Accordingly, Hugh explained in as few words as possible. As we are already well acquainted with the whole proposition, it will be quite unnecessary for us to go into details again. Hugh started with the talk that he and Billy had had while resting in the welcome shade of the big oak, and then described the wild commotion that accompanied the appearance of the wretched cur with that unwieldy tin pan fastened to its poor tail.
“I’m glad Billy adopted the little kiyi,” declared Alec, as the story was concluded; “but about this scheme for cleaning up the town, I’m wondering whether it can be done.”
“Why not?” demanded Hugh, anxious to ascertain whether the same difficulties would occur to Alec that he had mentioned to the other comrade.
“Oh! well, lots of things would bother us like as not,” answered Alec. “First place, perhaps the mayor and the city council mightn’t exactly like to see it done. It would sort of put them to shame, you know, because their consciences must convince them that they haven’t been faithful to their duties.”
“Yes, I’ve thought of that,” Hugh remarked, “but if the women backed us up, ditto the fathers of the scouts and some more business men, the mayor and council wouldn’t say anything. They couldn’t stop us doing it, anyhow, because there’s no law against a boy picking up waste paper and chucking it into one of those tall cans on the corners. First of all, we’d paint the cans a bright red so as to attract attention. Then we might put the letters ‘T. I. A.’ on again, and underneath something to read like ‘I Eat Trash!’ That would take with a lot of people, I think.”
“Sounds good to me the more you tell about it, Hugh; and no matter what sort of trouble we meet, you can count on my standing back of you to the end. If the scouts can’t clean up the town and help make it look like a place people will be proud to claim as home, then it’s a hopeless case, that’s all I’ve got to say about it.”
“When nearly two score lively scouts get busy, there’s going to be something doing, believe me,” commented Hugh, who had seen the troop in action many times in the past and hence knew what the various patrols were capable of accomplishing. “And I’m glad to know that you take so kindly to my scheme in the start. It’s going to pull stronger the more you think it over. Billy’s telling all the boys over the ’phone to bring bags along with them to-night. You see he believes in rushing things. And so I’m figuring on commencing operations right away, if a majority are in favor of tackling the big job.”
“I’ll fetch a broom and you can bring a shovel; whatever we start to do, we may need something like that, Hugh,” observed the practical Alec, becoming, just as the other had expected, more interested in the scheme the further he went.
“Listen! Wasn’t that a shout just then?” exclaimed Hugh, turning his head as he slackened his pace by means of the pedal brake.
“Seemed to come from over in that clump of trees, too,” observed Alec, almost immediately adding: “Look at all that smoke rising up, Hugh! I honestly believe a house or barn must be on fire.”