"We'll fetch him," laughed Grace as she and Mary hurried out.

"Now then, everybody else, including the chair, is appointed a committee to bring in every boy and girl in the town who will come. Work fast! I wonder if we could promise some eats." Bill glanced at Terry.

"Yes; tell them there'll be refreshments!" shouted the rich boy. "It'll be my treat. Bill, make me a committee of one to hive the grub. Cakes, candy, bananas and ice cream; eh?"

"Done!" declared Bill. "Go to it, with the cla.s.s's blessing!"

"Yes and Heaven's best on Terry Watkins," said Cora.

In a moment the hall was empty. Twenty minutes later the Hooper party arrived and about three minutes thereafter who should appear but Professor Gray, hurried, eager, registering disappointment when he saw the empty room, then smiling as the Hoopers and Mary Dean came to greet him.

"I had hoped to find my cla.s.s here," he began and was interrupted by the thump of Bill's crutch on the steps without. Forgetting his support the boy leaped, rather than limped, forward, followed more sedately by several lads and la.s.ses he had rounded up.

"If this isn't the best thing that _ever happened_!" shouted Bill, grasping the hands of the two men held out to him. "Both of you! And you, too, Mrs. Hooper. Great! Just got back, Professor! And now we're going to get the very thing we talked about, Mr. Hooper: we're going to hear Mr. Edison's voice or that of his right-hand man, nearly three hundred miles away. The rest of the bunch will be here in a minute. I expect Gus and Ted and Cora to fetch in a few dozen besides. h.e.l.lo, here's Terry with the eats."

CHAPTER XXVI

GOOD COUNSEL

"This quite overcomes me," said Professor Gray to Mr. Hooper. "I hurried back to invite some of my pupils to hear a message from Mr. Edison's laboratory; but trust Bill to do the thing in a monumental fashion!"

"That there lad's a reg'lar rip-snorter, Perfesser. You can't beat him.

Well, now, let's set down here in the middle; eh, Mother? an' wait fer what's a-comin'. I want a chance to tell the Perfesser 'bout that there water-power plant an' what them boys done. Them's the lads, I'm a-sayin'."

But conversation was out of the question, for in came another troop of youngsters, landed by Cora, Dot and Lucy, followed a moment later by more, invited by the boys, who had joined forces in the street. The hall was half filled by an expectant and noisy throng. Of course, half of them antic.i.p.ated the refreshments more eagerly than anything else. These were already, under the ministration of a young woman from the confectionery hastily engaged by Terry, now becoming evident.

Bill was beside the radio outfit, silently listening with the ear 'phones clamped to the side of his head. Suddenly he arose and shouted:

"Quiet! Silence, everybody, and listen hard!"

Out of the horn again came the well-known voice of the transmitting station official announcer:

"It gives us great pleasure to be able to broadcast very worth while messages of helpfulness and cheer to the youth of America. This occasion and opportunity was largely inspired by the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and it will interest you to know that the presidents, secretaries and many of the executive officers of these splendid organizations are now here with us in person to inspire the occasion. They have asked me to express to you the hope that every Girl and Boy Scout--and I add every other self-respecting girl and boy--has access to a radio receiver and is now listening in to catch these words. I will now reproduce for you a message from one of the world's foremost citizens and greatest men, one who has brought more joy and comfort to civilized millions than any other man of his time, and therefore the greatest inventor in history; Mr. Thomas Alva Edison will now speak to the boys and girls of America through his constant a.s.sociate and devoted friend, Mr. William H. Meadowcroft."

There was a slight pause. The silence in the hall was most impressive.

Bill cast his eyes for a brief moment over the waiting throng. There was in the eager faces, some almost wofully serious, some half-smiling, all wide-eyed and with craning necks, a tremendous indication of an almost breathless interest. Then, from the horn came slow and measured accents in a loud voice, perhaps a trifle tremulous from a proper feeling of the gravity of the occasion, but it was perfectly distinct:

"Young people, I--"

"_That's_ Bill--h.e.l.lo, Bill Medders--when did _you_------?"

And the startled company, staring about, saw Mr. Hooper stumbling forward in the aisle toward the trumpet.

"You win, me lads, you--"

Bill Brown could not help laughing at the impetuous honesty of his kind old friend. Pointing to the horn, and placing his hand like a sh.e.l.l behind his own ear, the amused boy signed to the excited old man to listen.

"The old geezer looks like 'His Master's Voice,' don't he?" came like a sneer from the background.

During the pandemonium, the voice in the trumpet was proceeding quite unperturbed.

