WHAT A SCOUT LEARNS
"HUH! so far as the nuts go, I haven't any objection," remarked George;
"but to my mind it's going to be like casting pearls before swine.
They'll never appreciate the real motive back of the thing; and chances
are they'll reckon we're throwing them a sop so they won't hold hard
feelings against us."
"Perhaps you're right, George," Elmer admitted; "but don't forget we're
every one of us true scouts, and that we've promised to hold out the
olive branch to those we call our enemies, whenever we find the chance.
There's such a thing as heaping coals of fire on another fellow's head,
doing a kindness to the one who hates you, and making him ashamed of
himself. Scouts learn that lesson early in their service, you remember.
If we didn't have all the nuts ourselves, perhaps I'd hesitate to put
this up to you, but it's no sacrifice to any of us."
"Elmer, I agree with you there," Ted spoke up. "Of courth none of us may
ever know jutht how they take it; but when a fellow hath done his duty
he needn't bother himthelf wondering whether it payth."
"Listen to Ted preach, will you?" jeered Toby, who truth to tell was not
much in favor of carrying those three half-filled hags of nuts all the
way to town, just to serve as a "consolation prize" to those fellows who
had conspired to cheat them out of their just dues.
"But he's right in what he says," maintained Chatz stoutly, for he had a
Southerner's code of honor, and was more chivalrous that any other
fellow in the whole troop of scouts. "Duty is duty, no matter how
disagreeable it seems. And when once you realize that it's up to you to
hold out a hand to the treacherous enemy who's flim-flammed you many a
time, why, you'll have no peace of mind till you've made the effort."
"But," Toby went on to say, sneeringly; "if you step up to Connie
Mallon, and say: 'Here's your bags come back, and we chucked the
leavings in the same, which the ghost is sending you by us to sort of
soft soap your injured feelings,' why, d'ye know what he's apt to do;
jump on you, and begin to use those big fists of his like pile drivers.
You'll have to excuse me from being the white-winged messenger of peace,
Elmer. I pass."
"There's no need of doing it that way, Toby," he was informed by the
scout master. "Some time to-night, as late as we can make it, we'll
carry these partly filled bags around to Connie's place, and drop them
over the fence. Hold on, here's another of the same sort; now, if we
only had that as full as the rest it would be just one all around, and
we could leave them in each yard, you see."
"Like old Santa Claus had been making his annual visit, only this time
he picked out Thanksgiving time instead of Christmas," remarked Toby, a
trifle bitterly; and yet strange to say he was the very first one to
start in gathering more nuts and thrusting his find into the fourth
Mallon bag; which told Elmer that much of his objection was mere surface
talk, and that his heart really beat as true to the principles of scout
membership as did any other present.
"Many hands make light work," and so plentiful were the several
varieties of nuts that it was not long before the fourth bag was half
filled. No doubt those boys felt better because of this act. The chances
were they would never get any credit for what they were doing, but as
Elmer told them, the consciousness of having done a decent act should
always be quite enough for any ordinary scout.
"And every one of us has a clear title to turning our badges right-side
up, after working so hard for our enemies," Chatz declared, as they
"knocked off."
"Well, how about that dinner, camp style?" demanded Toby, drawing out
the waistband of his khaki trousers to show what a quantity of room he
had for a supply of cooked food.
"It's long after noon, so we might as well get busy with dinner," Elmer
replied.
After stowing all the sacks away in the bushes, where they were not
likely to be discovered, should any outsider wander on the scene while
they were employed elsewhere, the scouts busied themselves in making
preparations for the camp meal which all of them had so long been
anxiously looking forward to.
First of all a fire was started in the most approved manner, some flat
stones being built up in two parallel ridges. Long ago these lads had
found that there was nothing so splendidly adapted for camp cooking as a
gridiron of some sort, made after the pattern of the shelf in the
kitchen oven at home, with grill bars. This could be easily placed on
stones, or even mounds of earth if the first were not available, and
there was no danger of anything upsetting; while the flames, or the heat
of the red coals had a chance to accomplish the work. So they never went
forth, when there was a possibility of cooking being done, without
carrying this contrivance along with them.
