THE LAW OF THE WOLF CUB PACK
The mysterious boy of the woods took them into his hut, and showed them
how it was built. Then he let them put wood on his fire, and after that
he gave them each an apple.
“You pinched those from old Crookedshank’s, I know!” said Bill.
Danny looked surprised. “No,” he said; “I bought them from Mr.
Cruikshank.”
“You silly!” said David. “He’s as deaf as a post, and there’s a big
hole in his fence just by the apple-tree. Fancy _buying_ apples!”
“Then _you_ would have _stolen_ them from a very poor and deaf old man?
What a dirty trick! Besides, stealing is a sin, and no chap with a
sense of honour would do it.” He looked very serious, and for the first
time in their lives the boys felt really ashamed of themselves and had
nothing to say.
But Danny had changed the subject. He showed them how to carve sticks.
He told them all sorts of things about birds and squirrels and rats.
But first of all he made them each a bow and some arrows, with
pheasants’ and pigeons’ feathers, which they found in the woods, to
make them go straight.
“I wish we could _always_ stay with you,” said Nipper suddenly, “and
live out in the woods, and learn to talk to the birds, and shoot with
our bows, and be always happy, with no more rows and jawings and
punishments.”
“Yes!” said David and Bill together. “And could you make us Scouts?
We’d win lots of badges.”
Danny laughed. “You’re too young to be Scouts,” he said, “but you might
be Wolf Cubs. Who are you?”
“We live up at the Hall,” said David. “Mr. Ogden is our grandfather.”
“_Oho!_” said Danny. “So _you’re_ the little terrors I’ve heard so much
about!”
The boys hung their heads.
“My word! _you’re_ not the sort of chaps they have in the Cubs!” he
continued. “From all I hear, you seem to be regular little Bolsheviks!
Do you know, Cubs have to do a good turn for somebody every day, but
_you_ seem to do a _bad_ turn to somebody every day--and more than one,
too.”
The boys were silent.
“Squat down,” said Danny, “and I’ll tell you a bit about Cubs. It’s not
all play, you know. Chaps who join the Cubs have to behave decently,
whether they’re in uniform or not. Once you’ve taken the Cub Promise,
you’re a Cub all the time, day and night. The Cubs have two laws
they’ve got to keep. One is obedience--they promise to obey the
grown-ups. Could you do that?”
“We never _have_,” said Bill, digging his fingers into the moss, “but
we could if we tried.”
“Then the second law says you mustn’t give in to yourself--that means,
you mustn’t do all you feel like doing, whether it’s right or wrong.
You mustn’t steal Mr. Cruikshank’s apples, and say rude things to
people, and tell lies, and fight each other.”
“It would be very hard to keep all that,” said Nipper, “but it would be
worth it--to be Cubs.”
“And I think perhaps we should be happier,” said David thoughtfully.
“I’m tired of doing frightfulness against Miss Prince.”
Then Danny told them about the Promise--first, loyalty to God. But they
had to admit they never thought about God at all, never said morning
or night prayers, never went to church, never did anything in order to
please God.
Danny looked very serious. “Poor little chaps!” he said suddenly. “But
you’ll learn to do better now, and God will forgive you for being so
selfish and ungrateful.”
He told them a lot more about Cubs, and their eyes shone with
excitement.
“If we come down here after dinner, will you make us into Cubs?” said
David.
Danny laughed. “A Cub isn’t made as quickly as all that,” he said. “You
will have to show you’re worthy of taking the Cub Promise and can keep
the Cub Law. Oughtn’t you to be at lessons this afternoon?”
“Yes,” said the boys.
“Well,” said Danny, “if you go back and tell Miss Prince you’re very
sorry you ran away this morning and beg her pardon, and then _do your
best_ at lessons this afternoon, you can ask her if you may come down
here and have tea with me. Will you do that?”
It seemed to them very hard, but they said they would. And so the three
boys went back to dinner with very new thoughts in their minds.
“I think,” said David, as they neared the house, “that we’ve been
beasts all our lives, and somehow I didn’t see it till that Scout was
talking.”
And so they went and found Miss Prince, and had it all out with her;
and she forgave them freely, and they all shook hands and vowed
friendship and loyalty for the future. At lessons they tried their very
hardest and did quite well. Then they rushed down and had a glorious
tea in the woods by Danny’s camp-fire.
“I’ll come home with you,” said Danny, when the evening began to close
in.
“Hooray!” shouted the boys.
“Because you see,” said Danny, “I’m living at the Hall, too. Mr. Ogden
has engaged me to be your companion and groom.” The boys went nearly
mad with delight.
And as they walked home together, while the sun set in a glory of red
and gold, and purple shadows crept out of the woods, they talked of how
the boys would become Cubs--real, true, and faithful Cubs; and how they
would get a few more and make a little Pack, and ask Miss Prince to be
the Cubmaster.
* * * * *
That evening, when it had got dark and they were all squatting round
the fire on the floor, Nipper suddenly said, “Are you Danny the
Detective?”
“Yes,” laughed Danny. Then the Cubs fell on him, and smacked him on the
back, and nearly tore him to pieces.
“Tell us your adventures,” said David. And so Danny began to tell them
of his Cub days and the German spies.
And Miss Prince, looking at the happy group, said, in her heart, “Thank
God!”