Camp Fires of the Wolf Patrol Part 19

Of course the manly boy, Felix, and the useful maiden, Little Lou, came along, for the hut was being abandoned forever.

They had places in the boats when the camp was left behind. The wagon as well as a carriage awaited them at exactly the same place where had burned the first camp fire of the expedition, this latter being for the use of Abe and his "kiddies," and the clumsier vehicle for the camp luggage.

As for the scouts themselves they scorned such a means of travel.

Browned and healthy, they felt able to walk twice the seven miles that lay between the Sweet.w.a.ter and Hickory Ridge. And besides, were they not headed for _home_, with all that that implied in their enthusiastic boyish hearts?

We could not, even if we would lift the veil, betray the emotion some of the valiant scouts exhibited when clasped again in the loving arms of a mother or a father. But everybody declared that the change in the boys was wonderful, and that they really seemed to have taken a great step forward in the journey toward manliness. Jasper Merriweather in particular hardly seemed like the same weak, timid boy. He had drawn in a big breath of "outdoors," and glimpsed the goal toward which he was now determined to set his course.

And in Hickory Ridge that night, there was a consensus of opinion to the effect that the Boy Scout movement was by long odds the best thing that had ever happened to quicken the better element lying dormant in every growing lad.

Abe Morris was easily placed in a paying position, and the boys never lost their interest in the boy Felix and Little Lou. Just as they had declared, the rewards coming to them for having effected the capture of the two bad men, as well as the runaway monkey valued so highly by Colonel Hitchens, were paid over to Abe, and went toward starting the little Morris family in a cottage of their own within the limits of the town of Hickory Ridge.

Doubtless the thoughts of those lads would many times go out to the camp fires which had marked their first outing after organizing. And as they looked over the numerous fine pictures Mark had secured, they would live again the days when they experienced the strenuous life under canvas.

THE END.