eed that I am able
to include it in this volume of short stories for
boys._--THE EDITOR.

"THERE is no har-rm in the story, though it speaks ill for us big people
with Misther to our names," said Chief Engineer Mickey O'Rourke,
balancing his coffee cup between his two scarred hands. "Ye remimber the
lasht toime I was on leave--and I wint down to Yaquina Bay with Captain
Tyler on his tin gas schooner, thinkin' to mesilf it was a holiday--and
all the fun I had was insthructin' the gasoline engineer in the
mysteries of how to expriss one's sintimints without injurin' the
skipper's feelin's? Well, I landed in the bay and walked about in the
woods, which is foine for the smell of thim which is like fresh tar; and
one afternoon I find two legs and small feet stickin' out of a hole
under a stump. I pulled on the two feet and the legs came out and at the
end of thim a bhoy, mad with rage and dirt in his eyes.

"'Ye have spoiled me fun!' says he, lookin' at me very fierce.

"'Do yez dig yer fun out of the ground like coal?' I demands.

"'I'm investigating the habits of squirrels,' says he. 'I must find out
how a squirrel turns round in his hole. Does he turn a summersault or
stick his tail between his ears and go over backward?'

"'He turns inside out, like an ould sock,' I informs him, and he scorns
me natural history. On the strength of mutual language we get
acquainted. He is Tad Sheldon, the eldest son of Surfman No. 1 of the
life-saving crew. He is fourteen years ould. Me bould Tad has troubles
of his own, consisting of five other youngsters who are his gang. 'We
are preparing to inter the ranks of the Bhoy Scouts,' he tells me,
settin' be the side of the squirrel-hole. 'We are all tenderfeet and we
can't get enlisted with the rest of the bhoys in the United States
because each scout must have a dollar in the bank and between the six of
us we have only one dollar and six bits and that's in me mother's apron
pocket and in no bank at all.'

"'Explain,' says I.

"''Tis this way,' says me young sprig. 'All the bhoys in the country of
America have joined the scouts, which is an army of felleys that know
the woods and about animals and how to light a fire, and know the law.'

"'Stop!' I orders. 'No one knows the law without gold in one hand and a
book in the other. If ye knew the law ye would have yer dollar.'

"''Tis the scouts' law,' says he. 'It tells ye to obey yer superiors and
be fair to anim