According to her promise Miss Phillips came to the meeting; but she was late, and found that there was really nothing for her to do. Marjorie and the others had definitely made up their minds; so they contented themselves with asking the teacher a few questions about the troop, and adjourned early.
When the ΦΑΒ girls reached the assembly room, they found it already crowded. At two minutes of eight, a drum and a bugle sounded in march time, and a flag bearer, carrying the American flag, and followed by eight Boy Scouts, in double file, marched up the aisle to the platform. They held their heads high, and their shoulders back; and as they marched, they looked neither to the right nor to the left. One or two of the freshmen giggled, but the boys maintained the discipline of soldiers. Marjorie looked for John Hadley, and saw him at the head of the line.
They reached the platform, and halted at the command of their patrol leader. At the words: “Left, FACE!” they all turned to the front; the flag bearer and the color guards on each side stepped forward. Then the scouts pledged allegiance to the flag, after which the flag bearer and the guards returned to their places in the line.
At the signal from John, they all repeated the Scout oath and recited the twelve Boy Scout laws. Then all the other boys sat down, and John stepped forward. The girls rather expected him to be nervous, but he seemed to have complete control of himself. He looked straight into their eager faces, and told them what the Scouts were about to do.
“We are honored to be asked here by Miss Allen, and we are glad to welcome our sister Scouts in this school,” he said. “We look forward to lots of good times with you. We want you to enjoy our cabin in the woods, and we will be glad to teach you anything we know. We even hope to have a baseball game with the troop. And we promise to wear skirts, if you will lend them to us!”
He was rewarded with a laugh at his suggestion. “Now,” he continued, “we are here to-night to show you some of the ordinary things Scouts do. You saw our opening meeting and heard our promise and our laws. You know our salute. Now we will show you some signalling.”
Two of the boys stepped forward; one went down the steps.
“Will someone in the room please write Russell Henderson, the Scout on the platform, a message? Then he will signal it, and the Scout at the end of the room will receive it.”
Miss Phillips wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to John. He gave it to Russell, who signaled it in semaphore with two flags, which fairly seemed to fly from one position to the next; and in a minute, the Scout at the end of the room read out:
“We thank the Boy Scouts of Episcopal for their help.”