“Well, the matter is closed now anyway, Herve,” Mr. Walton said, despairingly. “I’m sorry you’re dropping out of the Scouts. But of course, I’d rather you’d drop out altogether than be a scout slacker. So you’ll just have to suit yourself. Now what I want to say to you is this. You mustn’t get into trouble again. Last year you caused us a great deal of worry and I sent you up to Temple Camp thinking you’d find a suitable field of enjoyment there. So far I haven’t heard you say one word about your summer at Temple Camp. In the spring you encouraged Mr. Allerton’s dog to follow you for miles and he got run over and I had to settle with Mr. Allerton. You got in trouble for some absurdities last Hallowe’en, taking furniture from porches. “Now you heard the judge say that if you ever came before him again, it would go hard with you. I just want to tell you, Herve, that in such a case you can’t count on me; you’ll have to take the consequences. I don’t mean that I’d let you go to jail; I know you wouldn’t commit a crime--be dishonest. But if it should ever seem advisable to send you away to some sort of military or training school, perhaps, where you will be under rigid discipline I would not discourage such a course. There are places where they send boys who are hard to manage. I think school opens a week from Monday, doesn’t it?” “Yop, but Hairpin Wilkens isn’t going to teach mathematics this year, that’s one good thing.” “And you’ve left the Scouts?” “I threw them down flat,” said Hervey. “But, one thing, I’m going to show Chesty McCullen a good time; look what he was up against--_oh bimbo_!” “I think that’s a good idea, Herve,” said Mr. Walton. “Why don’t you take him to the movies? Isn’t there a cowboy play at the Lyric?” “Nix on looking at that stuff; it only makes me want to get out on a mustang. That’s what I want to do most of all--ride a horse, a good wild one. Montana, that’s where I’d like to go. Don’t you think the train robbers are all dead--they’re not.” “No, I don’t suppose so.” “I want to go on a ranch, that’s what I want to do.” “Yes, but even on a ranch you’d have to obey orders. Ranches are run by rules. The whole world is run by rules, Herve.” “Some punk rules, I’ll say.” “Either you’ve got to do the world’s way, or else you’ve got to make the world do your way--and I’m afraid you can’t do that. Isn’t that so, Herve?” “Bet your life,” said Hervey. “Well, you take Chesty out and give him a good time; I think that’s a fine idea.” “Sure, after being in jail like that,” said Hervey. The very idea of imprisonment was terrible to Hervey. To be confined, kept in; it was horrible, unbearable. He was the grand champion of freedom. CHAPTER XVI TO PASTURES NEW