They had been thoughtful enough to also fetch along a coffee-pot, an
extra large frying-pan made of sheetiron, and the necessary tin
platters, cups, knives, forks and spoons.
Soon the delicious odor of dinner began to steal forth, causing Toby to
sniff the air with rapture, and loudly declare:
"Fried onions, coffee, ham, potatoes, and plenty of fresh bread and
butter; that's the bill of fare, is it? Gee! whiz! you couldn't beat it
if you tried all day. And every minute's going to seem like a whole hour
to me till I hear the welcome call to the feast."
"We're a lucky lot to be sitting around here like this, and a bully
dinner coming on, when we think of that bunch of soreheads hustling for
home, not even half a dozen nuts in their pockets, and even their gunny
sacks lost," Chatz remarked.
"Yes, provided somebody don't get too gay, and upset all that coffee
into the fire," grumbled George, who evidently would not feel sure of
his dinner until he had devoured it, because, as he was fond of
repeating, "there's many a slip 'tween the cup and the lip," and Toby
was so apt to be so clumsy in moving around.
As usually occurred, however, George's fears proved groundless, because
no accident happened to the splendid dinner, which they were soon
enjoying to their hearts' content. There was enough and to spare, so
that even Toby admitted he could find no more room, when Elmer pressed
him to have a third helping.
"If we had Ty Collins and Lil Arthur Stansbury along there never would
be even a crumb left over, no matter how much you cooked," said Toby, as
he heaved a sigh, and released another button so as to add to his
comfort; "I'm a pretty good hand, but when it comes to crowding the
mourners, and stowing the grub away, they take the prize."
For a while afterward the boys sat around the fire, and talked of the
recent happenings. There was plenty of time to get home before dusk,
which was really all that they wished to do, so none of them showed any
desire to hurry off.
Later on, however, when some one happened to mention the fact that if
there was nothing more to be done they might as well bring the wagon
up, load their cargo of well filled sacks, and be moving along toward
town, Toby suddenly remembered something.
"Well, I declare if I didn't nearly forget one of the most important
things of the whole excursion!" he exclaimed.
"What?" asked George, ready to object at once, if the thing did not meet
with his approval.
"Why, you know I told you I'd been fixing up another little stunt
connected with the wonderful science of aviation, and right here's where
I see a golden opportunity to try it out for the second time. It seemed
to work all right with me in a ten-foot drop, and next thing is to make
it thirty. If she does that, and I live to tell the tale, you're apt to
see the name of Jones right often in the papers pretty soon."
He had pounced on that mysterious package of his while speaking, and was
busily engaged in unwrapping the same, while the others crowded around,
curious to learn what it could be that the aspiring inventor had hit on
now. So many of Toby's startling devices had turned out to be the
rankest fizzles, that his comrades had come to be very skeptical with
regard to his ability to make good.
"Why, I declare if it ain't only an old umbrella after all!" exclaimed
George, with his accustomed sniff of disdain, as the contents of the
package became visible after the paper had been cast aside.
"You're away off there, George," affirmed Toby; "because every bit of
it's brand new. My own invention too; nothing just like it ever known
before."
"Huh! I believe you!" grumbled the skeptical George.
"It's what they call a parachute," Toby continued, glibly. "You know the
kind the hot air balloon men use at county fairs when they go up; well
this is an improvement along that line, and is intended to let an
aeronaut drop a mile and more, if anything happens to his machine when
he's up among the clouds."
"That sounds pretty well, Toby," remarked Elmer, though there was a
shade of doubt on his face, for up to then Toby had really never managed
to impress his chums with his greatness as an inventor; he was always
getting excited over things, but seemed to lack the ability to
successfully grasp the ideas that were floating around in his mind.
"You'll soon see that this time I have got a grand scheme in this safety
device," the inventor boasted; "you know there are an awful lot of
casualties among air-men these days. Some sort of thing goes wrong when
they're away up, and nearly every time it means they fall like a stone.
My wonderful parachute will make it _impossible_ for the aviator who
carries one along with him to be killed. Let his machine head for the
earth like a meteor, and as for him he'll drift down as softly as you
please."
