"HOME, SWEET HOME!"
"Yes, I'll go home with yer, Jim! I shore I'm sick fur a sight o' my
leetle gal. Lina's baby too--I'd be ther biggest fool in all Maine, not
ter give in, arter yer kim up hyar, riskin' yer ears ter tell me
_thet_! We'll jest try an' furgit what's gone by, Jim, an' start
fresh. An' yer kin help me raise my foxes fur ther company thet's hired
me fur five years ter run ther farm."
That was what Old Cale was saying as he pumped the hand of the delighted
and grinning Jim. And Thad was glad he was there to witness this joyous
reconciliation.
The fire had passed, and left them safe. Jim, when he could do so, made
his way back to the cabin; and on his return announced that it was only
a blackened ruin. Whereupon Old Cale sighed, and then seemed to look
forward to a new home, in which there would be an abundance of sunshine,
because Little Lina, and Caleb, the boy who was named after him, would
reign there.
They managed to spend the night somehow, and in the morning started back
to the camp on the border of the lake; though after leaving the region
where the fire had swept, they found the snow quite deep, and the going
bad. But apparently the coming of the storm had extinguished the last
lingering flames, so that the saving to the state of Maine was beyond
computation.
Arriving at the camp, Thad found the boys getting uneasy about him, and
Eli about to start out to see if he could get trace of the absent ones.
They understood that the distant fire, which had not come near them,
must have been in the neighborhood of Old Cale's cabin, as described by
Jim; and it was this that made them worry. But it was all right now, and
they received the wanderers with hearty shouts.
The story, upon being told by Thad, evoked renewed cheering, especially
for the old poacher who had reformed, and was now going to show what he
could do in a line that appealed to him especially, since he knew all
about the woods' animals.
Just as Thad had said while Cale was feeling his burns, and the bump on
his head, he declared that nothing serious was the matter with him; and
that even if there had been, the glorious news that Jim had brought, at
such risk to himself, would have cured him effectually.
"Well," said Giraffe, as they gathered around the supper that evening;
"This is our last camp in Maine, seems like; for to-morrow Thad says we
start for the railroad station at Eagle Lake, through Lake Winthrop; and
soon we'll be booming along for home."
"That sounds good to me, fellers," spoke up Bumpus. "Always did like my
home pretty well, and it never seems half so nice as when you're away,
trying to make out you're having a bunkum time sleeping on the hard
ground, with roots diggin' holes in your sides; and all sorts of
creepers crawlin' over your face. Home, sweet, sweet home for me, just
now!"
"But just remember that you owe us all a treat, Bumpus," spoke up Davy
Jones.
"Yes, we know Giraffe can make a fire that way now, because he showed us
yesterday, as easy as anything; but when I tried it, never a spark could
I get," and Step Hen looked disgusted because of his lack of knowledge.
"Huh! you needn't feel bad," declared Giraffe. "If it took _me_ all
that time to get on to the proper wrinkle, and me a regular fire fiend,
how could you have the nerve to think you could hit her up the very
first thing? But Bumpus ain't never going to question that I won that
wager, fair and square. Only because if I hadn't, we'd a gone without a
supper that night, and been near frozen in the bargain. Lots of things
hinged on that fire, I'm telling you, fellers."
"I should say they did," observed Bumpus, frankly. "Why, on'y for its
cheery twinkle them two poachers, Si and Ed, wouldn't have known we were
around; and you see how we'd have missed doin' that great stunt which
will go down in the history of the Silver Fox Patrol as one of the
shining examples----"
"Oh! let up on that stuff, Bumpus, and help me to some more stew,"
Giraffe broke in, as he passed his platter along.
"Well," remarked Allan, "we've had a pretty good time of it up here, all
told, counting the two separate trips we took. And it'll be a long time
before we beat the record for big game we've made in Maine."
But Allan did not know what was before the Silver Fox Patrol before many
moons had passed, or he would not have uttered this rash prediction.
When the summer holidays came along, they had another long journey in
prospect, provided the money was received from the bank, that had been
offered for the restoration of the securities carried off by the bold
yeggmen captured by the scouts, and as related in the preceding volume
of this series. This trip would take them many hundreds of miles from
home, into a country toward which a number of the boys had long looked
with yearning eyes. And that Thad and his chums were fated to meet with
new and thrilling adventures that really exceeded any they had
encountered before, the reader will doubtless admit if he but secures
the succeeding volume to the present story, and which has been issued
under the name of "The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber; or, The Search
for the Lost Tenderfoot."
There is not a great deal more to add. Jim must have managed to send
some sort of message home, for at a certain station further down the
road, (after the boats had been shipped through as freight, the two
guides and Old Cale accompanying the scouts on the regular train,) Jim
said they would have to spend half an hour there, and that they might as
well get out to stretch. And lo and behold, there came a girlish cry,
and they saw a small figure flying straight toward Old Cale, bearing a
small bundle, which she immediately pressed into the clumsy arms of the
giant, who immediately wrapped mother and baby in a warm embrace.
Of course it was Little Lina, and Caleb Jr.; and the boys all had to be
introduced to Jim's wife. They parted from them there; but upon arriving
home, one of the first things Thad and his chums did was to subscribe a
round sum apiece, and send up the nicest baby's crib they could find in
Cranford; for somehow they felt a personal interest in Little Caleb.
Giraffe was feeling very proud those days. He had accomplished what
looked like the impossible when he finally managed to make his "silly
fire bow" work, and saved himself and Bumpus from going hungry and cold
that night they were adrift in the Maine pine woods.
Indeed, all of the boys had considerable to be proud of; and from that
day until school finally began, after the trustees had declared the
quarantine broken, each member of the Silver Fox Patrol was always the
center of an admiring crowd of listeners whenever he went abroad.
And the consequence was that a new patrol was quickly organized, eight
fellows subscribing to the rules and regulations of the organization of
Boy Scouts, and being mustered in during the winter as the Eagle Patrol
of the Cranford Troop.
"That's one of the best things that came out of our Maine trip," said
Thad to his chum Allan, as they were on the way home from the meeting
when those eight new members had been sworn in, and promised to live up
to the rules laid down for the guidance of all scouts by the heads of
the organization.
"Well," replied the other, "I was looking back the other day, at the
diary I kept while we were gone; and I find that a heap of things came
out of that same hunt up among the pines of Maine. All of us felt better
for the outing; more than one learned a lesson in perseverance that will
follow him all his life; we did a good thing in capturing those hobo
thieves, Charley Barnes and his crowd; then we made something of a
record in hunting, you with your first moose, and Bumpus with that honey
thief of a black bear; after that we helped wind up the poaching careers
of Si Kedge and Ed Harkness; and last but not least, had a hand in
bringing about that splendid family reunion that we saw on the platform,
when we stepped off the train. On the whole, Thad, all of us ought to be
mighty well satisfied with the way things have gone. I know I am."
"And you can say the same for me," added the young scoutmaster. "But
after all is said, I think the most wonderful thing to happen was how
Giraffe, after missing fire a dozen times with his little bow and stick,
should strike it _just right_ when it meant so much for him and
Bumpus. And then Bumpus paid for that treat like a little man, saying it
was worth it, ten times over, just to hear Giraffe _yell_ when he'd
succeeded in making his tinder flame up without using a single match."
And here we will leave the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol, to take up
their further adventures in the succeeding volume.
THE END