pt floor
wheels Grandpa, whimpering, calling softly and pleadingly, "Johnnie!
Little Johnnie! Grandpa wants Johnnie!" And tears are dimming the pale,
old eyes, and trickling down into the thin, white beard.

"Oh!" breathed the boy. Old Grandpa forsaken! He, so dear, so helpless!
Old Grandpa, who depended upon his Johnnie! And--what of that "kind of
love that all sound young hearts give to the crippled and the
helpless?"

He began to whisper, hastily, huskily: "That time I run away and met
One-Eye, I felt pretty bad when I was layin' awake in the horse
stall--so bad I hurt, all inside me. And in the night I 'most cried
about Grandpa, and how he was missin' me."

"I see."

"And, oh, Mister Perkins, that was before I knew anything about scouts.
But, now, I am one, ain't I? And so I got t' _act_ like a scout. And a
scout, would he go 'way and leave a' old soldier? I got t' think about
that." He began to walk. Presently, he halted at the door of the tiny
room, and looked in, then came tiptoeing back. "He's in there," he
explained. "He went in t' see if Cis wasn't home yet, and he fell
asleep. He misses her a lot, and she wasn't here much when he was awake.
But that jus' shows how he'd miss me."

Before the scoutmaster could reply, Johnnie went on again: "I'm thinkin'
ahead, the same way I think my thinks. When y're ahead, why, y' can look
back, can't y'?--awful easy! Well, I'm lookin' back, and I can see
Grandpa alone here. And it's a' awful mean thing t' see, Mister
Perkins--gee, it is! And I'd be seein' it straight right on for the rest
of my life!"

"But I wouldn't have old Grandpa left alone here," protested Mr.
Perkins. "You see, there are institutions where they take the best care
of old people--trained care, and suitable food, and the attention of
first-class doctors. In such places, many old gentlemen stay."

"But Grandpa, would he know any of the other old gentlemen?"

"He would soon."

Johnnie shook his head. "He'd feel pretty bad if he didn't have me."

"You could go to see him often."

"He'd cry after me!" urged Johnnie. "And go 'round and 'round in
circles. Y' see, he's used t' me, and if I was t' let him go t' that
place, he'd miss me so bad he'd die!"

Mr. Perkins looked grave. "Narcissa and I would be only too glad to have
him with us," he said, "but his son wouldn't let us."

"Big Tom wouldn't let Grandpa go away nowheres," asserted Johnnie. "I'm
sure o' that. Why, Grandpa's the only person