Jim didn't say--and Rose Anderson laughed softly. Jim flashed a glance at her, but he saw at once that it wasn't a mean laugh--just a girly giggle, and he manfully ignored it. "I have to speak to Charley Smith over there," Miss Laura went on, "but I'll be back in a few minutes." As she crossed to the other cot, Frances Chapin slipped into the chair by Jim's--there was only one chair between each two cots. "I think you are about nine, aren't you, Jim?" she asked. "Goin' on ten," Jim corrected stoutly. "I've a brother going on ten," she said. Jim looked at her with quick interest. "Tell about him," he ordered. "What's his name?" "David Chapin. He's in the sixth grade----" "So'm I--I mean I was 'fore I came here," Jim interrupted. "What else?" "--and he's--he's going to be a Boy Scout as soon as he's twelve." Jim's plain little face brightened into keen interest. "That's bully!" he cried. "I'm going to be a Scout soon's I'm big enough--if I can." The wistful longing in the last words brought a mist into Frances's eyes, but Jim did not see it. He was looking at the other girls. "Any of the rest of you got brothers?" he demanded. "I have one, but he's a big fellow, twice as old as you are," Alice Reynolds said. "And I've six," Mary Hastings told him. "Two of them are Scouts." "Fine!" exulted Jim. "Say--tell me what they do, all about it," he pleaded, and sitting down on the edge of his cot, Mary told him everything she could think of about the scouting. When Miss Laura came back Jim's face was radiant. "She's been telling me about her brothers--they're Boy Scouts," he cried eagerly, pointing a stubby finger at Mary. "I wish," he looked pleadingly into Mary's eyes, "I do wish they'd come and see me; but I guess boys don't come to hospitals 'thout they have to," he ended with a sigh. "I'll get them to come if I can," Mary promised, "but----" "I know," Jim nodded, "I guess they won't have time. There's so many things for boys to do outdoors!" "Jim," said Miss Laura, "there are so many things for you to do outdoors too. You must get well as fast as you can to be at them." Jim's lips took on a most unchildlike set, and his eyes searched her face with a look she could not understand. "I--I d'know----" he said vaguely.