Fox Patrol—Don Miller (leader), “Shorty” McNeil, Cooper Fennimore, Spike Welling, “Monkey” Stallings.
Owl Patrol—Lige Corbley (leader), “Whistling” Smith, Andy Wallis and Pete Craig.
Hawk Patrol—Walter Osborne (leader), Blake Merton, Gus Merrivale and Anthony Huggins.
After the regular business of the meeting had been hurriedly dispatched, twenty-seven scouts then started in to talk matters over. Of course most of them were perfectly willing that others should lay out the plans and offer suggestions. It is just as well that a few leading spirits should manage things, for with the whole twenty-seven trying to make themselves heard, Bedlam would have been a quiet retreat beside that meeting.
Hugh had evidently given the matter considerable thought since receiving word from the directors and managers of the County Fair that an invitation was extended to the troop to take charge of certain branches of industry and usefulness.
“The first thing every one of us must do,” Hugh told them, “will be to brush up our knowledge of what the Fair stands for, and the location of every exhibit. For to be a guide means that people expect you are a walking encyclopedia, and you’re apt to have all sorts of queer questions fired at you.”
“Yes, I guess that’s right, Hugh,” said Walter Osborne, “because there will be lots of people here who are utter strangers to Oakvale. I know that my Uncle Reuben and Aunt Ruth are coming on to stop over with us, and while I visited at their place as a kid years ago, they’ve never been here before. There are others, too, I’ve heard, so each one of you wants to kiss the Blarney Stone, and be ready to talk like a Dutch uncle.”
“On Tuesday afternoon after school, then, we’ll go out to the grounds and get our two tents up, as well as do a good many other things,” said Hugh. “I expect to see the school principal, and try to have a couple of us excused each morning, so that there will be some one at the headquarters up to noon. In fact, I mean to lay out a regular schedule, and let each scout know just what special duty he is to undertake.”
“This is one of the finest things that ever came our way, I think,” remarked Don Miller. “Let’s hope that after the Fair is over the folks who have been thinking poorly of us scouts will have a different opinion.”
“It’s to be hoped that no one who wears the khaki will do the first thing calculated to bring it into disrepute,” suggested Walter Osborne; and some of them saw him cast a quick and perhaps anxious glance toward the spot where the leader of the latest patrol to be organized, the Owl, was sitting.