the prow of the canoe ran aground in a few inches of water. Thad sprang ashore, and holding the painter, drew the boat in closer. Relieved of his weight in the bow its keel grated on the dry sand, and the other two were able to step out easily enough.
They drew the boat up good and far on the beach.
"The wind's liable to get even stronger than it is," remarked Thad, "and we don't want a second experience of having the canoe blown out on the lake." ”

“ He'd have had a great time climbing out; but Davy could have done it; he's more at home in a tree than on the ground."
He said this because the Jones boy was as nimble as an ape when he found an opportunity to show off his gymnastics; he dearly loved to hang from a limb by his toes, and carry on like a circus athlete or trapeze performer.
"Do we make a start now?" asked Bob White; "exactly fifteen minutes spent, suh, in rescuing our comrade in distress."
"Are you able to walk with us, Bumpus?" asked Thad. ”

“ Giraffe had gone on to remark, "always talking about that uncle of his who lives out somewhere in the wild and woolly west; he says he expects to pay him a visit some day, and brags about how he'll have a chance to bag his grizzly bear then; but excuse me, if a grizzly can eat any more than this tame one; I wouldn't bag him for a gift."
"Oh! you mistake his meaning," chuckled Thad, "When he speaks of bagging a bear he means shooting him and bringing him to bag, not capturing one. The man doesn't live who would try to capture such a monster, single-handed." ”

“ I want to know how, Thad, believe me," returned that worthy, earnestly. "My mother doesn't believe any fellow should go near the water until he knows how to swim; but how could he ever learn in that case, I'd like to know?"
"Fix himself up in a tree, and strike out!" suggested Davy, to whom a tree appealed very frequently as the first way out of any trouble.
"Now, you're away off there, suh," broke in Bob White, smiling; "he should immediately proceed to get in touch with one of those schools that teach everything through the mails; and take his dives off the dining-room table." ”

“ Giraffe grumbled; for it certainly did provoke him to see a shaggy beast devouring good food that human beings could make use of. "Why, I had to get up from breakfast hungry because of him. The island for mine, if it's going to help us get rid of our star boarder any quicker."
"Star boarder!" mimicked Step-hen; "well, that's a joke I take it; because all of us have got our minds made up who fills that bill, all right."
But Giraffe pretended not to notice what was said. He did not like to have his comrades pay too much attention to his little weakness in the food line. ”

“ So he eagerly watched the way Thad placed the supposed patient on his chest, and kneeling over him, started pressing down on his back while others worked his arms with a regular motion; the whole endeavor being to imitate breathing, and in this artificial way induce the muscles to take on genuine respiration.
"That takes with me, I tell you," said Allan, eagerly. "I saw a man drowned once, and I believe right now his life could have been saved if only the guide had known the right way to go about it. I'll never forget that lesson, Mr. Scout-Master, never." ”

“ They really presented quite a warlike front as they began to wave these sticks in a menacing manner, and ranged on either side of their scout-master.
"Hold on, boys, there's no need of making such a show as that," Thad remarked, secretly pleased, however, to see how bold a band he had under him; "these men are the ones who own the bear; and I rather think they've come for him at last."
"Hurrah!" shouted Giraffe, ready to dance with happiness over the sudden prospect of being rid of their "star boarder," while the stock of food still remained fairly bountiful. ”

“ Suppose, for instance, Giraffe lost his way while trying to make Rockford, what then would become of Smithy?
Thad felt that he could never look a scout in the face again if he were guilty of such small business.
"I'm going to do my best to find Smithy, no matter what happens," he said to himself, as he shut his teeth hard together, and took a fresh grip on that comforting cudgel he carried again. "Perhaps they may stick close to their hiding-place, wherever that is, thinking they've scared the rest of us nearly to death; and that we'll swim ashore. Here goes, then, to follow the trail." ”

“ Thad remarked, "I've thought the same myself, and some of the other fellows have their minds set on it. If we only had some way of getting over, I might think of changing our camp, and going across. Of course I could swim over and see what the island is like, but that wouldn't do us any good without a boat."
"A boat up here is something nobody ever saw, I reckon, suh," said Bob White.
"It certainly does look cool and fine across the water there; and I suppose the bear could swim it if we chose to go; unless we made up our minds to turn the old rascal loose," Step-hen put in. ”

“ He deserves a merit badge, suh, for his true grit," was what the generous Southern lad declared firmly.
"Hear! hear! we'll put in an application to Headquarters for a badge to be given to our comrade Smithy for saving our bacon!" cried Davy Jones.
"Well," declared Giraffe, "it might have been our bacon, in fact; because I saw him sniffing in the direction of the tent where it happens to be lying. A fine lot of scouts we'd be, camped away up here, far from our base of supplies, and to run out of bacon the first thing. ”

“ Now, there could be no particular reason why Step-hen should want to see him enter for this queer water race, unless he had some deep motive behind it. What could that motive be? Did the artful scout expect to find a chance for searching his, Bumpus' clothes, while he was in the lake, engaged in an exciting competition with Giraffe; and all the other fellows having their attention centered on the race? ”

“ Makes himself right at home, I must say. I reckon he likes us, fellows."
"Please don't say that, Step-hen; it makes me nervous," remarked Bumpus, wrapping his blanket around him after the way an ancient Roman might his toga, as if, in spite of its warmth, he had started shivering again, as the significant words of Step-hen awakened unpleasant thoughts in his now active mind.
"But how about appointing a sentry to stay on guard during the night?" suggested Giraffe, turning to the scout-master.
"What for?" asked Thad, winking at Allan. ”

“ All commendatory doings are worked out in bright colors, but every time the Law of of the Camp Fire to broken it must be recorded in black. How these seven live wire girls strive to infuse into their school life the spirit of Work, Health and Love and yet manage to get into more than their share of mischief, is told in this story. ”

“ He thereupon proved how easy it would be to lie in a position where he could guide the floating log, and yet be out of sight from the side that was toward the island.
"Oh! this is the greatest thing that's come my way for a long time," he said, as he walked further away from the shore, the water getting deeper all the time until his body was very nearly all submerged; "and I'm ever so much obliged to you for giving me the chance, Thad. Don't bother a thing about me. If some big mud-turtle don't grab me by the toe, and pull me down, I'll come out swimmingly, see?" ”