Tom Slade : Boy Scout of the Moving Pictures

by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

  During the next few days a dreadful document appeared which had to dowith Tom, though he never saw it and only heard of it indirectly.Whence it emanated and what became of it he never knew, but he knew itwas originated by the "rich guys" and that Mrs. Bennett and John Templeand the Probation Officer and the Judge had something to do with it.

  It said that "Whereas one Thomas Slade, aged fourteen, son of WilliamSlade, whereabouts unknown, and Annie Slade, deceased, was anunprotected minor, etc., etc., that said Thomas Slade should thereforebe brought into court by somebody or other at a certain particulartime, for commitment as a city charge," and so forth and so on. Therewas a good deal more to it than this, but this was the part of it whichTom heard of, and he rose in rebellion.

  He had been sleeping, sometimes at Mrs. O'Connor's and sometimes up atCamp Solitaire with Roy, as the fancy took him. When the news of whatwas under way fell like a thunderbolt upon him, in a frenzy ofapprehension he went to Mr. Ellsworth.

  Mr. Ellsworth himself went to court on the fatal day. The judge askedwhat facilities the "Scout movement" had for handling a boy like TomSlade and whether they had an "institution." He thought Tom might beplaced under the supervision of competent people in the Home forWayward Boys. The Probation Officer said that was just the place forTom for he had a "vicious proclivity." Tom thought presently he wouldbe accused of having stolen that, whatever it was. Happily, though, inthe end, he was committed to Mr. Ellsworth's care and he and Tom wentforth together.

  "Now Tom," said the Scoutmaster, "you and I are going to have a littlepow-wow--you know what a pow-wow is? Well, then I'll tell you. When theIndians get together to chin about important matters, they call it apow-wow. They usually hold it sitting around a camp fire, and we'll dothat too when we get to Salmon River, for the Indians haven't gotanything on us. But we'll have our first pow-wow right now walkingalong the street. What do you say?"

  "Yer--yessir."

  "You heard the judge say you haven't any relations and, in a way, hewas right, but he was mistaken, too, for a scout is a brother to everyother scout and you've got lots of brothers, thousands of them; or willhave when you get to be a scout. And after you get to be a scout, whyyou'll have a pretty big pack to carry. The question is, can you carryit?"

  "Yessir."

  "You'll have to carry the pack for all these brothers of yours. If_you_ make a slip--tell a lie or throw a stone or interfere withChing Wo--everybody'll say it's the Boy Scouts. Just the same as ifRoy Blakeley should send a flash message wrong. The telegraph operatorwould give us the laugh and say the Scouts didn't know what they weredoing. You and I'd get the blame as well as Roy. So you see, Roy's gota pretty big pack to carry, but he manages to stagger along with it.

  "You may have noticed that the Scouts are great fellows for laughing.If there's any laughing to be done, we're going to be the ones to doit. We don't let anybody else have the laugh. That's our middlename--laughter.

  "There's one other little thing, and then I'll tell you the main thingI want to say--flash it, as you fellows would say. We have to becareful about talking. Stick your tongue out a little way between yourteeth and say them."

  "Them," said Tom.

  "The first thing for you to do is to make a list of all the words youuse that begin with 'th' and say them that way. You know we have troopcalls and patrol calls and all sorts of calls, and we've got to be ableto make them just right--see?"

  "Sure-yessir."

  "Now you take that word you use so much--'ye-re.' 'Yes' is betterbecause it's only got three letters and you can flash it quicker. Soone of the first things to do is to make the school books work overtime(there's only two or three weeks more) and get all those words justright; _them, those, three_--because if you said 'tree' and meant'three' it might throw everything endways. We have a lot to do withtrees in the summertime, and you want to be able to say'three' justright, for another reason.

  OUTSIDE SCHMITT'S GROCERY THEY FOUND A "BOY WANTED"SIGN.]

  "There are three parts to the Scout Oath and we don't want to get thosethree parts mixed with trees. So whenever you're thinking of the oath,say _three_ and whenever you're thinking of going to Salmon RiverGrove, say tree."

  The boy was much impressed.

  "But, Tom, the immediate thing to do is to go down to Schmitt's Groceryand take down that sign he's got outside."

  "I told Roy Blakeley I wouldn't take down no more signs."

  "You can tell Roy you took this one down with me--just for a stunt."

