Boy Scouts: Tenderfoot Squad

meeting with little Conrad, he listened with eagerness to catch the first faint notes from the

of polished wood. It certainly had an extra sweet singing tone to me, and seemed to just talk as the boy drew his bow over the strings. I wouldn't b

ars, and would have been sold long ago to get common necessities, Elmer had also told him that perhaps the daughter

was lacking now some of that sadness he had detected in the playing of Conrad on the preceding day. Doubtless hope filled the aspiring heart of the lad. His tal

nius must always be. Even this child makes the music he finds in his own soul. But it's sweeter

is violin tucked under his chin; just as though he might be to the manner born, while his deft r

eased, while the boy came running to meet him. Elmer then felt sorry that he had not remained in

her did not attempt to squeeze too roughly, for he remembered that those little digits had to re

a more joyous mood today, for it shows in your music. Please sit on your stump again, Conrad, and humor m

and rabbits, with perhaps a curious old red fox that, prowling around in search of a dinner, may have stopped to investig

ons of sounds which that deft little hand tempted from the five strings of the violin. It seemed as though the spirit of the old virtuoso mus

hat appealed to him from the woods and waters was unlimited, for he se

this lad needed to develop into one of the greatest players the world had ever known was the directing hand o

g the bow to drop; "I never try to play when something inside tells me to stop.

sed the scout-master

said I wanted to ask you something. I have been wishing I could meet the mo

her there ever could be. All I know she has taught me, for, you see, she used

about me, then

bout seeing I had a chance to learn the many things I ought to know about using a violin properly. Why, Elmer, I guess it must have been the wish of her heart, that some one would come along and say that; because sh

ed in the soul of her child, and each night praying that in due time the opportunity might come for that to be developed into a

n so little of recent years, since his father seemed to want to get away from all mankind. Elmer told him many things that excited his interest.

ore I go back, Conrad," he suggested, at which t

ting for me to fetch you over, because she told me to be su

to meet one who had made such a vast promise to her bo

along at the side of the chattering boy; "she wants to see if I look like a vain

ld place the most implicit trust in a boy built after his type; his word was as good

ss. Elmer smiled when he saw that it was of the same blue consistency as the thin column that had caught his attention on the preceding morning, and caused him to stroll that w

open doorway. It was that of a small woman, evidently Conrad's mother, f

ht Elmer home with me to meet y

lt rather than saw her eyes fixed eagerly on his face. Apparently Conrad's mother must have be

al well-to-do people in the town, lovers of good music, who would, if only they could hear Conrad play, be delighted to make up

sing in opera, and turned out to be a great star, she had insisted on returning every cent he had expended on her, so that he might pas

ht be too much like flaunting a red flag before a bull; for if Mrs. Shock shared Jem's antipa

over whose future such clouds of uncertainty hung. Elmer sympathized with her, too, and quite won her heart by his manner; but then that

ed that his curiosity would be aroused on finding the daughter of a famous man mated with one whom people

, one fall when I was in the Adirondacks, it chanced that a dreadful forest fire swept down from every side. I was caught in the midst of it, and I had given up all hope of surviving; when he came and took me up in his arms. Somehow I seemed to feel that all would be well. Oh! how strong he was,

a strange twist of Fate, had recently come into the possession of the very man against whom Jem Shock believed he had such a grievance. It

t always tell from the exterior what may be within the shell. If only now Rufus could discover that it had all been a griev

y comforts in her modest cabin home-came to know her as well as if he had met her long before. Glimpses of her life, her hopes and fears were constantly passing before his mental obs

in that precious instrument. Elmer, remembering the dispute he had had with unbelieving George, aske

of his eye. It is a genuine Stradivarius instrument. I could have sold it for thousands of dollars, since it had once been his means of fascinating untold myriads of music

ock was coming home. How would he greet one of the boys from the camp where that son of the man he had such cause for hating held forth? Elmer stood up. If he felt the lea

arms of Jem Shock, and held tight to his breast. And seeing this Elmer somehow could not doubt but that