ington!"

CHAPTER XIII

THE RESULT OF THE SURVEYS

Promptly at nine o'clock on the following Monday morning, a clean-cut,
well-knit, strong-featured young man stood before an eager-faced
group of khaki-clad scouts in Pioneer Camp.

The businesslike attitude of the young instructor, Ransom Thayer,
was reflected in the appearance of the boys; and from the first
crisp greeting of Mr. Thayer to his curt dismissal an hour and a
half later, the interest and attention of his auditors never wavered.

His first lesson emphasized the historical phase of geology; and
as he talked and pointed here and there in illustration, it seemed
to the boys that every stone and boulder and pebble and overhanging
cliff responded with the story of its life. This crevice, that
oblique angle, this smooth indentation, that rough mass,---each
marking had its significant meaning to the enthusiastic leader.

Walter Osborne said to Blake after "school" was over for the morning,
"I have always felt as though the trees of the forest were alive,
but now it seems to me that every rock is a breathing, changing,
growing thing, too."

That afternoon Mr. Thayer led his troop afield and showed them other
volumes of rock history,---how this proved that in ages past water
had forced a channel through the hills; how that gave evidences of
internal disturbances, of molten masses, of slowly cooling and
hardening structure.

Many of the boys had had courses in textbook geology and had gathered
"specimens," but this man made all these things new and wonderful and
fascinatingly interesting.

Day after day passed and still the enthusiasm grew. "Dry facts"
wore absorbed unconsciously; angular diagrams of mathematical
relations appeared on the big blackboard so clearly and concisely
that even Shorty Mcneil ceased to dread the problems; hours were
cheerfully spent at the big mess table in making out tabulated
reports and drawing neat maps; and many more hours were spent with
compasses and levels, telescopes and heliotropes measuring and
judging distances and noting results on the hills and by the lake
near camp.

"The man is a born leader and a born teacher," said Lieutenant
Denmead, commenting on Mr Thayer one day "We shall hear from him
yet."

All too soon the two weeks of study were over and the squad competitions
were on. Then they, too, were completed and notice of the results was
eagerly awaited by the four patrols.

At length the evening