  Outside Schmitt's Grocery they found a "Boy Wanted" sign, and then Tomunderstood. He hesitated a little when Mr. Ellsworth went in, for hisrelations with Mr. Schmitt had not been altogether cordial.

  "How'd do, Mr. Schmitt," said the scoutmaster breezily. "How's theRussian advance?"

  "Dem Roosians vill gett all vot's coming to dem," said Mr. Schmitt.

  "Yes? Well, how about this boy?"

  "Veil, vot about him?"

  "He wants to take down that sign out there."

  "Och! I know dot poy!"

  "No, you don't; this is a different fellow--a Boy Scout."

  "Veil, if dis iss der kind of a poy scouts--"

  "Now, look here, Mr. Schmitt, don't you say anything about the BoyScouts. Who stopped your runaway horse for you last week?"

  "I didn't say noddings about dem--"

  "Well, a scout is a brother to every other scout, and if you sayanything against one you say it against all."

  He winked significantly at Mr. Schmitt. "Come back here, I want tospeak to you," said he.

  They retired to the rear of the store, where Mr. Schmitt leaned his armaffectionately over the big wheel of the coffee-grinder and listened,all attention.

  Tom overheard the words, "fresh air," "Boys' Home," "something to do,""appeal to honor," "sense of responsibility," and more or less aboutwoods and country and about a "boy to-day being a man to-morrow," andabout "working with him," and other odds and ends which he did notunderstand.

  "Veil, it's a goot ting, I'll say dot mooch," said Mr. Schmitt, as theyreturned to the front of the store. "Dere is too mooch cities--deydon't got no chance."

  "Tom," said Mr. Ellsworth, "I've been telling Mr. Schmitt about thatsignal work. (He was wondering what the light was.) And I've told himabout your wanting to earn a little money before camping time. He'sgoing to start you in on three dollars and a half a week, school-daysafter three and all day Saturdays and Saturday nights. He asked me ifyou could deliver goods and I told him there wasn't a boy in town whocould "deliver the goods" like you. Remember the pack you've got tocarry for the whole troop. If you fall down, you'll queer the troop-RoyBlakeley and all of us.

  "Mr. Schmitt's a busy man and he has no time to think of what you weredoing a few days ago, so don't you think about that either. You can'tfollow a trail looking backward--you have to keep your squinters ahead.Isn't that so, Mr. Schmitt?"

  "You can'd look forwards vile you are going packwards," said Mr.Schmitt. "You come aroundt at dree o'clock, to-morrow."

  "Now, Tom," said Mr. Ellsworth, as they left the store, "my idea is foryou to stay at Mrs. O'Connor's, and give her your money every week. Roysays he'd like to have you go up several nights a week and stay at CampSolitaire, so I think maybe three dollars a week to Mrs. O'Connor willbe all right. Then she'll save the other fifty cents for you and bythe time we start for Salmon River you'll have enough, or pretty nearenough, for a uniform.

  "For instance, you might go up to Camp Solitaire every other night andeat plum-duff and eggs with Roy. He says they've got chickens enoughup there to keep the camp going. He uses so many eggs, one way oranother, I should think he'd ashamed to look a hen in the face. Andremember about the colors coming down at sunset. Uncle Sam's a regularold maid about such things, you know. And don't forget page--what wasit?"

  "Tree--three hundred and seventy-five," said Tom.

  "That'll tell you all about the flag. Then I want you to turn to page28 in the Handbook and study our law. We have our own home-made
lawssame as everything else, plum-duff and fishing rods--all home-made."

  Tom laughed.

  "I'll want to know what you think of those laws. I think they'repretty good; Roy thinks they're great, but then Roy's half crazy----"

  "No, he isn't."

  "He doesn't know as much as he thinkgs he does," the scoutmaster cameback.

  "He knows all dem--them signs backwards."

  "You'll beat him out at it," said the scoutmaster. "Anyway, he's goingto post you about the sign and the salute, and that leaves only theknots. You take a squint at those knots in the Handbook. I can improveon two of them, but I won't tell you how. You've got to get the hangof four of them, and I want you to see if you can't do all this bySunday afternoon. But remember, Mr. Schmitt comes first."

