Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Camps -- Juvenile fiction
Through the fast deepening shadows, he could see that lonely figure
paddling idly about in his canoe. Why did he do that during supper-time,
Wilfred wondered. Was he not hungry? This thought occurred to him
because, in plain truth, he was himself a little hungry—just a little.
He had not been perfectly frank with Tom about the sufficiency of their
hasty lunch in Kingston. He just did not want to face that observant,
noisy assemblage. Perhaps the solitary canoeist was another new boy—no,
that could not be.... Then Wilfred noticed that the distant figure
seemed to be clad in white. This became more and more noticeable as the
darkness gathered.
The boy on the shore had kept another little secret from Tom Slade. And
now, before he exposed this secret to the light, he looked behind him to
make sure that none of that gorged and roistering company were emerging.
He knew nothing of scout paraphernalia and had brought nothing with him
because he owned just nothing.
Excepting one thing—a pathetic equipment. He was so rueful about its
appropriateness to scouting, and so fearful that it might arouse
humorous comment, that he had kept it in his pocket. It was an
old-fashioned opera-glass. When told that signaling and stalking were
within the scope of his privileged activities he had asked his mother
for this, thinking it might be useful. But there was something so
thoroughly “civilized” and old-fashioned about it that he felt rather
dubious about having it with him. What would those young Daniel Boones
think of an opera-glass?
He now raised this to his eyes and focused it on the figure out on the
lake. That solitary idler seemed to leap near him in a single bound. He
happened to be facing the camp shore and Wilfred could see a pleasant
countenance looking straight at him and smiling. Evidently he knew he
was being scrutinized and was amused. Wilfred could see now that he wore
a duck jacket. Then, smiling all the while, the stranger waved his hand
and Wilfred waved his own in acknowledgment. It seemed as if he had made
an acquaintance....
When Tom returned to take him to the stronghold of the Ravens, scouts
were pouring out of the “grub shack” like a triumphant army returning
from a massacre.
The young assistant, as Wilfred later found, was always in a hurry.
“All right now,” he said, “come ahead if you want to be a Raven.”
They started up through a grove where there were three cabins.
“Who’s that fellow out on the lake?” Wilfred asked.
“What fellow?”
“There’s a fellow out there in a canoe; he’s got a white jacket—I
think—I mean he’s all in white.”
“Oh, that’s the doc; that’s the fellow you’ve got a date with—later.
Nice chap, too.”
“Doesn’t he eat?”
“Yes, but he’s not a human famine like the rest of this bunch. I suppose
he finished early. You often see him flopping around evenings alone like
that.”
“It seems funny,” said Wilfred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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