are just dead tired it seems
a sin to try and keep them awake, especially when there is no need of
it.

So Paul announced that those who wanted to could turn in, while the rest
were enjoined to keep quiet, doing their talking in whispers, so as not
to disturb the sleepers; just as if the discharge of a six pound cannon
close by would bother those weary scouts, once they lost themselves in
the dreamland of Nod.

Babe Adams had just stepped over to get a last drink at the near-by
spring, when the others were surprised to see him come tearing back
again, evidently in great excitement.

"Paul, come over here with me, and you can see it!" he called out.

"See what?" demanded the scoutmaster, at the same time climbing to his
feet.

"Looks like some farmhouse might be afire; because you c'n see the red
flames jumping up like fun!" was the thrilling announcement made by the
tenderfoot scout.

CHAPTER V

A HELPING HAND

"It's a fire, all right!" announced Paul, after he had taken a good
look.

"No question about that," declared Seth, who was right on the heels of
the others, for you could never keep him quiet when there was anything
going on, because he always wanted to be "in the swim."

"Yes, either a house, or a barn ablaze," remarked Eben, sagely.

"Might be only a hay stack, you know," suggested Jotham.

"Don't burn like that to me; I seem to see something of a building every
now and then, when the flames shoot up," Paul went on to remark, for he
was always discovering things upon which to found a reasonable theory.

"How far away does it lie, dy'e think, Paul?" asked Andy.

"Not more than half a mile, I should say," came the reply.

"Just my idea to a dot," Jotham admitted.

"Why, you c'n even hear the crackle of the flames, whenever the night
wind happens to blow this way," Babe Adams asserted; and they all agreed
with him, for the same sound had come to their ears also.

"We might help the poor old farmer, if we only happened to be closer,"
Eben said, in the goodness of his heart.

"And if we didn't feel so bunged-up tired," added Andy.

Somehow the scouts began to show signs of nervousness. Those might seem
like pretty good excuses to some fellows; but when a boy becomes a scout
he somehow looks at things in a different way from in the old days. No
matter how tired he may be, he eagerly seizes on a chance to be useful
to others; to do some good deed, so as to experience the delightful gl