ON DUTY AT THE FAIR.
“Everything seems to be in good working order now, Hugh. Even our
emergency doctor, Arthur, goes into the hospital tent every ten minutes
to mosey around; and I kind of suspect he’s almost wishing that some
sort of case would crop up just to let him show his hand at first aid.”
It was Billy Worth doing this talking.
The days had crept by, and now the Fair was a thing of the present. It
had really opened with the usual ceremonies that noon, and a throng of
people kept pushing in through the several gates, many of them coming
from a distance.
The scouts had been energetically at work on the preceding afternoon and
evening, some of them getting up at dawn on Wednesday morning in order
to complete their arrangements as far as possible.
Two khaki-colored tents, supposed to be waterproof in case of a
drenching rain, had been erected on the site given over to their camp
use. In one of these the boys had arranged a couple of blanket beds,
such as they were in the habit of using when camping out in the woods.
These were complete, even to fragrant hemlock browse under each blanket
to take the place of the comfortable mattresses at home.
In fact, it was as decent a camp as the ingenuity of the scouts could
devise; a number of the fellows gave it some finishing touches that
added much to its appearance. They knew that thousands of visitors would
manifest a great deal of curiosity in their little model camp. Many of
them had no idea how boys lived when on an outing and it was to disarm
criticism that all this trouble was taken.
The second tent was to be used as a temporary hospital in case of
accidents during the progress of the Exhibition. There had never been a
season that someone did not get injured; and in a crush women had often
been known to faint.
A number of the scouts hovered about the camp, anxious to show the
comfortable arrangements for sleeping and cooking to their folks, and
strangers as well, for they felt a commendable pride in what they had
accomplished.
Others were abroad doing some of the many things that had been handed
over into their charge. A couple waited at the railroad station for the
next incoming train, so as to meet strangers, and either direct them to
some place where they could put up while staying in town, or escort them
straight to the gates of the County Fair.
Still another lot of the scouts put in their time roaming about the
grounds, not only taking in the sights with which they soon became
familiar, but also being constantly on the watch for chances to make
themselves useful.
This they could do in a thousand ways, if they felt so disposed.
Children that had strayed away from their elders in the crowd; tired
mothers who did not know where to warm the baby’s milk, and were
grateful for a little aid; bewildered country people who sought
information concerning the best way to leave their rigs so that they
would be perfectly safe while they did the sights—yes, there was really
no limit to the ways a wide-awake scout, anxious to do his full duty,
could extend that helping hand—a part of his profession.
Hugh was feeling pretty well satisfied with the way things had started
out. He knew there might be a few little matters needing alteration, but
as a whole the camp was in apple-pie order. They need not feel ashamed
to have it examined by any fair-minded critic.
A number of gentlemen had already manifested a decided interest. They
showered compliments on the tidy manner in which the boys had arranged
things.
“I never saw a camp so well ordered,” one man had remarked, “and all my
life I’ve been going into the woods every summer and fall, fishing and
shooting. After this I must take my guide to task and have things
changed. If boys can show such smartness, it’s a burning shame that a
man is content to keep camp, with his duffle littered about so that
nothing is in place.”
Those sort of things made Hugh feel as though it paid every time to be
thorough in all he did, without appearing to be what boys call a
“crank.” One can keep his possessions in decent order without making it
such a hobby that he becomes a bore to all his comrades.
The assistant scout master laughed when Billy Worth made that remark
about the anxiety of Arthur Cameron to have his first patient.
“Oh! you’re stretching things again, Billy, I’m afraid,” he said,
shaking his finger at the other. “Arthur isn’t so anxious as all that to
see anyone suffering. He only wants to know that everything is all
right; just as your mother would go over the house again and again when
expecting company. While we’re ready to take care of any emergency case
that comes along, I’m sure all of us would be just as well satisfied if
there didn’t happen a solitary accident while the Fair lasted.”
“That never occurred yet, as far as I know,” declared Billy; “and there
have been some years when as many as a dozen people got hurt. One man
last season had a nasty fall with a race horse on top of him, and they
took him to the hospital with both legs broken. I could string off half
a dozen cases that I plainly remember.”
The coming of a party of visitors, curious to see what the scouts were
doing at the two tents, broke up the conversation. For quite some time
all of them were busily engaged showing them facts connected with camp
life; explaining how they made an excellent cooking fire by using stones
for a foundation; proving that the ancient hunter’s way of baking a fowl
by shutting it up over night in a hole in the ground previously made
very hot was the original “fireless cooker,” and many other interesting
things.
All the time each scout was doing everything he could to prove what a
great benefit the organization to which he belonged had turned out to be
for the boys of America. They made many converts among the men, and also
a few among the women, who confessed that up to this time they had been
laboring under a false conception as to what the scout movement stood
for.
“I can plainly see,” said Arthur to the scout master, after some of
these greatly interested people had passed on, shaking hands heartily
with the boys as they thanked them for their courtesy, “that there’ll be
another patrol of the Oakvale Troop between now and Christmas.”
