A BARGAIN
Wilfred was not the first nor the last guest at Temple Camp to be a
plunger in the seething metropolis of Terryville. Many were the empty
pockets that Main Street had to answer for. But he had done worse (or
better) than squander his little fortune in riotous living; he had
pledged himself to do something for which sufficient funds might not be
available.
He was glad that old Pop Winters was prejudiced against automobiles,
because he himself was prejudiced against the taxi rates for these. He
realized that he was doing good turns on a rather dangerous margin.
Suppose he could not get a horse and buggy for five dollars? No
incentive could induce him to borrow money; it was not in the Cowell
blood to do that. Well, he was in for it, and he would see....
On his way through Main Street he paused for a final, wistful look at
the scout regalia displayed in the store window. He had put an end to
those hopes. Well, you can’t do everything. On his journey along the
quiet road, he thought of the contest, the big event at camp, except for
the closing carnival. And he let his thoughts dwell pleasantly on his
new comrades, the generous, elated, simple-hearted Elks.
He had heard the Elks ridiculed good-naturedly as a sort of ramshackle
patrol, without medals or distinction. They had only four merit badges
among them. He would try to bring them into the limelight. He rather
dreaded appearing in an “event.” However, he could so concentrate his
mind on his single aim that he would not see the throngs—just the same
as when he had looked at Madden.
Well, thought he, for a boy who had made such a bungle at the start, he
was doing pretty well. He had a date with Pop Winters for the
twenty-fifth, a date with the “doc” on the first, and on the tenth a
date with Temple Camp. On that last day the world should hear of the Elk
Patrol. And through all, he would have kept his original promise; not
compromised with it, or sidestepped it, but just kept it, without trying
to beg off or have it modified. That was the way to do things.
Remembering the way those eyes of Lincoln had looked at him, he was
glad, _proud_, that he had done that way....
That, indeed, had always been Wilfred’s way. He had never tried to
bargain with his mother or to weary her into surrender. He respected his
word. And he accepted consequences.
Instead of cutting up through the camp grounds, he went down the by-road
to the Archer farm. There was nothing unusual in his request for a horse
and buggy for July twenty-fifth. Mr. Archer kept a horse and buggy
especially for hire by the “folks over t’ th’ camp.” The buggy was as
old as Pop Winters and the horse was so docile that a horse on a
merry-go-round would have seemed wild in comparison.
“I thought I’d ask you in plenty of time,” Wilfred said to Mr. Archer.
“Well, I d’know but what that’ll be all right,” old Mr. Archer drawled,
pausing and leaning on his rake. He availed himself of the brief recess
to mop his beady forehead. “You youngsters allus used me right. You
drive I s’pose?”
“That’s one thing I know how to do,” said Wilfred.
“You hain’t cal’latin’ on pilin’ a whole mess o’ youngsters inter the
buggy, be you?”
“Just myself and an old man in Terryville,” Wilfred said. He told Mr.
Archer the facts. “It isn’t the driving that’s worrying me,” he
concluded, “but I’ve only got five dollars—and—eh—I’m afraid—I guess
that isn’t enough, is it?”
“Well, I allus git eight dollars for the day,” Mr. Archer pondered
aloud, “but I d’know as I’ll charge you that. You seem ter be a kind of
right decent youngster. You come over and git the rig—when is it?”
“On the twenty-fifth,” said Wilfred.
“And we’ll say five dollars, on’y don’t you go lettin’ on ter them folks
ter the camp what I done; that’s just twixt me and you. I got a kind of
a likin’ ter you, that’s why.”
“That’s just the same with me,” Wilfred laughed. “I’ve got a kind of a
liking to him—Pop Winters, I mean. I was good and scared coming home; I
was afraid I’d made a promise I couldn’t keep, maybe.”
“Well, yer hain’t sceered now, be ye?”
“Do—do you want me to give you the five dollars now? I guess I will
because maybe I might lose it.”
“No, if you give it ter me I might spend it,” said Mr. Archer.
“Well, anyway, I guess I won’t lose it,” said Wilfred, “because I’ve got
it pinned to my shirt, inside.”
“I wouldn’ know ye was one of them scouts, ye don’t wear none of them
furbishings,” Mr. Archer commented.
“I’m going to get a scout suit next summer, I guess,” Wilfred said.
He did not know it but this was his second triumph—pretty good for a boy
who had been called Wilfraid Coward, and edged out of a scout patrol.
But he knew the little triumph he had won among the admiring Elks and
his thoughts now were bent on making that triumph good and redeeming
himself in the eyes of the whole camp. He dreaded the big event, as a
diffident boy would, but he would think of the contest and not the
crowd. He would look straight at the thing he was to do.
Of one thing he was resolved; if—_if_—he won the radio set, it must be
installed in Connie Bennett’s house when they returned to Bridgeboro.
Connie was patrol leader. And besides that, Wilfred’s home was so small
that there really was no place in it for the patrol to assemble.
“There I go counting my chickens before they’re hatched,” he laughed to
himself, as he made his way over to the camp.