The Boy Scouts' First Camp Fire; or, Scouting with the Silver Fox Patrol

"There!" exclaimed Thad, as he panted for breath after his supreme effort which resulted in the toppling of the boulder over the mouth of the rocky retreat of the two desperate...

"Ain't this fine and dandy, though?" remarked Bumpus, as he stood on the shore, after a short session in the water, and rubbed his plump form with part of the fine sheet Smithy...

"Oh! don't get that notion into your head," said the young leader; for as assistant scout-master, in the absence of Dr. Philander, Thad was supposed to take charge of the troop,...

"How are you feeling now, Bumpus?" asked Thad, some time later, as he once more stopped to allow all the stragglers pull up; for some of the boys were beginning to look rather f...

"Just what it is," Allan spoke up, "and if you watch me, you'll see how the poor Indian, not carrying a hammer and nails along, finds a way to leave his message so that it attra...

"Hold on," called out Step-hen, "let's start even all around. Has anybody seen my tin cup? Funny how _my_ things are always the ones to take to hiding. Now I give you my word, f...

Those on the shore, after the bugle's sad refrain had been silenced, gave the departing adventurers a last cheer, and a wave of their campaign hats. Over the water sounds carry...

Bumpus somehow seemed to keep his senses about him. Frightened as he was, he never forgot that, as the chosen bugler of Cranford Troop, he had certain duties devolving upon him...

He had his busy jack-knife at work laying in a store of shavings that would flare up in a jiffy, and set the next-sized kindling to going; when by degrees the larger logs would...

When Thad Brewster was thus making his way into the hole in the rocks, perhaps he may have remembered reading what old Israel Putnam, the Revolutionary hero, did when a mere str...

Smithy and the Jones boy watched their patrol leader with something more than ordinary curiosity, as Thad examined the two shining coins. And when the other even tried his teeth...

"I say, Thad, come over here with me; I've got something to show you," remarked Allan, about half an hour after they had finished lunch, and while most of the boys were lying ar...

Of course Thad and Allan were usually called upon to explain the thousand and one things connected with woods life, as yet sealed mysteries to those of the patrol who were exper...

"W-w-what d'ye think it was, Thad?" asked Bumpus, presently; and the fact was very evident that his teeth were rattling at a lively rate, warm though the afternoon sun was at th...

The excited announcement made by Davy Jones was instantly succeeded by such a mad scramble as those boys had certainly never witnessed before in all their lives. Indeed, none of...

"I was a fool, and that's all there is about it, Step-hen," he said, frankly. "Will you shake hands with me, and excuse the blunder I made when I felt sure you had hooked the ol...

"Here's tough luck, and more of it!" remarked Davy Jones; but while Smithy was looking excited, and rather white, the Jones boy was grinning, just as if the new condition of aff...

"Yes," remarked the patrol leader, smiling; "after talking it over with Allan, who will be left in charge here during our absence, I've concluded to take a second scout along. T...

Sure enough, when the others followed the proud Bumpus through the woods for a little distance, and then down close to the edge of the water, they found that he had really come...

Of course the scout-master was given a shock when he realized that Smithy could not be where he had told him to wait until relieved. All sorts of dire things commenced to flash...

"Oh! that's the finest thing that ever could happen, Thad;" was the way the delighted Smithy put his feelings into words. "And just to think that right here you can make use of...

Davy's words created no end of excitement in the camp of the Boy Scouts. Every fellow jumped to his feet, and several immediately stepped out so that they could get a better vie...

"He's turning around and around, like a real dancing bear!" echoed Step-hen; and then, still feeling a little malicious toward poor Bumpus, whom he really believed was hiding hi...

"Get your staves, and come along, everybody; no; you stay with our knapsacks, to guard them, Bob White. This may be some trick of Brose Griffin and his cronies to steal our stuf...

"Are you sure that chain will hold, Smithy?" asked the still nervous Step-hen, when some of the noise and enthusiasm had died away, so that the scouts could act like reasonable...

"That's what he said to you, did he, Davy?" asked the scout-master; and perhaps unconsciously his voice was lowered a little when he spoke, as though he felt that peril lurked c...

"Oh! murder! he's broke loose, and remembers about me!" Bumpus was shouting close to the ear of Thad; and there was a great scurrying in that quarter, as if the fat boy might be...

"No danger of that, suh!" declared Bob, with conviction in his manner. "I took right good notice of a heap of things, and they all seem to tally. This is the same place, I give...

Thad now devoted himself to the task of communicating all he had to say to his second in command, and as briefly as possible. Time was a factor in the affair; and it would not p...

Loud and clear sounded the notes of a bugle, blown by a very stout lad, clad in a new suit of khaki; and who was one of a bunch of Boy Scouts tramping wearily along a dusty road.