"Say, Sure Pop!" burst out Bob, as the Safety Scout paused in his story.
"A whole regiment--did you realize that was a lot of Scouts to get
together in one month?"
"Did I?" echoed Sure Pop with a chuckle. "_Did_ I? Well, if I didn't
when I set out on my search, I did before the first day was over. I had
lost out on the wisest man in the Borderland--_he_ wouldn't do, for all
his wisdom. He only served to remind me of what the King had said, that
the wisest are not always the safest."
"Sure--sure pop!" Bob broke in again. "But how did you ever get a whole
regiment together in one month? You simply couldn't disappoint the King,
you know."
"You're right, Bob, I simply couldn't. So as fast as I did find one that
would do for the army, I set him to work finding others--passing the
good work along. I soon saw I could never make good with the King by
trying to do it all myself, and I do believe the King knew all along
that there was only one way a really big work could be done--by getting
_everybody_ stirred up and enthusiastic. So I turned each new Scout
loose to hunt for more.
"You'd laugh to know who was the first Scout enrolled. As I slipped out
of the poison-bottle house, I saw a funny little pigmy hurry out of a
cottage across the lane and go z-z-zam! down the front steps. We'd had a
nip of frost the night before, and the slippery steps took him by
surprise. For a moment he stood rubbing his head, with his merry little
face puckered up into a comical sort of bowknot. Then he picked his way
slowly up the steps into the house.
"A minute or two and out he came again with a bag of salt and sprinkled
the steps with it. Though he was in just as big a hurry as our friend
the wizard, the Safety First idea had got him, and he plainly had made
up his mind to begin right then and there.
"'Well, I declare!' I said to myself. 'I've a notion to muster him into
the scouting service--but what would the King say to my enrolling a
pigmy?' Just as I was wondering about it, down he went again, flat on
his little back!
"This time it was on the sidewalk in front of his house. Some careless
youngster had thrown a banana skin on the walk. Poor little pigmy, what
a bump he did get that time! But again he picked himself up, and this
time he didn't wait a moment--just poked the banana skin off into the
gutter where it could do no more harm.
"Such persistence was too much for me! I told him the King wanted him
for the royal army of Safety Scouts, and that he was to have the honor
of being the first one enrolled. His eyes fairly popped out of his head
as he listened, and before you could say 'Jack Robinson,' he had
scampered off to help me raise an army--with one of these buttons in the
lapel of his leather jerkin."
[Illustration: Universal Safety]
Sure Pop pulled a sparkling button out of his pocket and laid it before
the twins.
"There, that's the Safety Scouts' badge of honor, and no Scout can wear
one till he earns the right. The King himself designed it."
"My! I wish--!" The twins remembered their manners and stopped short,
but Sure Pop understood. He threw back that wise little head and how he
did laugh!
"You wish--eh? That's what they all say, the minute they lay eyes on
that button! You see, that's a magic button, so it's no wonder everybody
wants one. Friends, that button can _talk_!"
Bob stared at the button as if he couldn't believe his ears. Betty,
taking Sure Pop at his word, grabbed the button and laid it to her ear.
She gave a squeal of delight.
"It does! It does talk--doesn't it?" she cried.
"Sure pop it does!" laughed the Safety Scout. "That's all it can say,
just four words at a time--but those four are enough to save thousands
of lives every year."
"What four words?" yelled Bob, clapping the magic button to his ear. How
his jaw dropped when he heard--or seemed to hear--the magic button's
words, four words he will never, never forget, even if he lives to be a
hundred years old!
"_Safety First_," whispered the magic button in his ear. "_Get Busy!_"
Bob sprang to his feet, so startled that he nearly dropped the button.
"Get busy?" he echoed. "Well, let's!"
"And let's be quick about it," chimed in Betty. "I want to earn one of
those magic buttons myself."
"Here too!" Bob whirled around to Sure Pop. "But we'll have to get the
soil ready first, won't we, just as the King told you? So the seed won't
be wasted, you know."
"That's the first move, Bob. Waste is something no Scout can bear to
see. Waste of life, waste of health, waste of time, waste of food--even
waste of money seems a crime to a Safety Scout."
Betty was thinking hard. "Then before we can plant the Safety First idea
in other people's minds, shan't we have to start it growing in our own,
Sure Pop?"
"Sure pop, we shall! And now listen, friends. When I first came to
America, after years of Safety training among my own people, I took up
the task of planting the Safety First idea among the great American
mills and factories. Some day I'll tell you about those years of Safety
work among the mill hands, but just now what I want to explain is this:
when I had got the work well established among the mills, I thought at
first that my work in America was finished; but the more I thought it
over, the plainer it became that my most important work still lay before
me."
"Your most important work," echoed Betty. "What do you mean, Sure
Pop--teaching Safety to the President of the United States?"
"No, Betty. A far more important work than that--teaching Safety to
children. I saw that by making Safety Scouts out of the boys and girls,
I should be solving the whole problem of the years to come--for workmen,
Presidents, and all. So I drew a long breath and started in again, this
time in America's homes.
"Now how do you suppose I came to choose your home to begin on? Just as
I was wondering which house to tackle first, I overheard Bob wishing he
had Uncle Jack's life of adventure--though the United States has more
real adventure to the square mile than all South America put together!"
"You don't mean it? Why, this is a civilized country!"
"You Americans think so, Bob. And you're trying to bring about
world-wide peace, because you feel that war is out of place in civilized
life. But what about the thousands you kill and the millions you wound
every year? More than you killed and wounded, remember, in the whole
Civil War. What about that? Does that sound so very civilized?
"You want adventure. Good! You shall have it--early and often. And you
won't have to go to any other country to find it, either."
"Well," said Bob, "here's hoping. What comes first?"
"First, we must get our eyes and ears open. That's the first thing for
any Scout to learn, and he isn't good for much until he gets the habit
of noticing things. Scout-craft means reading signs in everything you
come across and acting on little silent hints that most folks wouldn't
notice.
"Now, to begin with, here are three practical rules for you to bear in
mind--three things we found out in our first year of Borderland Safety
Scouting: First, a true Scout is always on the alert. Second, a Scout
always keeps cool. Third, a Scout does one thing at a time. Do you
suppose you can remember these three things?"
"That's easy," said Betty.
"Easy as anything," said Bob. "Keep wide awake, keep cool, and keep your
mind on one thing at a time. Three 'keeps'--anybody can remember them!"
"Think so?" Sure Pop's voice sounded surprisingly far away. "All right,
we'll see!" And before the twins' very eyes he faded away into thin air!
_A true Scout is always on the alert._--SURE POP
[Illustration]