“My name is Wheeler, and I’ve bought the old Lyons farm about three miles out,” the other explained. “I’ve been hearing a whole lot about the scouts, and what big things they’ve been doing over there at the cement works riot, and so on. Course it seemed impossible to me, but since coming to the Fair I’ve struck an old friend who said he helped keep back the crowd yesterday when you boys took care of the man that was hurt in that runaway accident.”
“Oh! you must mean Mr. Jones,” said Hugh, mentioning the name the big man had given him before taking his departure.
“Yes, he’s the one. Somehow, after I’d heard him tell a few things I began to feel sort of different toward you scouts. I had to own up to myself that I was prejudiced, and hadn’t been fair to you. Now, I come in on Saturday afternoons, and could fetch Johnny along with me, picking him up about ten o’clock when I passed by on the way home.”
“Oh! dad!” gasped the delighted Johnny; while Hugh gave him a sunny look and a handshake that meant everything to the boy whose one longing seemed to be to see himself one of the scouts whom he had admired so long from a distance.
Hugh never allowed a chance to slip past when he could say a good word for the advancement of the cause. He knew that thousands of boys would be eager to wear the khaki and start on the upward climb if it were not for the decided opposition they experienced at home. According to Hugh’s viewpoint that was the very place where they should be receiving the most encouragement.
If parents, instead of blindly denouncing any movement like this, would only candidly examine it, see what it has done for other boys in their own town, and then decide the question on its merits, thousands of additions would be made to the scout ranks.
As the afternoon wore on there were several cases requiring first aid. They happened to all be of a minor character, though Arthur gave them his best attention, for he believed in doing everything well. One boy was taken with a bad case of cramps, and howled dismally until “Old Doc Cameron,” as Billy had nicknamed Arthur, succeeded in relieving the griping pain by the use of some remedy he always carried in the medicine chest. Boys, when out in camp, are apt to be reckless in their manner of eating, and devour green apples or any other fruit calculated to double them up with cholera morbus. Then some remedy that contains camphor and pepper is needed to warm the stomach, and counteract the effects of the dangerous food.
Arthur did manage to have one rather difficult operation later on. A man came limping over to the tent, claiming that he had made a bad stroke with an axe he was wielding and managed to cut his foot. On examination the hurt proved to be a serious one; but Arthur washed the foot, cleansed the wound perfectly, so that all danger of blood poisoning was avoided, and after binding it up properly, the man was sent to his home in a car offered by an accommodating visitor (who had been an interested spectator of the whole operation).
He had just gone off when Hugh discovered Billy coming up. It dawned on him that Billy had kept himself aloof from the camp ever since they opened their headquarters that afternoon, though he must have been doing scout work elsewhere, for Billy was not the one to shirk.
Hugh noticed that the stout chum looked excited, and while there was really no reason for connecting this fact with what they had talked about on the preceding afternoon, the scout master found himself remembering the cause of their conversation on that same occasion.