They gave him a cheer that was taken up by the listening crowd. After that the scouts scattered, and it was a hustling, lively lot of boys who invaded the business section of the town. They gathered up the floating paper and crammed it into the big cans until the latter were overflowing. Then the wagons came along and took away what had been collected, so that the boys could keep up the fine work.
That was only a beginning. Already the spirit of “clean-up week” seemed to be in the air. Business men warned their clerks not to throw anything on the street on penalty of trouble; others actually went out of their way to drop envelopes from letters into a can, or else crumpled them up and thrust them into their pockets.
Great things spring from small beginnings; oaks have their start in the little acorns; and so from this determination on the part of the scouts to set the ball rolling looking to a cleaner town, much was to be expected.
When noon came and they stopped work for that day, a transformation seemed to have come already to the city. A stranger who had not seen the place for a month or two, upon dropping off the train was discovered rubbing his eyes and asking whether he had not made a mistake, because somehow things did not seem familiar!
CHAPTER VI.
ON DUTY.
Hugh was perfectly satisfied with the progress made. He knew very well that the whole business could not be accomplished in a day. They must advance slowly but surely. What the scouts did was going to be only for the sake of arousing public sentiment, and after the community had taken hold in earnest, the thing so long waited for would be accomplished. The city would never consent to go back to the old, dirty conditions, after once experiencing the pleasure of seeing her streets and front yards clean. The wave of reform once started would roll on irresistibly, so that no citizen, however humble, would dare resist its influence.
Thinking that the boys had done enough for that one day, Hugh told them to spend the afternoon as they pleased, but to come to another meeting after supper that night.
He did this because he knew only too well that a certain element in the place would never rest satisfied to allow these uplifting practices to continue unmolested. And Hugh believed that they must “fight fire with fire,” just as plainsmen do when caught by the burning prairie grass.
Although most of the boys were free to attend the ball game or go where they felt inclined, Hugh and several others had work laid out for themselves during that September afternoon.
Paint and brushes were secured, and they started in to color all the waste paper cans a brilliant red. That would catch the eye from afar, and thus call attention to the fact that receptacles were provided for all trash, so that there need no longer be any excuse for throwing things around promiscuously.