he boys had long looked
with yearning eyes. And that Thad and his chums were fated to meet with
new and thrilling adventures that really exceeded any they had
encountered before, the reader will doubtless admit if he but secures
the succeeding volume to the present story, and which has been issued
under the name of "The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber; or, The Search
for the Lost Tenderfoot."

There is not a great deal more to add. Jim must have managed to send
some sort of message home, for at a certain station further down the
road, (after the boats had been shipped through as freight, the two
guides and Old Cale accompanying the scouts on the regular train,) Jim
said they would have to spend half an hour there, and that they might as
well get out to stretch. And lo and behold, there came a girlish cry,
and they saw a small figure flying straight toward Old Cale, bearing a
small bundle, which she immediately pressed into the clumsy arms of the
giant, who immediately wrapped mother and baby in a warm embrace.

Of course it was Little Lina, and Caleb Jr.; and the boys all had to be
introduced to Jim's wife. They parted from them there; but upon arriving
home, one of the first things Thad and his chums did was to subscribe a
round sum apiece, and send up the nicest baby's crib they could find in
Cranford; for somehow they felt a personal interest in Little Caleb.

Giraffe was feeling very proud those days. He had accomplished what
looked like the impossible when he finally managed to make his "silly
fire bow" work, and saved himself and Bumpus from going hungry and cold
that night they were adrift in the Maine pine woods.

Indeed, all of the boys had considerable to be proud of; and from that
day until school finally began, after the trustees had declared the
quarantine broken, each member of the Silver Fox Patrol was always the
center of an admiring crowd of listeners whenever he went abroad.

And the consequence was that a new patrol was quickly organized, eight
fellows subscribing to the rules and regulations of the organization of
Boy Scouts, and being mustered in during the winter as the Eagle Patrol
of the Cranford Troop.

"That's one of the best things that came out of our Maine trip," said
Thad to his chum Allan, as they were on the way home from the meeting
when those eight new members had been sworn in, and promised to live up
to the rules laid down for the guidance of all scouts by the heads of
the org