“It begins to look as if we would set a few hundred people right about
the meaning of scoutcraft and ambitions,” admitted Hugh; “and for that,
if nothing more, I think this Fair camp is going to be one of the best
advertisements we could ever have run across.”
“But while they seem to understand all about the other things we’ve
shown them,” Arthur said, looking rather amused, “I can see that they
take little stock in the usefulness of scouts in case of accidents. They
always look at each other when I’m modestly telling what we hope to do
for anyone that needs help, and the way they nod shows that they accept
it with a grain of salt.”
“Yes,” said Hugh, also smiling, as if to show that it did not worry him,
“I noticed the same. Now, I might have told those unbelievers a few
things we’ve done, particularly about that field hospital last summer,
and when we helped the Red Cross surgeon and nurses among the injured
strikers; but I held my tongue. It would seem too much like blowing our
own horn to please me.”
“One thing sure,” interrupted Ned Twyford, who had come up in time to
hear the burden of their little conversation. “If they run across any of
the Oakvale folks, and get to sneering at the idea of boys doing
temporary surgical work, they’re going to hear a few plain facts that
will make them sit up and take notice, believe me.”
Another batch of visitors, on their way to see the prize cattle of other
fairs that were on exhibition in the sheds not far away, stopped to take
a look around. Somehow the sight of those tents seemed to appeal to
nearly every man; and he wanted to pick up a few pointers, if his
knowledge concerning scout doings was hazy.
Now and then they found parties who believed with all their heart and
soul in the movement, because they had seen the wonderful change it made
in certain boys—possibly of their own family circle. It was certainly a
great pleasure for Hugh and his comrades to chat with these friends, and
give them further information in connection with a few things they had
enjoyed or endured in the past.
The afternoon was almost half over, and at three o’clock the racing
would begin; after which the most exciting event of the day, the
aëroplane exhibition, was to be witnessed.
Hugh and Arthur stood by the camp, as their duties lay in that quarter.
Others of the boys came and went as the whim seized them, or they
thought of some way in which they could make themselves particularly
useful.
Several crying children had already been restored to their almost
distracted parents or guardians, since there was a squad of scouts
detailed for this purpose. Two unruly horses had been taken in hand
before they got fairly started at running away, when the passing band
suddenly began to play some lively air. Strangers without number had
been supplied with information, or taken from one part of the grounds to
another. It would really be difficult to enumerate one-quarter of the
methods by which the scouts filled in their time. They were almost
constantly on the move, flitting here and there, stopping to answer
questions, and being looked upon as real necessities, so that the sight
of a khaki uniform was presently hailed as a sure means for dissipating
doubt and perplexity.
About this time Billy Worth made his appearance again at headquarters,
for he had been scurrying around taking a look at the various
attractions, from the building devoted to women’s home work, to the fat
hogs and the fancy fowls.
Possibly Billy had also strayed into the amusement zone, where there
were a few concessions allowed to showmen, with various tents in which
freaks held forth; for Billy had a weakness in the way of such things.
The smart patter of fakirs who had Brazilian diamonds or patent kindling
wood for sale interested him, and whenever one of this type of gentry
came to town of a Saturday night, to hold forth on some street corner
under a blazing gasoline torch, Billy Worth could be counted on to make
one of the spellbound audience.
Billy always explained that he was “taking stock of human nature,” and
that those glib-tongued spell-binders were worth studying.
He now came up to Hugh with a decided frown visible on his round face.
It was an unusual thing for good-natured Billy to appear discontented,
or even serious for that matter; so that Hugh immediately asked:
“What ails you, Billy? Something gone wrong, or are you bothering
because supper time is so far off?”
“Oh, gee! it isn’t anything that concerns me, Hugh,” the other replied.
“Then has anything happened to one of our crowd?” continued the scout
master, a little vein of anxiety in his tone.
“Hugh, I’m only bothered about a boy I happened to run across,”
explained Billy, evidently determined to make a clean breast of it, and
take Hugh into his confidence.
“What sort of boy do you mean, and what has he been doing?”
“Why, you see he seems to be connected with one of those fakirs they’ve
allowed to sell their wares in the grounds. This chap is a slick-looking
article with the blackest eyes you ever saw, and such a queer light in
them, too. Every time I felt them fixed on me it gave me the most awful
feeling I ever knew. He saw me talking with Cale and must have guessed
that he was starting to tell me how he wanted to break away from the
fakir, but just couldn’t do it nohow. All at once Cale broke off in what
he was saying, his voice drawled as if he was going to sleep, and would
you believe it, he just turned his back on me and walked straight up to
that fellow, who spoke to him fiercely in a low tone.”
“That sounds interesting, anyway, Billy,” remarked Hugh.
“I tell you,” asserted Billy, with sudden vigor in his voice, “that
sneaky fakir has got some unnatural influence over that boy, so as to
make him do whatever he wants. I don’t know much about it, but Hugh I
honestly believe he’s hypnotized Cale!”