a Tent to Sleep In
Tom could hardly sleep that night, for thinking about his friend. The
doctor would probably tell him he'd got to go to the Adirondacks to
live, or maybe to Colorado or New Mexico; Tom knew that people with bad
lungs were sent to those places. But how was Joe going to get there, and
how was he going to live when he got there? Joe's mother was a widow,
with two other, younger children, and it was hard enough for her to send
Joe through high school, in spite of what he earned in summer driving a
mowing machine on the golf links. If he had consumption, the doctor
wouldn't let him work--he would make him keep quiet. How was it going to
be managed? Tom kept turning over this problem in his head, till he
finally fell asleep for very weariness.
The next day he and Mr. Rogers again went with Joe to Dr. Meyer's. On
the road Tom was silent and serious.
"Say, what's the matter with you, Spider? You look as if you were going
to my funeral," said Joe.
"Yes, what's the matter with you?" Mr. Rogers added, giving him a sharp
look which Joe didn't see. "Scouts are supposed to be cheerful, aren't
they?"
"Yes, sir," Tom answered, trying to grin. But he made rather a poor job
of it, he was so worried and anxious.
Dr. Meyer sat them all down in his office.
"Well," he said, turning to Joe, "how do you feel this morning? Did you
keep still as I told you to?"
"You bet he did!" Tom put in.
"We'll see, we'll see," the doctor smiled, putting a thermometer into
Joe's mouth, and picking up his left wrist to feel his pulse.
"Now, that's better than yesterday," he added, after examining the
thermometer. "You see what resting does. I guess you'll have to do some
more of it."
"You mean I can't play second next week, either?" Joe cried.
"I mean you can't play second for a long time," said the doctor,
gravely.
"Is--is there something the matter with me?" Joe cried, growing a little
pale.
"There isn't much yet, but there will be, if you don't do what I tell
you," the doctor answered. "You have a case of incipient tuberculosis,
that hasn't developed enough yet so we can't cure it, and make you weigh
a hundred and eighty pounds by the time you are twenty, or even
nineteen. You ought to be a big man, you know. But it will all depend on
you."
Tom was leaning half out of his chair to listen.
"What must he do, doctor?" he asked, unable to keep silent.
"Are you going to make him do it?" the doctor smiled.
"I am, or--or bust his old head," Tom replied, with such heartfelt
affection that both the men laughed.
"Do you sleep with your windows wide open at night?" the doctor asked
Joe.
"Why--I--I can't in winter, 'cause ma won't let me; it makes the room
too cold for the kid, she says."
"What!" Dr. Meyer exclaimed. "Do you sleep with a small brother?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, the first thing you do is to stop that! You must sleep in a room
by yourself. It's not safe for your brother. You must sleep with the
windows wide open."
"Couldn't he have my tent, and sleep outdoors?" Tom put in.
"Better still," the doctor replied. "Now, I'm going to make up a list of
what you are to eat and drink, and a schedule of how you are to rest,
and how much you can walk around."
"Walk around?" Joe said, bewildered. "I _have_ to walk to school, and
back."
"No you don't. No more school for you this term," the doctor answered.
Joe's jaw dropped. "Why--I--I--I'll not get promoted into the senior
class, then!" he gasped. "Oh, please, I _must_ go to school!"
"Good gracious, here's a boy that _wants_ to go to school!" laughed Dr.
Meyer. "It does you credit, my son, but it can't be."
"But it's been so hard for mother----"
"It would be harder for her if you couldn't go to school at all--ever,
wouldn't it?" said the doctor, leaning forward and laying a kindly hand
on Joe's knee.
"Yes--yes, sir," said Joe, who was now pretty white and scared.
"Dr. Meyer," Tom put in, "oughtn't Joe to go away somewhere to the
mountains--the Adirondacks, or Colorado, or--or some place?"
"Well, he'd undoubtedly mend quicker in the Rockies, if he could be
looked after," the doctor replied. "I wouldn't say it's absolutely
necessary in his case, but if he knows somebody out there to look after
him, and can afford it----"
"'Course I can't afford it, Spider," Joe put in. "Quit pipe dreamin'."
"I'm not pipe dreaming," Tom replied. "If you'll get well quicker in the
Rockies, you're going to the Rockies, and I'm going along to take care
of you."
"How are you going to manage it, Tom?" said Mr. Rogers.
