CHAPTER VIII
TURNING THE TABLES
"Wait, Mr. Growdy!" Paul hastened to exclaim.
The old man laughed harshly as he flourished the whip. Perhaps he hadnever struck a boy before in all his life, and hardly knew how to begin;but his temper was plainly disturbed, and he meant to make a start.
"What should I wait fur, when I cort ye in the very act? Paint mycritters red, white an' blue, will ye? P'raps ye wanted to pull all thefeathers out o' my flock o' chickens this time, an' think it funny. Sarveye right if I gi'e ye a dozen stripes!"
"Mr. Growdy, I did you a favor once!" said the prisoner of the trap,wishing to keep the old man as long as possible from starting operations.
"Say ye so? Wall, this wipes it out then. Who air ye, anyway?"
The farmer bent lower, and thrust his lantern so that its light wouldfall upon the face of the boy. Immediately he uttered a grunt, for it wasplain that he had recognized his captive.
"So, it's ye, is it, Paul Morrison? This is some surprise, seein' asye're the last boy I'd expect to be up ter sech meanness. What d'ye thinkyer father'll say w'en he hears 'bout this?"
"I guess he'll laugh, and say it was about the cutest trick ever playedon you, Mr. Growdy," came the immediate answer; "but please get me downfrom this. Perhaps the blood will all run to my head. Tie my hands if youwant, and fix it so I can't run away; but I couldn't stand this long."
"So ye think yer father'd larf, do ye? I never wud 'a' b'lieved DoctorMorrison was the kind o' man to encourage practical jokes on anybody,"grumbled the old man, plainly at a loss to understand what was meant.
"Well, he isn't, and I'd be sorry to have him know I was guilty of sucha thing. But you're barking up the wrong tree, Mr. Growdy, I give you myword we none of us had any trick in mind when we came here to-night."
"Then what took you in my dooryard here; for I heard a pack runnin' awaywhen I kim out of the house? Tell me that, Paul," insisted the farmer;but the hand that held that cruel looking whip had fallen to his side,which was a good sign.
"I'll be only too glad to do so if you let me up. Tie my hands, my legstoo if you want, sir; but I'm getting dizzy from having my head belowmy heels."
Peleg stooped still closer. He again held the lantern down so that hecould look into the face of his prisoner; after which he did somethingthat Paul had hardly expected--bent over, seized the rope connected withthe laden hogshead, and pulling hard succeeded in casting the loop thathad just encircled Paul's ankles, over a post of the fence.
"Get up, Paul!" he said, grimly, yet with a flicker of curiosity in hiswrinkled face; as though a dim suspicion that there might be somethingout of the ordinary back of this, had begun to take possession of hismind.
Paul regained his feet, a little wobbly to be sure, for he hadexperienced a bad fall, and his head felt rather tender where it hadcome in contact with the hard ground.
"Thank you, Mr. Growdy. And now I'm going to tell you something. Perhapsyou will find it hard to believe me, and again you may not justappreciate our way of taking matters in our own hands, when the requestof the women of Stanhope didn't have any effect. Look around yourdooryard, Mr. Growdy. Do you see anything changed here?"
The farmer held up the lantern, and what he saw caused him to utter anexclamation.
"Ev'ry one o' 'em gone, by hokey! If so be ye've smashed all my rigs,Paul Morison, I'll have the law on ye, as sure as my name's PelegGrowdy!" he roared, aghast at what he deemed a serious discovery.
"Come with me, Mr. Growdy. Notice as you go that this place doesn't lookmuch like a pigpen now. In fact, I calculate it's as clean as anydooryard around Stanhope. Even the ladies can drive past now withoutbeing shocked. And Mr. Growdy, if you will take the trouble, sir, to lookunder that wagon shed, you'll see every one of your vehicles just wherethey should be when not in use!"
The old man stared, as well he might.
"By gum!" Paul heard him mutter; and the words seemed to express thesituation so well that the boy could hardly keep from laughing outright.
Finally the puzzled farmer turned and looked at the lad who stood therebeside him. Easily might Paul have made his escape at any time now; butthat was really the last thing he thought of doing. He would much ratherremain and see the bewilderment of Peleg Growdy reach its conclusion.
"Look here, Paul, what's this hull thing mean?" finally demanded thefarmer.
And Paul, remembering the fact that the old man was hard of hearing,raised his voice as he thought fit when making reply.
"Do you want me to tell you the whole thing, sir?"
"I sartin do, every word. Blest if I kin make head or tail out o' it.Reckons as how them leetle fairy twins ye read about must 'a' ben workin'wile I slept; er else I'm dreamin' things that caint be true."
"Listen, Mr. Growdy," Paul went on. "Perhaps you may not know that wehave started a troop of the Boy Scouts here in Stanhope. Some twenty ofus have joined, and later on we hope to get uniforms, and other thingsneeded, when we have earned the money to buy them. Those boys you heardrunning away were my friends and comrades, every one going to be a truescout."
"Soldier bummers then, out on a raid, and ready to kerry off everythingthey kin lay hands on," grumbled the old man, still unable to grasp thetrue condition of affairs.
