Chapter 28

"HOME, SWEET HOME!"

"Yes, I'll go home with yer, Jim! I shore I'm sick fur a sight o' my leetle gal. Lina's baby too--I'd be ther biggest fool in all Maine, not ter give in, arter yer kim up hyar, riskin' yer ears ter tell me _thet_! We'll jest try an' furgit what's gone by, Jim, an' start fresh. An' yer kin help me raise my foxes fur ther company thet's hired me fur five years ter run ther farm."

That was what Old Cale was saying as he pumped the hand of the delighted and grinning Jim. And Thad was glad he was there to witness this joyous reconciliation.

The fire had passed, and left them safe. Jim, when he could do so, made his way back to the cabin; and on his return announced that it was only a blackened ruin. Whereupon Old Cale sighed, and then seemed to look forward to a new home, in which there would be an abundance of sunshine, because Little Lina, and Caleb, the boy who was named after him, would reign there.

They managed to spend the night somehow, and in the morning started back to the camp on the border of the lake; though after leaving the region where the fire had swept, they found the snow quite deep, and the going bad. But apparently the coming of the storm had extinguished the last lingering flames, so that the saving to the state of Maine was beyond computation.

Arriving at the camp, Thad found the boys getting uneasy about him, and Eli about to start out to see if he could get trace of the absent ones. They understood that the distant fire, which had not come near them, must have been in the neighborhood of Old Cale's cabin, as described by Jim; and it was this that made them worry. But it was all right now, and they received the wanderers with hearty shouts.

The story, upon being told by Thad, evoked renewed cheering, especially for the old poacher who had reformed, and was now going to show what he could do in a line that appealed to him especially, since he knew all about the woods' animals.

Just as Thad had said while Cale was feeling his burns, and the bump on his head, he declared that nothing serious was the matter with him; and that even if there had been, the glorious news that Jim had brought, at such risk to himself, would have cured him effectually.

"Well," said Giraffe, as they gathered around the supper that evening; "This is our last camp in Maine, seems like; for to-morrow Thad says we start for the railroad station at Eagle Lake, through Lake Winthrop; and soon we'll be booming along for home."

"That sounds good to me, fellers," spoke up Bumpus. "Always did like my home pretty well, and it never seems half so nice as when you're away, trying to make out you're having a bunkum time sleeping on the hard ground, with roots diggin' holes in your sides; and all sorts of creepers crawlin' over your face. Home, sweet, sweet home for me, just now!"

"But just remember that you owe us all a treat, Bumpus," spoke up Davy Jones.

"Yes, we know Giraffe can make a fire that way now, because he showed us yesterday, as easy as anything; but when I tried it, never a spark could I get," and Step Hen looked disgusted because of his lack of knowledge.

"Huh! you needn't feel bad," declared Giraffe. "If it took _me_ all that time to get on to the proper wrinkle, and me a regular fire fiend, how could you have the nerve to think you could hit her up the very first thing? But Bumpus ain't never going to question that I won that wager, fair and square. Only because if I hadn't, we'd a gone without a supper that night, and been near frozen in the bargain. Lots of things hinged on that fire, I'm telling you, fellers."

"I should say they did," observed Bumpus, frankly. "Why, on'y for its cheery twinkle them two poachers, Si and Ed, wouldn't have known we were around; and you see how we'd have missed doin' that great stunt which will go down in the history of the Silver Fox Patrol as one of the shining examples----"

"Oh! let up on that stuff, Bumpus, and help me to some more stew," Giraffe broke in, as he passed his platter along.

"Well," remarked Allan, "we've had a pretty good time of it up here, all told, counting the two separate trips we took. And it'll be a long time before we beat the record for big game we've made in Maine."

But Allan did not know what was before the Silver Fox Patrol before many moons had passed, or he would not have uttered this rash prediction. When the summer holidays came along, they had another long journey in prospect, provided the money was received from the bank, that had been offered for the restoration of the securities carried off by the bold yeggmen captured by the scouts, and as related in the preceding volume of this series. This trip would take them many hundreds of miles from home, into a country toward which a number of the 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 organization.

"Well," replied the other, "I was looking back the other day, at the diary I kept while we were gone; and I find that a heap of things came out of that same hunt up among the pines of Maine. All of us felt better for the outing; more than one learned a lesson in perseverance that will follow him all his life; we did a good thing in capturing those hobo thieves, Charley Barnes and his crowd; then we made something of a record in hunting, you with your first moose, and Bumpus with that honey thief of a black bear; after that we helped wind up the poaching careers of Si Kedge and Ed Harkness; and last but not least, had a hand in bringing about that splendid family reunion that we saw on the platform, when we stepped off the train. On the whole, Thad, all of us ought to be mighty well satisfied with the way things have gone. I know I am."

"And you can say the same for me," added the young scoutmaster. "But after all is said, I think the most wonderful thing to happen was how Giraffe, after missing fire a dozen times with his little bow and stick, should strike it _just right_ when it meant so much for him and Bumpus. And then Bumpus paid for that treat like a little man, saying it was worth it, ten times over, just to hear Giraffe _yell_ when he'd succeeded in making his tinder flame up without using a single match."

And here we will leave the boys of the Silver Fox Patrol, to take up their further adventures in the succeeding volume.

THE END