s hers!"--interrupted Betty, so seriously that Bob
couldn't help smiling.

"Yes, of course--girls too--why, as fast as boys and girls earn the
right to wear Safety Scout buttons, we can form them into patrols. It
wouldn't be long before we could have several troops hard at it. I tell
you, Sure Pop, if we go at it that way we can do big things for Safety
just as sure as you're a foot high!"

Sure Pop gave Betty a droll little wink. "It's a go, then," he said
cheerfully. "Well, where are you going to begin?"

Bob looked up at him with a sudden idea shining in his eyes. "Why not
begin by organizing in patrols and then in troops, just about like the
Boy Scouts? First, we can get a few of our friends interested, and let
each one of them get eleven others interested--that will make a patrol
of twelve, commanded by the one who got them together."

"Spoken like a Scout and a gentleman!" cried the little Colonel, giving
him a sounding thump on the shoulder. "Go on, Bob--what next?"

"Well, just as fast as we get four new patrols, we can form them into a
troop, with a Scout Master for their leader."

"Good," said Sure Pop. "It will take some lively work to pick your Scout
Masters and get them trained in time, but the difference in their
efficiency will be worth your while."

"I suppose," said Betty, "we'll have to choose only boys and girls who
have good records for Safety?"

Bob looked doubtful. "What do you think about that, Sure Pop?"

"I think it would be a mistake, Bob. You'll find too few who have even
learned to think Safety. A better plan will be to take in those who seem
most in earnest over the idea, especially those who have been taught a
hard lesson through accidents which care would have avoided."

"Go on, please. Tell us more--how would you work out the details?"

"Bob, I would--but I believe I've told you enough. You and Betty go
ahead in your own way and work out the details yourselves. Let me see
you get your Safety Scouts together, if you really do mean business, and
I'll show you about the work that's already been done among the factory
hands and mill-workers of America.

"Let me tell you this much, though: you'll find, when you get your
Safety Scouts of America organized, that the good work will go ahead by
leaps and bounds. All this talk about 'efficiency' is really part of the
same movement, though very few realize it; it's nothing more or less
than cutting out guess work and waste--and what els