ed. Many of the enthusiasts went out there every afternoon, while
Saturdays always saw a big crowd, most of whom brought their lunch and
made a day of it.

As a matter of course, since swimming could not very well be indulged
in all the time, there developed a great variety of scout sports and
activities. Often a scoutmaster or two showed up, and by dint of a
little suggestion would introduce among the purely entertaining games one
designed to test the boys' ability at signaling or first aid, or his
knowledge of tracking and trailing and woodcraft generally.

The system was entirely successful. Fellows who lacked the ambition
or push to acquire these important details of scouting--and there are
always such in every troop--found themselves, to their surprise,
absorbing the knowledge through the medium of a game or competition. More
often than not they discovered that it wasn't so hard or uninteresting as
they supposed, and in many cases real enthusiasm developed. Moreover,
members of the different troops came to know and understand each other
in a way which would have been impossible without this close and
constant companionship. Hitherto they had kept pretty much to themselves,
each boy traveling mainly with his own crowd and generally meeting
the others as opponents on gridiron or diamond.

Now unexpected friendships developed. Paul Trexler, who had revived
much of his interest in bird study, was amazed to find a kindred spirit
in Jim Crancher of Troop One. This big, rather rough-and-ready, chap
of whom Paul had always stood somewhat in awe, proved to be quite as
keen as himself about birds and nature generally, and the two had many a
pleasant and profitable tramp through the woods together. There were
many other similar cases, and before long it was no uncommon thing to
see boys who had hitherto been rivals eating their lunch together and
chatting intimately about what they would do at camp.

The latter subject became more and more a topic of interest and
discussion. For the first time the various troops were planning to join
forces in a common camp, and for months a committee of scoutmasters had
been at work on the details. Funds for equipment had been secured by the
local council, but the question of a proper location threatened to
prove a serious difficulty. Dozens of sites had been investigated and
found lacking in some important particular, either in quantity or
quality of water, in woods not extensive enough