Boy Scouts: Tenderfoot Squad

he woods, across open glades, and sometimes crossing ravines where little brooks gurgled

rs that dotted some of these open places. This interested Elmer very much; and as he stopped to watch them going in and out o

f nothing hinders I'll get one of the boys to help me track these little chaps to their hiding-place. I've done it before, and ought to be able to again, if I

acks, plainly outlined in the hardening mud alongside one

oned. "Been out late for a stroll, haven't you? Visiting around, perhaps, to see how your relatives are getting on; and dodging in and out of all these hol

another track quite

hin sound of his voice. "You were also abroad during the night, I see, and carrying home some sort of game in the bargain, for the litt

making any discovery. Then the observant boy tr

"Well, it was a sorry night for the poor bird; but those little foxes just had to have something to devour ever so often. Now, I'd like to find out whether this was a red fox; one of

minutes he came to a place where the returning four-footed hunter had to pass through close quarters, in pushing under some

lmer declared, also placing the evidence away, for he would want to show it to the tenderfoot squad, when tellin

o the other side of a stump and then with sharp eyes watched the two-legged intruder on its haunts curiously; the harmless garter-snake that glided from under his foot, though giving him a certain thrill as he remembered t

in later on. Now it might be an odd freak in the way of a bent-over tree, that had the appearance of a drawn bow, with some unseen giant of the woods standing ba

f smoke had been noticed in the still morning air. Elmer, too, fancied, when an hour had

thinking of invading the precincts of the camp, that might pr

bothered to tell me, even if they knew. I guess Jem's been something of a mystery to the people up here. He seems to have no friends, and it may be nobody ever did penetrate to h

haps Elmer may have also had some little scheme in mind whereby they could do more or less good by utilizing some of those superabundant stores which George had cleverly advised Rufus to lay in, under the possibility of their being storm-bound up in the woods, with a great need for much provisions.

directly up the wind for quite a while now, and hence more than half expected that he might catch

nd that sent a peculiar thrill through his whole person. There was nothing so strange a

I can hear the plain chords now. Perhaps some fiddler who plays at country barn dances is passing through the woods, and has stopped over nig

rising to fever heat. Now the notes of the weird music came floating to him on the soft air, more and more distinctly. It seemed

players, but never anything like that! Whoever can it be! I'd wager a heap that the gift of inherited genius is back of that playing. I can see that he isn't an educated vi

of person he was going to see. Could some professional violinist have taken a notion to spend his summer up here amidst the solitudes, communing with Natu

had crept to the further edge of these and Elmer would

ad of a man with the looks of a professor, or even a lady performer, he discovered that the party responsible for

m, and had to find an outlet somehow. He was barefooted, and dressed shabbily. Yet, despite these evidences of poverty, Elmer could note what seemed to be a distingu

at flood of music to cease. All the while Elmer was trying to figure out what it could mean. Was this boy Jem Shock's child; and, if so, how in the wide wor

right channel. I'm bound to bring this up before some of the good people at home, and see what can be done. Oh! if only they could hear him as I am doing right now, it would be easy to

d his violin away in a much-soiled bag of once green baize, and was climbing down from the stump, as

otsteps at first, for Elmer knew how to tread softly; but presently he loo

TNO

ory Ridge Boy Sco