Sterling Boy Scout Books

BY
Scout Master Robert Shaler

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. Back From the Fishing Hole 5

II. The Great Undertaking 16

III. On Duty at the Fair 28

IV. The Fakir and His Dupe 40

V. A Credit to the Uniform 52

VI. “Strike While the Iron Is Hot!” 63

VII. Sowing the Seed 74

VIII. A Scout in Trouble 85

IX. The Rift in the Cloud 96

X. One Boy’s Influence 108

XI. Backed by the Scouts 120

XII. At the Station 131

XIII. How It Turned Out 142

XIV. Stopped on the Road—Conclusion 148

The Boy Scouts as County Fair Guides.

CHAPTER I.
BACK FROM THE FISHING HOLE.

“You know, boys, a whole lot depends on what kind of weather we have during Fair week!”

“How about that, Arthur? You’re the weather-wise scout of Oakvale Troop.”

“Yes, give us your forecast, Arthur; has the rain let up for keeps?”

“So far as that goes, Alec, I notice in the morning paper it’s turned clear all the way from the Rockies east, and that ought to mean a good spell of several days for us.”

“Unless one of those howlers comes twisting up the Atlantic coast from the West Indies; you want to remember that the hurricane season isn’t quite over yet.”

“Nothing of the kind in sight, and I always look up every scrap of weather news in the papers.”

“You make me happy when you say that, Arthur, old weather sharp. We get our afternoons off from school while the County Fair is on, because it’s such a big thing for Oakvale and vicinity. I’m trying to figure out what I can do to have a cracking good time of it.”

“So are we all, Tom, but there’s no use trying to hike off somewhere with the whole troop. You can’t do much on an afternoon. Why couldn’t they have fixed it so we would get free the last half of the week, including Saturday?”

“Tell that to the school directors, Alec. Perhaps they’ll take pity on you and change the programme. I doubt it, though. I reckon they want the boys to be around while the Fair is going on.”

“I’ve figured out that my scheme is to hang around the Exhibition and see the aëroplane man do his stunts every afternoon; but I’d rather be in camp any day.”

The three boys whose chatter opens this chapter had been tramping along the main road leading into the town of Oakvale, where they all lived. It was on a Saturday afternoon in early fall. That the lads had been spending part of their holiday in fishing was in plain evidence, for besides carrying either bamboo poles or jointed rods, they dangled strings of yellow perch, some of the catch being of extraordinary size.

On their way home the boys had stopped to scan a highly-colored poster on a billboard at the side of the road, where people in the passing trains nearby could also have the benefit of the information thus blazoned forth.

About this time every year the big County Fair was held on the extensive grounds near the thriving town of Oakvale. If wonderful promises meant anything at all the coming exhibition of live stock, farm products, and the like would far surpass anything heretofore attempted.

Besides, there would be