"I--I dunno, but I'm _going_ to, somehow. Old Joe's got to get well and
finish high school, and room with me in college, and then we're going to
be civil engineers or foresters, and----"
"But the first thing is to get well," the doctor interrupted. "You can
plan for the Rockies later. Right now we must see about Joe's diet and
daily schedule."
After he had drawn these up--and it seemed to Joe he'd got to live on
raw eggs and milk and cod liver oil, and spend most of his life in a
chair on the porch--the two boys and the scout master departed.
It was now Joe who was depressed and glum, and Tom who needed no
prompting to be cheerful. The minute he saw his chum in the dumps, he
set about restoring his spirits.
"Buck up, old scout," he cried. "The doc told you it would be all right.
Gee, what's just sitting on the porch for a few weeks? You won't have to
translate any old Caesar, and I'll come every day to see you swallowing
cod liver oil, and then as soon as I can get it doped out, we'll hit the
trail for the Rocky Mountains. Don't you want to see the Rocky
Mountains?"
"Oh, quit your kidding," poor Joe answered. "The only way I'll ever see
the Rocky Mountains is in the movies."
"Don't you fool yourself. Mr. Rogers and I'll dope out something yet,
won't we, Mr. Rogers?"
"We'll put our heads together hard, anyhow," the scout master answered.
"But first, Tom, we must get the scouts together and find a way in which
we can all help Joe's mother, now Joe can't haul wood and do heavy
work."
"That's easy, sir. And we must teach all the scouts to stop sleeping
with their windows shut, too, mustn't we?"
"Alas!" said Mr. Rogers. "I thought I had. I guess we've got to teach
the mothers and fathers to let them open the windows. And that's not
easy, Tom."
"I s'pose not. Funny how afraid some folks are of fresh air. Well, old
Joe's going to get plenty. I'm going to set up my tent in his yard this
afternoon."
"Not your new tent, Spider, it might spoil it," said Joe.
"Spoil your grandmother," Tom retorted. "I guess it's my tent and I can
do what I please with it, can't I? You go home and drink a tumbler of
cod liver oil."
"I'm going with him, and have a talk with his mother," said Mr. Rogers.
"You can bring the tent after dinner, and if you need a cot bed for it,
stop at my house and get my folding camp cot. That'll be my
contribution."
"Sure, we'll fix him up so he'll never want to move into the house
again," cried Tom, hurrying off toward his house.
His tent, a Christmas present from his father and mother, was Tom's
proudest possession. It was made of balloon silk, very thin and light,
but water-proof. It could "sleep" two occupants comfortably, and had
mosquito netting screens for the flaps, and a little screen curtain for
the rear window. It could be erected either on poles or on a rope strung
between two trees. Yet the whole tent could be rolled up into a bundle
which you could tuck under your arm, and it weighed but fifteen pounds.
It cost a considerable sum of money, for Tom's parents, while not rich,
wanted to make Tom a good present that last Christmas as a reward for
his improvement in his school work. We might as well tell the truth
about it, for a story that doesn't tell the truth is sure to get found
out. Tom, in his sophomore year in the high school, had been a pretty
poor student. He was "bright enough," as his teachers said, but he would
not study. He had got interested in so many things that seemed more
worth while to him than books--trapping, building a cabin in the woods,
football and baseball, and especially the scouts. But after his
sophomore year was over, and the summer vacation, too, was nearly done,
Mr. Rogers called him into the studio one day and had a long talk with
him. The result of that talk was that he came out pretty well ashamed of
himself. Here he was a patrol leader in the scouts, Mr. Rogers pointed
out, and right end on the high school team, with the prospect of being
captain his senior year--in other words, one of the leaders among the
boys. It was up to him, then, to set the rest a good example. Besides,
he wanted to go to college, did he not, or to a forestry school? Did he
not know that there were examinations to be passed? And what good was a
surveyor or an engineer or a forester who did not know his business? Did
Tom think you could know your business without studying? And that did
not mean beginning to study some time in the future--it meant beginning
now! Mr. Rogers ended up by telling him he was a bad scout, a bit of a
slacker, which got to him more than anything else that was said.
He went out of the studio very sober, and he began to work that fall
term as he had never worked in school before. Of course, he soon found
out that if he got his lessons every day, it was really very much easier
to keep along than it had been when he used to let them slide for two or
three days at a time, and then try to catch up. In fact, it was really
no trouble at all, and from almost the tail end of the class, he
suddenly moved up to number four. His father and mother were so
delighted that they gave him the balloon silk tent for Christmas.