  Mr. Ellsworth blew into Mrs. O'Connor's with the same breezy pleasantrythat he had shown Mr. Schmitt, to the great edification and delight ofSadie McCarren. He created quite a sensation in Barrell Alley and Mrs.O'Connor, good woman that she was, fell in with his planenthusiastically.

  The next morning Tom was up at six, wrestling with the O'Connorclothes-line, and by half past seven he had mastered the reef-knot andthe weaver's knot, which latter he used to fasten two loose ends of thebroken line for permanent use, and he wondered whether this by-productof his early morning practice might pass as a "good turn."

  Before he went to school, Mrs. Beaman, a neighbor, came in and saidthat after long consultation with her husband she had decided to offerthree dollars for the Slade possessions, and in the absence of BillSlade, the estate was settled up in Tom's interest on that basis. So hewent forth feeling he and John Temple were alike in at least one thing-theywere both capitalists.

  Mr. Ellsworth was somewhat of a stickler for form and organization, andit was a pleasant scene which took place the following Sunday afternoonunder the big elm up at Camp Solitaire. The ceremony of investing aTenderfoot was always held on a Sunday because he believed it made itmore impressive, and whenever possible it was held out of doors.

  The First Bridgeboro Troop was highly organized and all its ceremoniesemphasized the patrol. The two patrols, the Ravens and the Silver Foxes(and later the Elks) participated in the investing ceremony, but it wasthe affair particularly of the patrol into which the Tenderfoot was toenter, and this idea was worked out in the ceremony.

  Each patrol stood grouped about its flag, and a little apart, near thenational colors, stood Mr. Ellsworth and Worry Sage, Troop Scribe,armed with a book and fountain pen. Down near the signal pedestal wasRoy's sister, Esther, in company with her mother and one or twoservants from the house. Carl, the gardener, was there, too, to watchthe ceremony.

  Roy Blakeley, as sponsor for the new member, stepped forward with Tom.

  "Whom have you here?" Mr. Ellsworth said, in accordance with theirregular form.

  "An applicant for membership in our Troop and a voice in our councils,"answered Roy.

  "Is he worthy to be a member of our Troop?"

  "I come as his friend and his brother," said Roy, "and to certify thathe is as desirable to us as we to him."

  "Has he made satisfactory proof of the tests?"

  "He has."

  "And is he prepared to take the oath?"

  "He is prepared."

  "Raise your right hand in the Scout Salute," Mr. Ellsworth said to Tom.

  Then Worry Sage stepped forward and repeated the oath, Tom followinghim, line by line:

  On my honor I will do my best-- To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

  "How say you? Is this applicant familiar with the law?" asked thescoutmaster.

  "He is familiar with the law and finds it good."

  "Let the law be read."

  Worry Sage read the first law, which was the one Tom broke when hestole Mary Temple's ball.

  "You find this law good?" asked the scout-master.

  "Yes sir, I do."

  Then Worry read the next one, "A Scout is loyal. He is loyal to all towhom loyalty is due; his scout leader, his home and parents and country."

  "You find this law good?"

  There was a slight pause.

  "Do I have to obey that one?" said he. "Do I have ter be loyal terhim?"

  Mr. Ellsworth stepped forward amid a tense silence and laid his hand onTom's shoulder. "I think you have been loyal to your mother already,Tom," he said in a low tone, "as for your father," he hesitated; "yes,I think you must be loyal to him too. There weren't any Boy Scouts whenhe was a boy, Tom. We must remember that."

  "All right," said Tom.

  "You find this law good?" asked the scoutmaster, resuming theceremonial form.

  "Yes--I do. I'll be--loyal."

  The reading of the law completed, he stepped back with Roy to theSilver Fox emblem.

  The Silver Fox patrol leader asked, "Do you promise to stand faithfulto this emblem, and to these your brother scouts of the Silver FoxPatrol?"

  And then, "Are you familiar with the patrol call which is the voice ofthe silver fox, and with the patrol sign, which is the head of thesilver fox, and do you promise to use this call and this sign and noother so that your name may be honorable in all the Troop, and amongall troops?"

  And Tom answered, "I promise."

  Mr. Ellsworth pinned the Tenderfoot Badge on his breast.

  Tom Slade of Barrel Alley had become a Scout. He could not see wherethe trail led, but that he had hit the right one he felt sure.

  CHAPTER VIII

  STUNG!