"I knew that it would be hard to get round him," said Marcoo thoughtfully. "Until now all the boys whom he has met have picked on an' teased him. Suppose you turn your attention to _me_ for a while, Nix! Suppose you were to make a bluff of teaching me some of the things that a fellow must learn before he can enlist as a tenderfoot scout! Perhaps, then, he'd begin to listen an' take notice. I've got a toy flag in my pocket; let's start off with that!" "Good idea! You do use your head for something more than a hat-rack, Marcoo!" The patrol leader relapsed with a relieved sigh into his natural manner. "I brought an end of rope with me; I thought we might have got along to teaching him how to tie one or other of the four knots which form part of the tenderfoot test. You take charge of the rope-end. And don't lose it if you want to live!" He passed the little brown coil to his cousin and receiving in return the miniature Stars and Stripes, went through a formal flag-raising ceremony there on the sunny clearing. Tying the toy flag-staff to the top of his tall scout's staff, he planted the latter in some soft earth; then both scouts stood at attention and saluted Old Glory, after which they passed and repassed it at marching pace, each time removing their broad-brimmed hats with much respect and an eye on Harold to see if he was taking notice. Subsequently the patrol leader stationed himself by the impromptu flagstaff, and delivered a simple lecture to Coombsie upon the history and composition of the National Flag; a knowledge of which, together with the proper forms of respect due to that starry banner, would enter into his examination for tenderfoot scout. Both were hoping that some crumbs of information--some ray of patriotic enthusiasm--might be absorbed by Harold, the boy who had never been to school, and who had scantily profited by some elementary and intermittent lessons in reading and writing from his grandfather. His brown eyes, shy as any rodent's, watched this parade curiously. But though Toiney tried to encourage him by precept and gesticulation to follow the boy scouts' example and salute the Flag, plucking off his own tasseled cap and going through a dumb pantomime of respect to it, the "scaree" could not be moved from his shuffling stolidity. The starry flaglet waving from the scout's planted staff, might have been a gorgeous, drifting leaf from the surrounding woods for all the attention he paid to it! "Say! but it's hard to land him, isn't it?" Nixon suspended the parade with a sigh almost of despair. "Well, here goes, for one more attempt to get him interested! Chuck me that rope-end, Marcoo! I'll show you how to tie a bowline knot; perhaps, as his father was a sailor--a deep-sea fisherman--knot-tying may be more in his line than flag-raising."