Tom Slade with the Colors | Page 8

are different ways of being strong," observed Miss Ellison,
busying herself the while.
"I know what you mean," said Tom. "I got a good muscle."
She leaned back in her chair and looked at him frankly. "I didn't mean
exactly that," she said. "I meant if you make up your mind to do a thing,
you'll do it."
Again Tom waited, not knowing what to say. He felt strangely happy,
yet very uncomfortable. At length, for lack of anything better to say, he
observed:
"I guess you kinder like Roscoe, all right."
For answer she bent over her typewriter and began to make an erasure.
"Don't you?" he persisted, gaining courage.
"Do I have to tell you?" she asked, laughing merrily.
Tom lingered for a few moments. He wanted to stay longer. This little
familiar chat was a bigger innovation in his life than the long trousers
had been. His heart was pounding just as it had pounded when he first
took the scout oath. Evidently the girl meant to leave early herself, and
see something of the day's festivities, for she was very prettily attired.
Perhaps this, perhaps the balmy fragrance of that wonderful spring day
which Providence had ordered for the registration of Uncle Sam's
young manhood, perhaps the feeling that some good news awaited him
down in Mr. Temple's office, or perhaps all three things contributed to
give Tom a feeling of buoyancy.
"Are you going to see the parade?" he asked. "I got a badge here maybe
you'd like to wear. I can get another for myself."
"I would like very much to wear it," she said, taking the little patriotic
emblem which he removed from his khaki coat. "Thank you."
Tom almost hoped she would suggest that he pin it on for her. He stood

for a few moments longer and then, as he could think of nothing more
to say, moved rather awkwardly toward the door.
"You look splendid to-day, Tom," Miss Ellison said. "You look like a
real soldier in your khaki."
"The woman where I board pressed it for me yesterday," he said,
blushing.
"It looks very nice."
Tom went down in the elevator, and when it stopped rather suddenly at
the ground floor it gave him exactly the same feeling that he had
experienced while he talked to Miss Ellison....
Roscoe Bent was not at his desk as he passed the teller's window and
glanced through it, but he did not think much of that, for it was early in
the day and the sprightly Roscoe might be in any one of a dozen places
thereabout. He might be up in the Temple Camp office, even.
John Temple, founder of Temple Camp and president of the bank, sat at
his sumptuous desk in his sumptuous office and motioned Tom to one
of the big leather chairs, the luxuriousness of which disconcerted him
almost as much as had Miss Ellison's friendliness.
"I told Margaret to send you down as soon as you came in, Tom," said
Mr. Temple, as he opened his mail. "I want to get this matter off my
mind before I forget it. You know that General Merrill is going to be
here to-night, I suppose?"
"I heard the committee was trying to get him."
"Well, they've got him, and the governor's going to be here, too; did
you hear that?"
"No, sir, I didn't," said Tom, surprised.
"I've just got word from his secretary that he can spend an hour in our
little berg and say a few words at the meeting to-night. Now listen

carefully, my boy, for I've only a few minutes to talk to you. This thing
necessitates some eleventh-hour preparation. The plan is to have a
member from every local organization in town to form a committee to
receive the governor and the general. That's about all there is to it.
"There's the Board of Trade, and the Community Council, and--let's
see--the churches and the Home Defense and the Red Cross and the
Daughters of Liberty and the Citizens' Club, and the Boy Scouts."
Already Tom felt flattered.
"Each of these organizations has designated one of its members to act
on the committee. I had Mr. Ellsworth on the phone this morning and
told him he'd have to represent the scouts. He said he'd do no such
thing--that he wasn't a boy scout."
"He's the best scout of all of us," said Tom.
"He says you're the best," retorted Mr. Temple; "so there you are."
"Roy's got twice as many merit badges as I have," said Tom.
"Well, you've got long trousers, anyway," said Mr. Temple, "and Mr.
Ellsworth says you're the representative scout, so I guess you're in for
it."
"M-me?"
"Now, pay attention. You're to knock off work at the registration places
at five