als and kind to people ye care little for. Ye must know
how to take care of yourself anywhere and be ready whin the country
needs ye.'

"'And ye need a dollar?' I asks. 'Thin, why not work for it and stop
pokin' yer nose down squirrel-holes, where there is neither profit nor
wages?'

"'Because I'm to be the patrol-leader and I must know more than me men,'
he retorts.

"Now, ye remimber I had in me pocket three pay checks, besides the money
of Mr. Lof, the second engineer, which I had got for him and was
carryin' about to send to him by the first friend I saw. So I took off
me cap and pulled out one of the checks and said: 'Me bould boy, go down
to the town and get the cash for this. Bring it back to me and I'll give
ye a dollar; and thin ye can become a scout.'

"The lad looked at me and then at the governmint check. He shook his
head till the dirt rolled into his ears, for he was still full of the
clods he had rubbed into himself in the hole. 'I can't take a dollar
from a man in the service,' he says. 'I must earn it.'

"'The Governmint's money is clane,' I rebukes him. 'I'm ould and me legs
ends just above me feet, so that I walk with difficulty. 'Tis worth a
dollar to get the coin without trampin'.'

"'I will earn it from somebody not in the service,' says me bould boy,
with great firmness.

"'I'm no surfman, thank Hivin!' I remarks. 'I'm in the establishmint and
look down on ye.'

"'If I'd known ye were a lighthouse man I'd have taken all ye had at
first,' he retorts. 'But ye have made me a fair offer and I forgive ye.
My father works for his living.'

"'Well,' says I seein' that it was poor fortune to be quarrelin' with a
slip of a kid, 'do yez want the dollar or not?'

"And at that we got down to fact and he explained that this scout
business was most important. It appeared that the other five bhoys
depinded on him to extricate thim from their difficulties and set them
all up as scouts, with uniforms and knives and a knowledge of wild
animals and how to build a fire in a bucket of watther. We debated the
thing back and forth till the sun dropped behind the trees and the could
air came up from the ground and stuck me with needles of rheumatism.

"The lad was a good lad, and he made plain to me why his dollar was
har-rd to get. He had thought of savin' the life of a summer visitor,
but the law read that he must save life anyhow, without lookin' for pay.
'And we can't all save lives,' he mourns; 'for so