"There are other ways," Mr. Witherspoon continued, "in which the scout is instructed to be able to depend on himself should he be lost in the wilderness, caught in a tornado, tempted to take refuge in a barn, or under an exposed tree during a thunder storm."

"All o' that sounds mighty interestin', I must say, sir!" commented the farmer, deeply interested.

"To my own personal knowledge, Mr. Brush," finally said the other, "on three separate occasions I have known of cases where a boy in swimming was apparently dead when dragged from the water after having been under for several minutes; in every one of those instances his scout companions, working according to the rules that had become a part of their education, managed to revive the fluttering spark of life and save the lad!"

There was an intense silence as the last word was spoken. Every one of those boys realized how terribly the man was suffering, for they could see his face working. Presently he looked up, with a groan that welled from his very heart.

"Jest a year too late, sir!" he said, in an unsteady voice. "Oh, why didn't ye come last June? My little Jim was alive then, and the apple of my eye. If he'd jined the scouts he might a be'n with us right now.

A year too late--it's hard, hard!"

"But you said you have three boys still, Mr. Brush?" said the scout master.

"So I have, and mighty dear they be to me too!" exclaimed the farmer, as he proceeded to bring down his ponderous fist on his knee, "and arter what you've told me this night, sir, they cain't be scouts any too soon to please me. I've had my lesson, and it was a bitter one. I'm right glad ye kim along to-night, and camped in my big woods, where we seen the light o' yer fire."

"And we're glad too, Mr. Brush," said the scout master, while several of the boys were heard to cough as though taken with a sudden tickling in their throats.

Long they sat there talking. Mr. Brush became an ardent advocate of the scout movement, and even made an arrangement for his boys to join the new patrol being formed, though it would mean many a trip in and out of Lenox for him in his new cheap motor car, in order that they attend the weekly meetings.

After all that was an evening long to be remembered. Tom Chesney, who kept a regular log of the outing, meaning to enter his account in a compet.i.tion for a prize that had been offered by a metropolitan daily, found a fine chance to spread himself when jotting down the particulars.

The farmer could hardly tear himself away from the crackling fire.

Three times he said he must be going, yet did not stir, which quite amused Josh Kingsley and Felix Robbins.

"Our scout master sure must have missed his calling when he set out to be a civil engineer and surveyor," whispered the former in the ear of Felix.

"That's so," replied the other, "for while he may be a pretty good civil engineer, he'd made a crackerjack of a lawyer or a preacher. When he talks somehow you just hang on every word he says, and it convinces you deep down. That old farmer on a jury would do whatever Mr.

Witherspoon wanted. But it's been worth hearing; and I'm a heap glad to be a scout, after listening to what he's been saying."

Finally the owner of the woods shook hands all around with them, and accompanied by his hired man and the two dogs respectfully took his departure.

CHAPTER XIV

AT THE FOOT OF BIG BEAR MOUNTAIN

It took them a long time to get settled on that night. Some of the scouts were about to experience their first camp sleep. They had to be shown just how to arrange their blankets, and what to do about the customary pillow upon which they wished to rest their heads.

Tom, Josh and Rob Shaefer, having been through the mill before, explained these things. They even helped the tenderfeet fill with hemlock browse the little cotton bag, which had possibly once held flour, and which each scout had been advised to carry along in his pack.

"They'll be worth their weight in gold many times on the trip," said Tom, when even Mr. Witherspoon stood listening with interest, for he had not as yet learned everything, he was free to confess.

"But do we have to carry them along with us like that?" asked Horace as he held up the rather bulky object he had made of his cotton slip.

"Certainly not," he was informed; "you empty it before breaking camp, and in the evening fill it again. Plenty of hemlock or spruce handy, whenever you choose to stretch out your hand and pluck it."

"You must show me about all these things," Billy b.u.t.ton remarked. "To tell the truth I don't know the difference between balsam, fir, spruce, hemlock, larch and some other trees I've heard you talking about."

"I'll begin to-morrow, and you'll find it simple enough," Tom promised him.