"Go on and tell us how all this is meant to do the business," asked
Chatz, as Toby amused himself in opening and closing the folds of the
big stout umbrella, which certainly seemed to work smoothly enough.
"Why, you see it's fixed so that it will be attached to the back of the
man in the aeroplane all the time he's up; a sort of insurance plan,
because while he may not need it at all, if he does it's there handy.
When he finds his machine has gone back on him all he has to do is to
jump boldly out into space. The Jones patent parachute does all the
rest. It's as reliable as United States bonds, and will save lots of the
poor fellows who, but for my thinking up this scheme, might have lost
their lives this next year."
"Of course you've tried it out, Toby?" suggested Chatz.
"Never will work in the wide world," affirmed George; "because in nine
cases out of ten it'd get caught somehow in the planes or the machinery
of the aeroplane, and the poor chump who had pinned his faith to the
Jones Parachute would come down ker-plunk with his wrecked motor!"
"Shows how little you know about some things, George," Toby flashed
back; "if the directions are faithfully followed there never can be an
accident like you say. As to trying it out, I've had one little drop,
say of about ten feet, but that was too short, because the umbrella
didn't have a chance to get fully open; and when I struck the ground it
near rattled every tooth in my head out. But now I want to get up at
least thirty feet, and then drop with the thing already open."
"But see here," Elmer told him; "I should think you'd have found a way
to test the opening of the thing by throwing it over some precipice,
with a heavy rock tied in place of a man."
"Just what I did, Elmer!" cried the other, hastily. "I spent a whole
Saturday morning up at that big rock that overlooks Lake Jupiter, and
five different times I tossed the parachute, folded up, over the edge,
with a stone weighing more than a hundred and fifty pounds fastened to
the same."
"And how did it work?" asked Chatz.
"Like a charm," replied the happy inventor. "The umbrella opened as
quick as it began to drop, and after that it floated to the ground all
right. Course it hit a little hard, because you couldn't expect it to
sail along like a thistle-down, with all that weight attached; but the
shock wasn't enough to hurt--much, I guess. And while we sat here eating
I saw the very tree I'm meaning to climb. Look over there, and notice
that half dead one, with one big dead limb hanging out, and nothing else
on that same side. How high would you call that, Elmer?"
"Nearer forty feet than thirty, I should judge; and enough to kill you
if you fell straight," replied the scout master.
"Don't worry about me, now; I'm all fixed for it, and I've got on my
rubber-soled shoes in the bargain, so I'll be light on my feet. But I
would like some of you to give me a lift up that tree."
"It's got plenty of branches on this side, so that you won't have much
trouble climbing, once you get a start," Chatz told him, starting
forward to lend what assistance lay in his power.
"Better not try that risky game, Toby," objected George, possibly really
concerned about the safety of his comrade, but more than likely voicing
his natural liking for being on the side of the opposition, for some
boys are built that way, and never so happy as when throwing obstacles
in the way of success.
Toby, however, paid no attention to this grumbling on the part of
George. Ted and Chatz helped him into the tree, and then handed up the
wonderful parachute which, if it turned out to be one-half as successful
as its proud inventor claimed, was going to be a great boon for all
those who took their lives in their hands and went up among the clouds
in air machines.
Higher climbed Toby, managing somehow to lug his burden along with him,
although it certainly could not have been any light weight.
His objective point was a large decayed limb that stood out all alone on
one side of the trunk. As Elmer had calculated this was all the way from
thirty-five to forty feet from the ground, and that distance offered him
a good chance to experiment with his parachute.
"Be careful, Toby, and don't take too many risks!" Elmer called out to
him, making use of the birch bark megaphone, so as to impress his words
more positively on the other.
"Oh! look there what's running up ahead of Toby, would you?" cried
George. "As sure as you live it's a 'coon, with its striped tail, and
scared half to death because a critter with two legs has clumb his
private tree. He must have popped out of that hole you c'n see where
Toby is. And say, if the little fool hasn't gone and run out on that
very limb where Toby's planned to jump from."
"Keep back, everybody!" warned Elmer; "give Toby and the 'coon all the
room they need, because our chum is attaching the parachute to his body
right now!"