"At a meeting to-night in Mr. Shipley's barn we made further progresslooking to perfecting our organization. But boys will be boys, you know;and one of our number asked the rest to help him get even with you,because you forced him into the ditch this afternoon, upsetting hiswagon."
Old Growdy moved uneasily.
"I was real sorry to see William do that. If he'd only waited till Ilighted my pipe I 'spected to pull out a leetle more, so's to let him gitby; but he was that impatient he must push on," he said.
"Just as I thought. Well, Mr. Growdy, one of the rules of the scouts isthat a member must never return an evil deed by another of the same kind.I proposed that we try to make you change your mind about detesting allboys. So we came here, not to paint your pigs as some other fellows did,I'm told; not to let your stock loose, or run off with your wagons; butto clean up your dooryard, and give you the greatest surprise of yourlife when you came out in the morning!"
"Sho! now. That takes the cake!"
"When one of my chums upset that bench by accident, and the pans fellwith a racket, of course it gave the whole thing away, and we started torun; but unfortunately I happened to drop into your nice little trap, andyou found me upside down. That is all, Mr. Growdy. Do you want to whip menow, or take me in to the lockup, which?"
Peleg Growdy found himself strangely thrilled as he looked into thatfrank, smiling face of Paul Morrison.
For almost a full minute they stood thus.
Then Peleg spoke.
"Reckon as how them comrades o' yers must 'a' gut a long start by now,Paul. S'pose ye see if ye kin ketch up with 'em, son."
That was all, but as Paul hurried off he was conscious of a strangefeeling deep down in his breast; and he felt sure that after all it hadpaid. Peleg Growdy at least had met with the surprise of his life. Afterthis possibly his ideas of juvenile depravity might undergo a violentchange; for such positive natures as his usually swing from one extremeto the other, just like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.
Paul did not catch up with his fleeing comrades, for they had securedtoo good a start. When he reached the rendezvous, however, he found themthere, one and all, and wondering what could have happened to detain him.
Loud were the expressions of astonishment as he calmly announced thathaving been caught in a trap, he had held a face to face talk with PelegGrowdy himself; when he managed to relate the whole surprising adventurethe boys were stunned at the possible consequences of their little prank.
Those who had considered it only in the light of a joke began to see thatPaul had something deeper in mind when he proposed such a thing.
All the way home Paul was kept busy repeating some of the things he hadsaid to the irate farme
r. It gave those lads something to ponder overwhen by themselves. Possibly they had never before realized what apowerful lever for good such a method of returning a grudge may become.
Paul himself was delighted. Even if nothing more came of it he could lookback to the little adventure with satisfaction such as Ted Slavin andhis cronies might never feel with regard to their prank.
And the next morning Paul was not at all ashamed to relate the entirecircumstance at the breakfast table. He felt amply repaid when he saw thelook of pride upon his mother's face, as she turned her eyes, filled withunshed tears, upon him and said gently:
"I am glad you did it, Paul. I know the history of poor Peleg Growdy; andsurely he has had enough of trouble during his life to make him differentfrom the rest of his kind. The milk of human kindness has perhaps beendried up in his breast; yet who knows, my boy, but that you may have sethim to thinking by that one little act of yours. I shall never fear foryou, Paul, whatever betides."
His father, the doctor, was a man of few words; but that morning when hewas going off on his round of visits he did an unusual thing--took Paul'shand, and gave it an affectionate squeeze, while the look thataccompanied the action needed no further explanation.
And Paul was many times satisfied.
That day and others saw a growing buzz of excitement in the town ofStanhope. It seemed as though nearly every boy over the age of twelve,yes and even under, might be filled with a burning zeal to join the newtroops that were being started under two different scout leaders.
Ward Kenwood had entered heart and soul into the work, which seemed toappeal to him; but there were those who secretly believed he was moreconcerned about opposing his rival, Paul Morrison, than in building upa second troop of scouts that would be a credit to the place.
Ted Slavin, of course, worked hand in glove with his friend, Ward. Ifmoney counted for anything they had no reason to complain; for inside ofa week there blossomed out numerous boys clad in the new khaki uniformsthat distinguish the Boy Scouts everywhere.
Some of Paul's friends felt grieved because they had failed to get theirequipments as soon as the others; but nothing could disturb the scoutleader.
"You'll see that they are bound to meet up with a snag when they applyfor admission to the real organization. They can't subscribe to many ofthe rules. Then again you know that the real scout scorns to receive hisuniform as a gift. Everything he owns must be earned. But most of us arenearly ready to send for suits. Wait a little longer. The race is notalways to the swift."
In this fashion then did wise Paul bring peace to the troubled hearts ofthose anxious ones. Never a member of the new Fox Patrols that sought aninterview with the scout leader but who came away feeling that there wasnot a cloud in the sky of their future.
In this manner a week, and then ten days, drifted along, with the openingof school looming up in the near future.
Paul had almost forgotten the troubles of his chum when one day he hadthe fact suddenly brought to his attention again, as Jack came upon himwith a face upon which rested the same old cloud of anxiety and grief.
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