o an idea as Pat did to
scouting. He just soaked it up. It was the principle of the thing that
got him right from the start, and not just the fun that goes with it.
And just see what it's done for him! I don't know of any one it's done
so much for, unless----"

Almost unconsciously Walter turned to stare through the gathering dusk
at a photograph on the nearer of the two bookcases. A pair of frank
eyes, kindly but keen, looked down at him from a face good to see, the
face of a boy of about his own age. It was a handsome face and the
beauty lay, not in regularity of features, but in the strength of
character and purpose written in every line. It was the face of Hal
Harrison, son of a multi-millionaire, and comrade and fellow Scout in
the fun and adventures of the last three summers. It was the sudden
remembrance of Hal that had caused the abrupt break in the trend of his
thought. Not even for the poor, rough, tough young bully of the woods
had scouting done more than it had for this other lad, brought up in the
lap of luxury, his every whim gratified, toadied to, petted, spoiled.
From opposite extremes of the social strata it had brought these two
together on the common ground of true brotherhood--the brotherhood of
democracy. It had discovered to the young savage, for Pat was little
more than that, his own manhood. It had stripped from Hal, the cad, the
veneer of false social rank based on wealth and found there also a man.
And now these two--the one whom he had fought and the one whom he had
despised--Upton regarded not only as comrades and brother Scouts, but
almost as chums.

Some such thoughts as these were floating through his mind as he sat
there in the soft dusk of winter twilight. It was just the hour for
dreaming the dreams which every boy loves to dream, half thought, half
idle fancy. He tried to picture what the future might hold for himself
and for these two comrades. Hal would be a captain of industry. It could
hardly be otherwise. He would inherit vast wealth. He would in time take
charge of the great enterprises which his father had built up. Would he
apply to their management the principles of which as a Scout he was now
so earnest a champion? Pat dared to dream of some day becoming a
naturalist. Would he succeed? Remembering what Pat had been and what he
now was Walter somehow felt that he would. As for himself he could not
see his own career with a like clearness. He would like--

Ting-aling-ling! I