"Silence!" shouted Bill, looking severely in the direction of the "seat of the scornful." "All please listen in on this. Mr. Meadowcroft is speaking." The confusion subsided and they heard these words:

"--sometimes impossible to get Mr. Edison's attention for weeks at a time. He has his meals brought in and sleeps in the laboratory--when he sleeps at all--and so intense is his interest in his work that it is useless to attempt to disturb him even for what seems to me to be business of the highest importance.

"But he has permitted me to express his deep and sincere interest in all you young people, and I am adding, on my own responsibility, three expressions of his which now seem to have maximum force because he has used them:

"'Never mind the milk that's spilt.'

"Genius is one per cent. _in_spiration, and ninety-nine per cent.

_per_spiration.'

"'Don't watch--don't clock the watch--oh!--_don't_ watch the CLOCK!--'

Why, Mr. Edison, I thought you--I have just been explaining why you couldn't come--and now (with a laugh) here you are!

"There was a hearty chuckle and another voice said:

"I know it's mean to make you a victim of misplaced confidence, but it came across me like a flash that I couldn't do a better thing for the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and all the 'good scouts,' old and young, than to broadcast a good word for my friend Marconi. So I have run up here to speak to the Radio Boys after all. I know it's a shame, but--"

"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Edison,--not on your life!" (It is the more familiar voice of Mr. Meadowcroft now.)

"Wait, let me introduce you: Boys and girls, you are now 'listening in'

with Thomas Alva Edison, who said, like the young man in the parable, 'I go not,' then he changed his mind and went. He is here--not to give you any message for or about himself, but to express his regard for the man to whom all Radio Boys and Girls owe so much. Mr. Edison has come on purpose to say a word to you."

When the room was in a silence so solemn that those present could hear their own hearts beat, the voice the company now recognized as Mr.

Edison's came through with trumpet clearness:

"I have great admiration and high regard for Marconi, the pioneer inventor of wireless communication. I wish you all the happiness that Comes through usefulness. Good night."

"Mr. Edison--one moment! In the name of the millions who are not 'listening in' on this, won't you please write this sentiment so that it can be seen as well as heard?"

"All right"--came through in Edison's voice. A brief pause ensued and--"Thank you, Mr. Edison," from Mr. Meadowcroft in a low tone, which he immediately raised:

"Mr. Edison has just written the words you have heard him speak to be broadcast, as it were, to the young eyes of America."[A]

Hearty cheers followed this closing announcement, but as the speakers they had heard were not aware of this, the demonstration soon ceased.

Exuberant youth, however, must be heard, and so, led by the irrepressible Ted, they immediately sought fresh inspiration and began to cheer whomever and whatever came quickly into their minds; first Bill and Gus, with demands for a speech from Bill; then in answer to the school yell, they cheered the school and Professor Gray. Finally they began to cheer the refreshments as these suddenly developed a full-form materialization. But this was suddenly switched off into a sort of doubtful hurrah as Mr. Hooper, with his wife trying to dissuade him by his coat-tails, arose and cleared his throat.

"Lads and la.s.ses: I sez to this 'ere lad, Bill Brown, sez I, some time back; I sez: 'Bill, me lad, if you ever fix it so's I kin hear my old friend Bill Medders talkin' out loud more'n a hunderd mile off,' I sez, 'then,' I sez, 'I'll give you a thousand dollers.' Well, this Bill, he sez: 'No, sir, Mr. Hooper,' he sez: 'We won't accept of no sich,'

he sez, an' what he sez he sticks to, this 'ere lad Bill does, an' so does his buddy, Gus, 'ere. So, young people, I'm goin' to tell you what I'm a-goin' to do. I'm goin' to spend that thousand some way to sort o' remember this occasion by, an' it'll be spent fer whatever your teacher here an' Bill an' Gus an' any more that want to git into it sez it shall be. An', b'jinks, if you spring anything extry fine an' highfalutin I'll double it--make it two thousand; anything to help 'em along, gettin' an eddication, which I ain't got, ner never kin git, but my gal shall an' all her young friends. So, go to it, folks, an' I'm thinkin' my friends, Bill an' Gus--"

Roaring cheers interrupted the earnest speaker. He smiled broadly and sat down. Professor Gray got to his feet, but Bill, not seeing him, was first to be heard when the crowd silenced; the boy had got to the platform and then on a chair. Standing there balanced on his crutch, a hand where his shoulder usually rested, he was a sight to stir the pathos and inspire admiration in any crowd.