THE EDUCATION OF ADAM.
THE utmost consternation seized upon the campers.
"Oh! what's bringing all that smell along here?" George cried; for this
was his first experience with such a thing, though he had heard lots
about other adventures the scouts had had in that line.
"It's Adam; he's got a monopoly of the scent!" laughed Elmer. "And he's
on his way to the camp right now. I saw him coming, and got a whiff;
then I hurried on to warn you, because I didn't want you to be caught
unprepared. There's one good thing about it, though, fellows."
"Good thing?" ejaculated Ted, who had snatched out his handkerchief and
was trying to keep from inhaling more air than was absolutely necessary.
"Why, yes," Elmer went on, "for once George here doesn't doubt but that
he gets it. You don't hear him asking questions now. He _knows_ it's
here with us. He's getting his dose, all right, ain't you, George?"
"Look, there he comes!" gasped Landy, pointing to a moving figure that
was pawing a way through the neighboring thicket.
"Ach! vat iss de matter mit me? I feels like I vas goin' to faint!"
exclaimed a complaining voice.
"For goodness' sake do it out there, then!" screamed Landy. "Don't you
dare come into camp with that terrible smell hanging to you. Sit down
where you are, and listen to what we've got to say. Oh, gracious, I
can't get my breath! Elmer, you tell him!"
"Py chimineddy, dis makes me some drouples! It peats all der limpurger
cheese I ever saw. Vat vos idt, Elmer? I am nodt choking, tell me vot I
dood," Adam asked, with a beseeching air, for he was almost overcome by
the fumes.
"Well, if you ain't choking, we are; so you stay there," George
remarked.
"How did it happen, Adam?" asked Elmer, trying to stop laughing, for he
knew that after all this was apt to be a serious piece of business for
the other.
But the German boy only shook his head and coughed, as he tried to get
his breath.
"Idt iss some foolishness py me; but, poys, I don't know vot it iss
already yet. I vos vandering apout der voods, enchoying mineself, ven I
see der prettiest little squirrel dot ever vos, mit a nice white stripe,
und a pushy tail. I dinks dot he look like he vill pe friends mit me,
und so I yust hold out mine hand und call him; put pefore I could take
hold mit him, I dink I step on von of dem musherooms mit der awful
smell. Ach! it vos so pad I haf to get oudt right avay, und come pack to
der gamp. I'm von sick Dutchman, poys, pelieve me. I dink me I must pe
going to die right avay qvick."
"I should think you had died a week ago," cried George.
"He thought the skunk was a pretty squirrel," said Ty; "and he was going
to make a pet of it, think of that, fellows!"
They laughed and coughed by turns. One minute the comical side of the
event appealed to them, as they saw poor Adam standing there looking so
forlorn; then as if by magic their humor turned, and they began to
wonder what in the wide world could be done.
"We just can't stand this much longer, Elmer," said Landy. "Make him go
away off in the woods and bury himself."
"Well, one thing's sure," remarked the patrol leader. "He's got to get
rid of every stitch he has on him. We'll have to rig him out the best we
can afterwards."
Adam set up a howl upon hearing this.
"I pelieve it might wash oudt in der river!" he declared.
"Not in a thousand years," Landy made answer. "The only chance for you
is to go off and bury your clothes--everything you've got on. Then get
in the water, and try to get rid of the smell from your hair. Lucky
thing it's cut short. Oh, ain't this the meanest luck, though?"
"It might be worse if the whole lot of us had been there and got our
share," remarked Elmer, who could always see things on the bright side,
in which he was the exact reverse of Doubting George.
"Dell me vat I must do, Elmer. I promise to carry oudt de plans.
Somedings must pe done right qvick, or I shall pe smothered. It is pad;
but I am von scout, und can take der hard knocks mit der good."
"That's the kind of talk, Adam," Elmer hastened to say. "You're all
right, even if you do seem unpleasant company just now. Listen to me. Go
back into the woods a piece. Then strip off every rag and hide them in
some hollow log. I'll follow you when you go to the river, and fetch
along what stuff we find we can spare. All told I reckon there'll be a
shirt, trousers and shoes for you; and that's all you need this hot
weather. Please make a start, for we've got to the end of our endurance.
Turn around; now you're off!"
When the unfortunate German lad had vanished, the trouble was far from
being at an end. He left a decided legacy behind him, and Landy was loud
in his wails.
"How ever can we stand it, Elmer?" he asked. "All the rest of the time
we stay in camp do we just have to endure that rank odor?"
"'What can't be cured must be endured,' you remember we used to write in
our copybooks at school, Landy," replied the patrol leader. "Nothing
like getting used to things, you know. It isn't pleasant, of course; but
there might be worse happen to us. Suppose now our new recruit had run
across a rattlesnake instead of a polecat! But get a hustle on you,
fellows, and see if we can rig Adam out somehow. I've got an extra shirt
he's welcome to."
"And there's that pair of trousers I brought along," said Landy; "he can
get into them all right. But I'll say good-by when I hand 'em over; for
I just know the perfume will stick always; and I never could stand it,
never."
Some one else came forward with shoes, and in this fashion the wretched
victim of confiding innocence and curiosity was supplied with an outfit
calculated to carry him through.
Taking these things with him, Elmer started forth along the trail of
Adam.
"Just follow your nose, and you'll find him!" sang out Landy.
"And look out you don't repeat his sad experience, Elmer," laughed Ty.
