After tea, during which the Cubs were wonderfully quiet and well-behaved, they entertained their hostess with various kinds of somersaults and cart-wheels, and then went through a large part of the famous concert for her benefit. Before going they gave her a Grand Howl, and then all shook hands with her.
After that they played on the shore, and then ended up with a last bathe, about seven.
Back to supper. Camp prayers for the last time in the soft evening light. Good-night to Father and Mother and Godmother; and then to the Stable, for the last story.
But as they squatted round waiting for the story, someone made a remark that was the beginning of quite a long pow-wow. "Miss," he said, "shall we be Cubs in Heaven, and will you be our Cubmaster?"
Everyone had questions to ask about Heaven—more than Akela knew how to answer! And then they grew serious as someone mentioned two Cubs who had died a year before. "Do you think Frank and Bob have found each other in heaven?" "Yes," said Akela, "I'm sure they have; and I expect they've found those two Cubs from two other Westminster Packs, who died of 'flu, last winter."
And that is why this book is dedicated to Frank and Bob, for they were two of the most faithful Cubs who ever lived. They died brave and unselfish—Bob after a long and very painful illness, in which he never gave in to himself, but was always thinking of other people and his "little 'uns." At last, as he lay delirious, he used to think he was in camp again, and say: "Oh, mother, look at the green fields—aren't they lovely?" And as Akela knelt by his bed, holding his poor little hot hand, she felt sure that soon he would be playing in the green fields of Heaven—the best camp of all, where the Good Shepherd was already waiting to carry him in His strong, kind arms.
And now someone else had a splendid idea: "Perhaps they've talked to the Saints!"
"We shall know a lot of the Saints when we go to Heaven," said another Cub; "I shall look out for St. Antony first."
And so they decided to try and get to know as many Saints as possible before they died, and to try and copy them, so that some day they would find lots of friends in Heaven, who would not be ashamed to receive the salutes of their little brothers, and to return them with kind smiles of welcome.
Then the Cubs settled down for a last story.