Mr. Griffin had suffered a cruel shock many years before, losing his wife and two lovely children in a fire. One girl was left to him, and she grew up to womanhood, gave him a great deal of trouble, and finally ran away with a worthless fellow. Some years afterwards, the old gentleman, now become estranged from the world that had treated him so cruelly, went away, and came back with a child he announced as his grandson, the last of his stock, for the daughter had died.
Alas! this little boy was a cripple and deformed. Hugh had seen him several times, but the old man kept a strict watch, and allowed no intruders in his grounds where those dogs roamed at night time.
The hunchback was now all of ten years of age, and when Hugh saw Mr. Griffin buying some boys’ books before Christmas he understood that the little fellow at least must love to read.
Here then was the scheme which Hugh worked out. He had plenty of books that told of the doings of Boy Scouts. Besides, he had an old manual that he could easily spare. So he bribed the grocer’s boy, who daily visited the Griffin home, and admitted that he chatted with the hunchback frequently, to give Archibald the package of books on the sly, and tell him the leader of the Wolf Patrol had sent them with his compliments to help a “shut-in” realize what scout life meant.
Hugh heard from his kind act, for on the very next day he received a splendid little note from the boy, thanking him heartily for his thoughtfulness, and saying that he would devour those books “ferociously,” he was so “crazy” about reading of what boys more fortunate than himself were doing.
Hugh kept it up after that, and before long there was a most friendly feeling springing up between the two. One fine day Hugh was surprised to have Mr. Griffin stop him on the street, and he realized that the severe look could leave the face of the well-named man when he chose to drop the mask.
“My little grandchild has been telling me about your kindness in sending him books to read,” the gentleman started to say. “Now, I have been very particular about the type of books I select for him, because I want the poor little fellow to know only the better side of life. At first I was afraid you had broken down the barrier I have erected, but when I came to look over the handbook of the scouts, and found what a splendid foundation the organization is built upon I felt sure that books written along similar lines could do a boy only good. I am pleased to say that upon glancing over those you sent him, I have been immensely satisfied.”
He offered his hand to Hugh, something no boy in Oakvale had ever known Mr. Griffin to do in all the years past. Hugh flushed with a sense of satisfaction upon realizing that he was on the road to success, and that his diagnosis of the stern old gentleman’s real nature had not been amiss.
“I am glad you do not think I was playing a mean part in getting those books to Archibald,” he said, simply. “We scouts feel for any chap who is deprived of the glorious chances we have to spend many good times in the open. I thought he would be glad to learn about scout life, even if he could never hope to enjoy it himself.”
“What is more to the point,” continued Mr. Griffin, “I’ve had my eyes opened to the fact that it is a bad thing for any man to allow himself to remain in ignorance with what is going on around him as the years progress. I am ashamed to admit that I never dreamed there had been such a vast revolution in the training of boys during the years I’ve kept aloof from the world. I’ve seen mention of the scouts many times in my papers, but never took the trouble to investigate—in fact, treated the whole matter as somewhat of a military movement copied after the Old World methods. I am delighted to learn that such is not the case.”