own there,
hey? Pavilion looks nice. I've been wondering if I stand any chance of
being called up on that platform on Saturday night. Looks swell with all
the bunting over it, doesn't it?"

The speaker, who had been half talking and half shouting, now came
stumbling and panting up over the edge of the wooded decline where the
thick brush had played havoc with his scout suit but not with his
temper.

"Some climb, hey?" he breathed, laughing, and affecting the stagger of
utter exhaustion. "I bet you knew an easier way up. The bunch told me
not to beard the lion in his den, but I'm not afraid of lions. Here I am
and you can't get rid of me now. I'm up against it, Slady, and I want a
few tips. They say you're the only real scout since Kit Carson. What I'm
hunting for is a wild animal, but I haven't been able to find anything
except a cricket, two beetles and a cow that belongs on the Hasbrook
farm. Don't mind if I stroll along with you a little way, do you? My
name is Willetts--Hervey Willetts. I'm with that troop from
Massachusetts. I'm an Eagle Scout--_all but_."

"But's a pretty big word," Tom said.

"You said it," Hervey Willetts said, still wrestling with his breath;
"it's the biggest word in the dictionary."

CHAPTER IV

HERVEY LEARNS SOMETHING

They strolled on through the woods together, the younger boy's gayety
and enthusiasm showing in pleasing contrast to Tom's stolid manner.

He was a wholesome, vivacious boy, this Willetts, with a breeziness
which seemed to captivate even his sober companion, and if Tom had felt
any slight annoyance at being thus overhauled by a comparative stranger,
the feeling quickly passed in the young scout's cheery company.

"They told me down in camp that if I need a guide, philosopher, and
friend, I'd better run you down, or up----"

"If you'd gone a little to the left you'd have found it easier," Tom
said, in his usual matter-of-fact manner.

"Oh, I suppose you know all the highways and byways and right ways and
left ways and every which ways for miles and miles around," Hervey
Willetts said. "I guess they were right when they said you'd be a good
guide, philosopher, and friend, hey?"

"I don't know what a philosopher is," Tom said, with characteristic
blunt honesty, "but I know all the trails around here, if that's what
you're talking about."

"Oh, you mean about guides?" Hervey asked, just a trifle puzzled.
"That's an expression, _guide, philosopher, and frie