Tom Slade at Temple Camp | Page 5

Slade, king of the
hoodlums, came out all wrong. Tom was instrumental in getting back a
pin which had been stolen from Mary Temple, and when her father saw
the boy after six months or so of scouting he couldn't have been more
surprised--not even if the Bridgeboro Bank had failed.
Then poor old John Temple (or rich old John Temple) showed that he
had one good scout trait. He could be a good loser. He saw that he was
all wrong and that Mr. Ellsworth was right and he straightway built a
pavilion for the scouts in the beautiful woods where all the surprising
episodes of the summer which had opened his eyes had taken place.
But you know as well as I do that a man like John Temple would never
be satisfied with building a little one-troop camping pavilion; not he.
So what should he do but buy a tract of land up in the Catskills close to
a beautiful sheet of water which was called Black Lake; and here he put
up a big open shack with a dozen or so log cabins about it and endowed
the whole thing as a summer camp where troops from all over the
country might come and find accommodations and recreation in the
summer months.

That was not all. Temple Camp was to be a school where scouting
might be taught (Oh, he was going to do the right thing, was old John
Temple!), and to that end he communicated with somebody who
communicated with somebody else, who got in touch with somebody
else who went to some ranch or other a hundred miles from nowhere in
the woolly west and asked old Jeb Rushmore if he wouldn't come east
and look after this big scout camp. How in the world John Temple, in
his big leather chair in the Bridgeboro Bank, had ever got wind of Jeb
Rushmore no one was able to find out. John Temple was a genius for
picking out men and in this case he touched high-water mark.
Jeb Rushmore was furnished with passes over all John Temple's
railroads straight through from somewhere or other in Dakota to
Catskill Landing, and a funny sight he must have been in his flannel
shirt and slouch hat, sprawling his lanky limbs from the platforms of
observation cars, drawling out his pithy observations about the
civilization which he had never before seen.
There are only two more things necessary to mention in this "side trail"
chapter. Tom's father bobbed up after the boy had become a scout. He
was a mere shadow of his former self; drink and a wandering life had
all but completed his ruin, and although Tom and his companions gave
him a home in their pleasant camp it was too late to help him much and
he died among them, having seen (if it were any satisfaction for him to
see) that scouting had made a splendid boy of his once neglected son.
This brings us to the main trail again and explains why it was that Roy
Blakeley had held mysterious conferences with Mary Temple, and
suggested to all the three patrols that it would be a good idea to elect
Tom to go to Temple Camp to assist in its preparation and management.
They had all known that one of their number was to be chosen for this
post and Roy had hit on Tom as the one to go because he still lived
with Mrs. O'Connor down in Barrel Alley and had not the same
pleasant home surroundings as the other boys.
A scout is thoughtful.
CHAPTER III

PEE-WEE AND MARY TEMPLE
Throughout the previous summer Tom had been in Roy's patrol, the
Silver Foxes, but when the new Elk Patrol was formed with Connie
Bennett, the Bronson boys and others, he had been chosen its leader.
"I think it's just glorious," said Mary Temple, when Tom told her of his
plan and of Roy's noble sacrifice, "and I wish I was a boy."
"Oh, it's great to be a boy," enthused Pee-wee. "Gee, that's one thing
I'm glad of anyway--that I'm a boy!"
"Half a boy is better than all girl," taunted Roy.
"You're a model boy," added Westy.
"And mother and father and I are coming up in the touring car in
August to visit the camp," said Mary. "Oh, I think it's perfectly lovely
you and Tom are going on ahead and that you're going to walk, and
you'll have everything ready when the others get there. Good-bye."
Tom and Roy were on their way up to the Blakeley place to set about
preparing for the hike, for they meant to start as soon as they could get
ready. Pee-wee lingered upon the veranda at Temple Court swinging
his