“My friend John Moale, a rich man, had bought several thousand acres of abandoned farm lands near Boston in the year 1900. This he made into a beautiful park, all for his own enjoyment. Around this park he built a strong fence twelve feet high so that no one could get into the park. His prospects of peace and happiness were excellent. But the neighbors resented his coming. He had fenced in a lot of open ground that had been the common cow-pasture of the adjoining village. He had taken from the boys their nutting-ground, and forbidden the usual summer picnics. He was an outsider, a rich man despoiling the very poor, and they set about making it unpleasant for him.
“They destroyed his fences, they stoned his notice-boards until they fell, and they painted shocking pictures on his gates. Mr. Moale, a peace-loving man, rebuilt the fences and restored the notice-boards only to have them torn down again and again.
“All summer this had been going on, so I learned on visiting Mr. Moale in September. Finally I said to him: ‘Let me try my hand on these boys.’ He was ready for anything, and gave me a free hand. I bought two tents, three old Indian teepees, and two canoes. I got some bows and arrows and a target.
“Then I got a gang of men to make a campground by the lake on my friend’s grounds. On this 190 I set up the tents and teepees in the form of an Indian village.
“Now I went to the local school house and got permission to talk to the boys for five minutes. ‘Now boys,’ I said, ‘Mr. Moale invites you all to come to the Indian village on his land next Friday, after school, to camp with him there until Monday morning. We will have all the grub you can eat, all the canoes necessary, and everything to have a jolly time in camp.’
“At first the boys were bashful and suspicious, but finally they accepted the invitation, and at 4:30 forty-two boys arrived in high glee.
“‘Say, Mister, kin we holler?’
“‘Yes, all you want to.’
“‘Kin we take our clothes off?’
“As the weather was warm I said, ‘Yes, every stitch, if you like.’ And soon they were a mob of naked, howling savages, tearing through the woods, jumping into the lake, or pelting each other with mud.”