“That was only what I asked you to do in the first place, sir,” said Hugh.
“Yes, I know it was,” the gentleman continued, “but I am an obstinate man, and persisted in shutting my eyes to the facts. But I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that I was making the greatest mistake of my life in going against such a great development of the American boy, when I started up here this morning. Well, what I have seen done and heard spoken of you and your brave boys since coming here has utterly overwhelmed me with confusion and regrets.”
“I’m more than glad, sir—for Addison’s sake!” said Hugh, softly and meaningly.
“Yes,” the other went on to remark, “there’ll be no difficulty about his getting permission to join your troop after this. Why, if he showed any hesitation I’d be three times more bent on making him don the khaki than I was before in refusing to grant that favor. I can plainly see what a great list of possibilities opens up before a scout. If Addison can, in time, become as sensible a boy as most of your companions—I might easily say all of them—are, I will be grateful every day of my life that Fortune took me up here to see Mrs. Heffner at just the time the forest was burning, and your troop came up to render first aid to the afflicted.”
Really, there did not appear to be anything lacking, for it all seemed to have come out just right. If Hugh himself could have had the planning, he doubted whether he could have improved on what had happened.
“Then you give me permission to tell Addison that he can put in his application to join the scouts, do you, Mr. Prentice?” Hugh asked.
“You’ll hardly have the opportunity, Hugh,” he was told, “because as soon as I get home I will issue orders that he must join at the very first meeting!”
“It will make him pretty happy, I think, sir, for he has set his heart on being one of us.”
“And let me tell you it will make his father doubly happy when that time comes, for I have seen and heard things I never would have believed possible a week ago. It just goes to show how foolish men can be to judge without knowing what they are talking about. But, Hugh, I shall try and make amends for what injury I have unwittingly done the cause in the past by booming it in the future. You see, it’s a case of right-about face with me. They do say that I’m pretty sure to go to extremes when my mind is made up.”
“The boys will all be glad to know that you’ve reformed, sir,” said Billy, boldly, but Mr. Prentice only chuckled.