a long-deferred, much-needed rub down. It was soapy, and thorough. And
he proved to himself that he really liked water very much--except,
perhaps, in the region of his neck and ears!

When he was rinsed and rubbed dry, and in his clothes again, Mr. Perkins
took off his own coat. Under it was a khaki-colored shirt, smart and
clean and soldierly, that seemed to Johnnie the kind of shirt most to be
desired among all the shirts of the world. Mr. Perkins pushed up the
sleeves of it, planted his feet squarely, and fell to shooting his arms
up and out, and bending his solid figure this way and that. Next, he
alternately thrust out his legs. And Johnnie followed suit--till both
were breathless and perspiring.

"To-morrow, exercise first and bathe afterward," instructed Mr. Perkins.
"To-night, be sure to sleep with that window open. And now I'll give you
a lesson in saluting."

It was then that Grandpa wakened. And perhaps something about the lesson
stirred those old memories of his, for he insisted upon saluting too,
and tossed poor Letitia aside in his excitement, and called Mr. Perkins
"General."

When the latter was gone, with no pat on the head for Johnnie, but a
genuine man-to-man hand shake, and a promise of his return soon, the
boy, for the first time in his short life, took stock of the condition
of his own body. Slipping out of the big shirt once more, and borrowing
Cis's mirror, he contrived, by skewing his head around, chinning first
one shoulder, then the other, to get a meager look at his back. He
appraised his spindling arms and legs. He thumped his flat chest.

"Gee! Mister Perkins is dead right!" he admitted soberly. "I'm too
skinny, and too thin through, and my complexion's too good." In the back
of his head, always, was that dream of leaving the flat some day, never
to return. "But like I am, why, I couldn't work hard 'nough, or earn
good," he told himself now, and very earnestly. "So I'll jus' go ahead
and make my body over the way Mister Roosevelt did."

While he was doing his housework he stopped now and again to shoot out
an arm or a leg, or to bend himself from the waist. His skin was
tingling pleasantly. His eyes were bright. A new urge was upon him. A
fresh interest filled his heart. His hopes were high.

Cis, when she was told that the leader had actually called, not only
believed the statement but shared Johnnie's enthusiasm. Realizing how
much his training to be a scout would help him, she ev