The second tent was to be used as a temporary hospital in case of accidents during the progress of the Exhibition. There had never been a season that someone did not get injured; and in a crush women had often been known to faint.
A number of the scouts hovered about the camp, anxious to show the comfortable arrangements for sleeping and cooking to their folks, and strangers as well, for they felt a commendable pride in what they had accomplished.
Others were abroad doing some of the many things that had been handed over into their charge. A couple waited at the railroad station for the next incoming train, so as to meet strangers, and either direct them to some place where they could put up while staying in town, or escort them straight to the gates of the County Fair.
Still another lot of the scouts put in their time roaming about the grounds, not only taking in the sights with which they soon became familiar, but also being constantly on the watch for chances to make themselves useful.
This they could do in a thousand ways, if they felt so disposed. Children that had strayed away from their elders in the crowd; tired mothers who did not know where to warm the baby’s milk, and were grateful for a little aid; bewildered country people who sought information concerning the best way to leave their rigs so that they would be perfectly safe while they did the sights—yes, there was really no limit to the ways a wide-awake scout, anxious to do his full duty, could extend that helping hand—a part of his profession.
Hugh was feeling pretty well satisfied with the way things had started out. He knew there might be a few little matters needing alteration, but as a whole the camp was in apple-pie order. They need not feel ashamed to have it examined by any fair-minded critic.
A number of gentlemen had already manifested a decided interest. They showered compliments on the tidy manner in which the boys had arranged things.
“I never saw a camp so well ordered,” one man had remarked, “and all my life I’ve been going into the woods every summer and fall, fishing and shooting. After this I must take my guide to task and have things changed. If boys can show such smartness, it’s a burning shame that a man is content to keep camp, with his duffle littered about so that nothing is in place.”
Those sort of things made Hugh feel as though it paid every time to be thorough in all he did, without appearing to be what boys call a “crank.” One can keep his possessions in decent order without making it such a hobby that he becomes a bore to all his comrades.
The assistant scout master laughed when Billy Worth made that remark about the anxiety of Arthur Cameron to have his first patient.