Sterling Boy Scout Books

Bound in cloth Fifteen titles

1 Boy Scouts of the Signal Corps.

2 Boy Scouts of Pioneer Camp.

3 Boy Scouts of the Geological Survey.

4 Boy Scouts of the Life Saving Crew.

5 Boy Scouts on Picket Duty.

6 Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron.

7 Boy Scouts and the Prize Pennant.

8 Boy Scouts of the Naval Reserve.

9 Boy Scouts in the Saddle.

10 Boy Scouts for City Improvement.

11 Boy Scouts in the Great Flood.

12 Boy Scouts of the Field Hospital.

13 Boy Scouts with the Red Cross.

14 Boy Scouts as County Fair Guides.

15 Boy Scouts as Forest Fire Fighters.

You can purchase any of the above books at the price you paid for this one, or the publishers will send any book, postpaid, upon receipt of 25c.

HURST & CO., Publishers
432 Fourth Avenue, New York

Copyright, 1915, by Hurst & Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Time Things Began to Mend 5

II. Help Wanted 15

III. “Strike While the Iron Is Hot!” 29

IV. Waiting for the Good News 39

V. Oakvale’s Great Clean-up Day 49

VI. The Promise of a Scout 58

VII. How the “Uplift” Worked 69

VIII. One Use for Woodcraft Knowledge 80

IX. The Goal in Sight 92

X. Benjy’s Suspicious Actions 106

XI. The Revelation 115

XII. Clear Sailing Ahead 124

XIII. Putting the Clamps On 133

XIV. For Home Protection 147

The Boy Scouts For Home Protection.

CHAPTER I.
TIME THINGS BEGAN TO MEND.

“Here it is springtime again, boys!”

“Yes, and I’m beginning to catch the spring fever. I just feel—well, torpid would describe it. I hate to study, or do any work that requires the least exertion.”

“Hey, Billy, there’s one great exception you’ll have to make when you say that—you’ve never let that torpor interfere with your rapid locomotion when you heard the welcome sound of the dinner bell.”

The fat boy in the new khaki suit allowed a broad, good-natured smile to spread over his freckled face.

“Oh, that’s different!” he exclaimed quickly. “I said work, please remember, Alec, and as for feeding, why, I always class that under the head of undiluted, unadulterated pleasure.”

“Well, winter has come and gone, with a whole lot of talk about town improvement in the air, and nothing done, just as you were saying, Hugh.”

The manly looking young fellow who answered to the name of Hugh Hardin was patrol leader and assistant scout master. This could easily be learned by any one at all familiar with the various devices used by Boy Scouts to designate rank. On the left sleeve of his coat, just below the shoulder, he had first of all two white stripes, and underneath that a red first-class scout badge.

Hugh, as well as a number of other members of the Oakvale Troop, had for some time been authorized to wear certain medals signifying that at some previous date they had been instrumental in saving human life at the risk of their own.

If the reader does not know under what stirring conditions these medals, typifying the Boy Scout Roll of Honor, were earned, he can have the pleasure of reading all the particulars in previous books of this series, as lack of time and space prevents our mentioning them here.

Besides the leader of the Wolf Patrol there were present on this occasion Billy Worth—the stout member—Alec Sands—who had once been Hugh’s most bitter rival for honors, but since heading the Otter Patrol he had grown to be very chummy with him—and Buck Winter.

They attended Oakvale High School and were dismissed about half-past one in the afternoon. They thus had considerable advantage over the boys and girls in the lower grades.

Indeed, at the late hour in the spring afternoon mentioned, numerous little folks were heading homeward in knots, having just been given their