As soon as dinner was over, he got this tent out of his closet, wrapped
in its canvas bag, took his scout axe and some sticks from the wood-shed
to make pegs with, and started for Joe's house. On the way he stopped
for Mr. Rogers' folding cot bed. He found Joe sitting on the back porch,
in the sun, and he made him stay there, though poor Joe wanted to come
down and help set the tent up.
There were two trees in the back yard, and between them Tom strung a
double strand of clothesline, through the rings on the top of the tent.
Then he carefully raked the ground below, and with a shovel filled in a
little hollow so that the rain water would drain away and not come in
under. Then he stretched the tent, cut his pieces of wood into pegs, and
pegged it down. After that, he unfolded and set up the cot bed, and with
the help of Joe's mother made up the bed with blankets, put an old rug
on the ground beside it, brought out an old chair, a small table, a
candlestick and candle, and a washbowl and pitcher.
"There!" he cried. "That's good enough for anybody. Now, old Cod Liver,
you can sleep outdoors, rain or shine."
Joe insisted on coming down to see his "new room," and while they were
inspecting it three of the Moose Patrol came into the yard. They had
heard the news about Joe--"by wireless, I guess," Tom said, for he had
not told anybody except his own father and mother--and had come to see
what they could do to help.
"Say, that's some swell bedroom, Joe," said Bob Sawtelle. "Wish I had
one like it. Ma wouldn't always be callin' me down for spillin' water on
the wall paper."
"What do you mean, spillin' water on the wall paper?" Joe demanded.
"What do you do, throw it around the room?"
"Aw, no, but a feller splashes around washin' his face, and dumpin' the
bowl into the slop basin, don't he?"
"I guess you do," Tom laughed. "Do you fellows really want to help old
Joey?"
"That's what we're here for," said all three.
"All right, we'll get the kindlings split for the next week, and the
coal brought up for Mrs. Clark. Where's the axe, Joe?"
Joe showed them, and the four boys went at the wood-pile and the coal
bin. They split enough kindlings to last at least a week, filled up the
wood-box by the kitchen stove and piled more wood behind it and carried
up three hods of coal besides a big basket full.
"You're awful good to do this for Joe and me," said Mrs. Clark.
"Oh, that's what scouts are for," Tom declared. "Some of us are going to
come around every day and 'tend to things, so old Joey can mind the
doctor, aren't we, fellows?"
"Sure thing."
"Ra-_ther_."
"You bet."
"Say, Spider," Walter Howard suggested, "you ought to call a scout
meeting and get everybody in on this--divide it up so one scout comes
every day for a week on his way home from school. Why, old Joe'll be
well again before we've all had a turn!"
"That's what I'm going to do, Walt, Tuesday night. Pass the word along."
"I know what my old man's goin' to say," Bob remarked.
"Well, what's he goin' to say? Spring it."
"He's goin' to say, 'If you boys were asked to split kindlings for your
own mothers every day, you'd put up an awful holler.'"
"Oh, sure, mine too," laughed Walt. "They always say that. Seems as if
they thought we were splitting kindlings because we liked to split
kindlings, instead of because we like old Joey."
"That's the dope," said Tom. "Funny how folks don't see things
sometimes."
"Ain't it?" said Bob. "Well, so long, Joe, old scout. Hope you sleep
well in the tent."
"So long, Bob."
"So long"--from the others.
"So long, fellows--much obliged."
Only Tom was left.
"It's pretty nice to have so many friends," said Joe, "even if you have
to get sick to find it out."
"Now you've found out, you get well again," Spider laughed. "I'll stop
on my way to school in the morning and see you, and find out what books
you want brought home. So long, old top."
"So long, Spider."
Tom went out of the gate, or, rather, over it, vaulting it with one
hand. Joe's mother came out on the porch and put one arm around the
boy's neck, and with the other hand felt his forehead.
"I don't think you've got so much fever to-night," she said.
"It's 'cause the fellers have cut all the wood and hauled the coal, that
used to make me so tired. Gee, they're good scouts, aren't they,
ma--'specially old Spider."
"Yes, Joe," said she, "there are a lot of good people in the world."
"You bet," said Joe.