"You guessed wrong that time, George, because I've laid out to follow after our civil engineering party, and see how Rufus is getting on with his work. He certainly is in love with it; and his father will be unwise if he doesn't encourage the boy in every way possible. I tell you, a host of fellows have made failures of their lives because their parents insisted on their taking up some profession they hated."
"Just so, Elmer," chirped George, "a case of round pegs in square holes, so to speak. And when I get to the point of choosing what I want to be as a man, I hope my folks won't force me to go contrary to my liking."
Knowing George's stubborn qualities, Elmer could easily guess that the Robbins tribe would have a pretty hard task of it bending him to their will. However, he did not say this, not wishing to either offend George or arouse his argumentative powers, but started forth on his tramp.
"'Course you'll just keep an eye on their trail, won't you, Elmer?" the camp-guardian called out after him.
"It would be silly to try any other way, George," he was told.
So Elmer went on. The tracks left by the three surveyors could hardly have been overlooked, even by the veriest greenhorn at trailing, for they had none of them made the least attempt to hide their footprints. So Elmer had an easy task of it, and indeed could employ his extra time in observing many things around him.
He saw the mother rabbit start out of the bunch of grass where doubtless her offspring lay hidden, and with halting steps act as though badly injured. Elmer laughed, and clapped his hands as though in keen appreciation for her cleverness.
"The same old trick birds and small animals always play when they want to lure a trespasser away from their nest," he told himself; "by endangering themselves in the desire to save their young. She coaxes me to rush after her, so as to wean me away from her brood. If I started she'd go off a little farther, and then stop once more to coax me on again. I've seen a hen partridge do the same thing, fluttering along the ground as if with a broken wing. Now just for fun let's see if I'm not right."
He had carefully noted the exact spot where the mother rabbit first appeared, and stepping over that way parted the tall grass. Instantly there was a hurried scurrying, as a number of small but nimble half-grown rabbits darted this way and that, as if greatly frightened.
"Don't kill yourselves trying to escape, little bunnies," said Elmer, greatly amused; "because I wouldn't harm a single hair of your pretty bodies. But I tell you the thousand-and-one lessons that a fellow can learn from Nature's big book ought to be enough to make every boy want to become a scout, and take up the study of outdoor life. There's something fresh and new every day one lives."