After all the night really pa.s.sed without any disturbance. Tom and Rob managed to wake up a number of times, and getting quietly out of their snug nests, they renewed the fire, thus keeping it going all through the night.

Had any one been watching closely they probably would have seen a head bob up occasionally, the owner take a cautious look around, and then drop back again as though convinced that all was well, with no danger of ferocious wild beasts raiding the camp.

These were the tenderfeet of the troop. They of course could not sleep save in s.n.a.t.c.hes, and the strangeness of their surroundings caused them to feel more or less nervous. All they heard, however, was the barking of Farmer Brush's watch dogs or some little woods animal complaining because these two-legged intruders had disturbed the peace of their homeland.

With the coming of dawn there was a stir in camp. Then one by one the scouts crawled out from their blankets, all but two greenhorns.

"Let them sleep a while longer," said Mr. Witherspoon. "I fancy neither of them pa.s.sed a very comfortable night."

And at this the other boys moderated their voices as they proceeded to get an early breakfast ready, though in no hurry to leave that pleasant Camp Content.

Of course both the laggards were up and ready by the time the call to breakfast was heard in the land. It may be that the smell of the eggs and bacon frying and the aromatic coffee's bubbling had much to do with arousing them.

While they were eating who should appear but the hired man of Farmer Brush. He had a big basket on his arm, also a note for the scout master.

"I have to go to town early this morning or I'd fetch these few things myself," the note ran; "I want you to accept them from me with my compliments, and my hearty thanks for your entertainment last night. I have hardly slept a wink thinking about what you told me; and next meeting me and my boys will be on hand.

"EZRA BRUSH.

"P.S. The chickens my wife sends you, and she says they are tender enough to fry."

Besides the four chickens, all ready for cooking, there was a fine print of new b.u.t.ter, as well as a carton of several dozen eggs fresh from the coop.

"Three cheers for Mr. Brush, fellows!" cried Tom, after the scout master had read the note aloud; and they were given with a will, much to the entertainment of Bill, who stood there and grinned broadly.

It was about eight o'clock when the column started once more. They meant to leave the main road they had been following up to this time, for it did not run in the direction they wanted to go.

There was another smaller one which they expected to follow, for that day at least, and which skirted the base of the mountain, even ascending it in several places, as their map showed.

"It will be our last day on any sort of road, if we follow out the programme as arranged," Tom Chesney explained, as they sat around at noon munching the "snack" each scout had been commissioned to prepare at breakfast time against his being hungry in the middle of the day, when they would not care to start a fire in order to do any cooking.

"You mean we expect to push right up the mountain and begin exploring the country, don't you, Tom?" asked Josh between bites.

"Yes, and three of the fellows intend to make maps as we go, for practice," the leader of the Black Bear Patrol explained.

"All I hope is," commented Billy b.u.t.ton, anxiously, "that we don't manage to get lost. I've got a very important engagement a week from Friday that I wouldn't want to miss."

"Huh, guess I'm in the same box," chuckled Josh; "anyway I promised to be sitting in my usual chair with my feet under our dining table on that same day; and it'd grieve my heart if I missed connections."

The middle of that June day proved to be very warm, and the boys decided to lie around for several hours. When the sun had got well started down the western sky perhaps there might be a little more life in the air. Besides, they were in no hurry; so what was the use of exerting themselves unduly?

"I hope it isn't going to storm!" suggested Carl, as they sprawled under the shady tree where they had halted for the noon rest, each youth in as comfortable an att.i.tude as he could a.s.sume.

"Oh, is there any chance of a terrible storm dropping down on us, do you think?" asked Horace c.r.a.psey, looking troubled; for although none of the others knew it, the crash of the thunder and the play of lightning had struck terror to his soul ever since the time he had been knocked down, when a tree near his house was shattered by a bolt from the clouds.

"Not that you can see right now," Josh informed him, a little contemptuously; with a strong boy's feeling toward one who shows signs of being afraid; "but when it's summer time and when, in the bargain, a day has been as hot as this one, you never can tell."