“Kid says it took Mr. Danforth about five minutes to size him up.”
“It took him only one minute,” corrected Gordon.
“He’ll kill us when he hears of that letter we all signed.”
“Well,” concluded Roy, “as Red Deer says, he was just born that way; he can’t help it.”
“It’s great to have a character like that,” Mac added. “Everybody seems to catch a little of it.”
“He’s all to the good, is Harry boy.”
“Only he doesn’t know much about maidens,” said Gordon.
“Well, I guess I’ll toddle over home and fix up,” said Matthew. “See you to-night.”
It was a large audience that gathered in the Town Hall to see and hear the well-known gentleman representing the National Scout Council, whose visit to Oakwood had been duly heralded in the Oakwood press. But they were not gathered wholly to hear him, either, for Oakwood was proud of its scout troop. The wholesome, cheery, chivalrous, khaki-clad boys who flitted about her shaded streets were a part of her local charm. If there is any one who is not attracted by Boy Scouts, he must be either blind or crazy. They have made the scout smile epidemic. Quietly they come and go, picking up your parcel for you, or opening the shop door for you to pass in or out. In Oakwood they had planted flowers along the public way. They had raised a flagpole on the green. They had made tall baskets and placed them at intervals along the streets for scraps of paper and other refuse. Not a resident of the town but had paused, smiling, in his walks abroad and listened to their bugle or patrol calls in the neighboring woods. Not a lady but had seen some slouch hat, cocked jauntily up at the side, pulled quickly off in deference to her as she passed.
No wonder a line of autos stood outside the Town Hall that night. No wonder the Field Club dance had been postponed till the little flurry blew over.