“Hugh, I’m bound to redeem those long-eared little animals if I have to borrow the money to do it with!” he exclaimed. “To think of his making that great big sacrifice just for me! I know how fond Benjy’s been of his pets! Oh! Hugh, when you came in here little did I dream what glorious news there was going to be sprung on me! I was feeling away down in the cellar, and now, well, I seem to be on the roof looking up into the beautiful heavens!”
That was not such a bad description of Tom’s feelings, considering the fact that he was only a matter-of-fact boy, and struggling along under unusual emotion.
Hugh did not attempt to explain how possibly it might be just as well to allow Benjy to make his sacrifice. It gave the boy more or less satisfaction, and would always be a link connecting him with his brother. Later on Hugh might urge upon Tom the wisdom of letting matters stand just as they were.
He handled the racquet and praised its good qualities.
“It was pretty smart of the boy hiding it in the drawer containing your shirts,” Hugh went on to say, laughing; “especially as he figured that to-morrow was your regular morning for putting on a clean one, and you would be sure to discover the package the first thing on your birthday.”
“Wasn’t it, though?” said Tom, chuckling. “That shows, Tom, that Benjy would make a good scout, because he has the sense of observation well developed to start with.”
“Just what it does, Tom, and some day before long I hope to see your brother wearing the honored khaki. It’s a proud family that can boast of two scouts, let me tell you. And once Benjy joins—no danger of his ever going back. A world will open up to his eyes that he never dreamed existed. Old things will have passed away and everything become new, once he has put on the magic spectacles of scoutcraft. I’ve been told that by a dozen fellows, and I know what a change it makes in most boys.”
Tom began to wrap the precious racquet carefully up again in the paper that had been around it when he made his startling discovery. How tenderly he handled the present given by his brother. Hugh even thought that all other gifts showered on Tom in times past must sink into utter insignificance when compared with this special one; for it represented, in his eyes, the dissolution of those serious doubts that had of late been weighing down his spirits until his heart felt like lead.
“I’m meaning to put it back just where I found it, you see, Hugh,” he explained, “and make things look as if no one had touched it. Luckily the envelope wasn’t sealed, so I didn’t destroy the same. You may wonder why I do that, and I’ll tell you. I want to open it again in the morning just as if I had found it for the first time. Then there’s another reason, you see, Hugh; Benjy might get home to-night ahead of me, and finding that I hadn’t shown up yet, take a notion to step in here just to have a last peep and a pat at his package. I wouldn’t like him to know I had been investigating ahead of time, you understand, Hugh.”
The scout master could read between the lines. He realized that not for the world would repentant Tom want Benjy to suspect he had been looking all through his room in the fear and expectation of making a distressing discovery that would implicate the younger brother. Nor could Hugh blame the other for wanting to conceal such a humiliating thing as this.