“Don’t you remember, Dick, when you said you wanted to learn to keep the scout law, or bust? and we all three agreed to stand by each other?”
There was no answer, and they walked along in silence, until finally Dick said, in quite a different tone:
“Say, fellows, I’ve got something to tell you,” and in their interest to hear what he had to say, the two others stopped walking and the three heads bent forward together.
After about five minutes’ talk, they resumed their walk and soon reached the wharf. They all three had a rather troubled expression as they joined their comrades, got into the boats, rowed out to the ship, clambered up the side-ladder and saluted the quarter-deck,—all seemed in a kind of daze. Most of the other boys felt as if they had been asleep, too, and had just waked up from an exciting dream. They gathered around the day bunk, talking over the incidents of the past two days, when suddenly “first call” to quarters was sounded. This finally woke them up completely and brought them to a realization of present duty.
As they stood up in their places at quarters, there was a general inspection of clothing; some of the working suits were so badly used up as to be almost beyond repair.
Before the company was dismissed, the Chairman made a few remarks, during which he praised the work of the company in general, and told the boys there would probably be more to say on the subject after the meeting of the next officers’ conference, which would sit as a Court of Honor. It was also announced that there would be no instruction or drill for the remainder of the day, but that all the boys could go in swimming and take a rest until supper time. Wind and weather permitting, the ship was to sail for Northbridge the following morning. Everybody noticed that the Chairman and Mr. Miller were in high good humor.
There was a good swim that afternoon and a lot of frolicking in the water off the ship’s side; and, although a few of the boys were so tired that they crawled into their bunks and slept until they heard the bugle call for “mess cooks below”, most of them were gathered in groups, either on the day bunk or in the jib netting, to talk over the events of the last two days.
The chief work that the boys had done was in carrying food to people on the Common and in helping to load baggage and furniture that was taken out of the houses upon trucks and vans; and, when Chippie told the story of Dick Gray’s rescue of the white cat, some of the company took it more as a joke than anything else, and thought it was not much of a thing to do, considering how easy it was to get a cat whenever you wanted one, and how many kittens were drowned every day.
Chippie took up the cudgels for Dick and thought that it was no joke for any creature, either animal or man, to burn to death.
“If you could ask the cat what she thinks of it, I guess she’d say it was a mighty good job!”