The woods seemed to be pretty strong with the powerful odor, as Elmer
walked on. He was a fair hand at following a trail, and the German lad
had certainly not made any effort to conceal his footprints.
Presently Elmer found where Adam had stuffed his garments into a hollow
log, just as he had been told; but as he was no longer in sight, the
scout patrol leader took it for granted that he had turned to head for
the river again, in order to plunge in.
Accordingly Elmer also turned and walked that way, believing that he
would strike the stream a little distance below the camp.
"Goodness! I hope, now, Adam doesn't lose himself in the woods!" he
exclaimed, as a sudden startling thought flashed into his mind.
"Wouldn't that just be the limit, though, and with not a bit of clothes
along!"
But a minute later he caught sight of the other stalking along ahead.
The river could also be seen in glimpses between the trees, showing that
after all Adam had chosen the right course.
"Well, what ails him now?" Elmer asked himself, for as he looked he
suddenly saw the German boy bound up into the air, and start to
threshing about with his hands in the wildest kind of way.
Then he started to run madly along, letting out a series of shouts, and
finally taking a header from the bank into the river.
Something came buzzing about Elmer's head.
"Hornets!" he exclaimed, making a stroke at the insistent insect that
was trying to reach his face, until by a fortunate blow he sent it down.
Then he started off, making a wide detour so as to avoid the spot where
the unlucky Adam must have run foul of the nest.
When he finally drew up at the river bank and peeped over, he saw Adam
with everything but the upper part of his head submerged. He seemed to
be looking for a new assortment of enemies hovering over him. His
introduction to the mysteries of the great American woods bade fair to
make a great impression on Adam. Indeed, when finally Elmer induced him
to come forth, he discovered that there were three distinct impressions,
and each of them as large as a hickory nut, one being behind the ear,
another on his right arm, and a third on the calf of his leg, where the
angry little hornets had left their mark.
No doubt the new recruit thought he was having a pretty rough time of it
all told. But he had a genial nature, and could take things as they
came; so that presently he was able to laugh at his misfortunes.
When he was dressed in the borrowed clothes Adam looked a "sight," as
Landy declared after he saw him coming to the camp. Of course there must
hover around him more or less of the strong odor; but Elmer told the
others they must make up their minds to get used to that, as it could
not be remedied.
Breakfast had been ready for some little time when the pair reached the
camp; and all of them were able to do justice to the meal. Even Adam
seemed to have retained his appetite.
"But it's the only thing he did save," chuckled Landy.
When the meal was over, Elmer reminded them of the arrangement they had
made on the previous evening.
"Who goes along with me to Brady's?" he asked, getting up.
"Don't you think we'd all better paddle along?" remarked Landy;
"because, you see, those fellows are tough characters; and it might be
they'd set on our crowd, if they suspected we'd come to tell on 'em."
"Count me out," said George. "You know I got a stone bruise yesterday
when on the way here, and I want to let it heal up, so's to be able to
toddle back home when we break camp to-morrow."
"Oh, rats! The chances are you don't think there's anything worth while
in going over there," declared Ty. "And I meant to show you just where I
had all that fun with the old bull, too."
"Fun!" shrieked Landy. "Hear that, will you, boys? He calls that
business just fun. But it looked another way, then, you understand,
George. Why, Ty's face was as white as paper when he thought that old
bundle of beef was going to hook him higher than a kite!"
But Ty declined to argue the matter with him.
"And I think Adam had better thtay at home, don't you, Elmer?" remarked
Ted.
"Why, he's that strong he could tackle the hobo crowd alone and
single-handed," observed Ty.
"I'm afraid he'd turn all the milk in the dairy," chuckled Landy.
So it was presently decided that two of the scouts were to remain behind
to take charge of the camp. The others, four in number, would trail
along toward the Brady farm; and if the opportunity presented itself,
let the farmer's women folks know the character of the new hands.
The last that Elmer and his comrades saw of those who were to remain
behind, George seemed to be endeavoring to coax Adam to try his luck
again on the river, for he was holding out the rod of the German.
"He just wants to get him away for a while," laughed Ty.
"It looks like George had run up against something at last that won't
stand for any doubts," declared Landy, who had long suffered from this
peculiar malady on the part of his cousin.
"If it can't be seen, it makes itself felt in another way," remarked
Elmer, who was in the lead of the file that headed through the woods,
Ted swinging the tin milk bucket.
Reaching the field where Ty had had so much "fun" with the ugly bull,
they failed to see anything of the animal.
"Afraid to come out again, you see, boys," said Ty, pretending to puff
out with valor. "I guess the farmer who owns him will keep him shut up
till we leave the neighborhood. He'd better, for I was just hatching up
some game that would discourage the old fellow from tackling every one
that walked through his pasture."
"Perhaps he's loose, and carrying on somewhere else," remarked Elmer, as
he lifted his head in an attitude of listening.
"Say, that _is_ somebody shouting, as sure as you live!" cried Landy.
"And hollering to beat the band, too!" echoed Ty.
The whole four of them stood still, the better to listen. There could be
no longer the least doubt about the matter; for other voices joined in
with the one they had heard at first.
"It's women yelling, too," said Landy. "Whatever can be the matter?
Elmer, do you think it's that bull broke loose?"
"More'n likely the hoboes are at the bottom of the row!" declared Ty.
"Come on with me, fellows, and we'll soon know!" called Elmer, as he
immediately started off on a full run.