THE BOY SCOUTS
AS
FOREST FIRE FIGHTERS
BY
SCOUT MASTER ROBERT SHALER
AUTHOR OF “BOY SCOUTS OF THE SIGNAL CORPS,” “BOY SCOUTS OFPIONEER CAMP,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,” “BOYSCOUTS OF THE LIFE SAVING CREW,” “BOY SCOUTS ON PICKETDUTY,” “BOY SCOUTS OF THE FLYING SQUADRON,” “BOYSCOUTS AND THE PRIZE PENNANT,” “BOY SCOUTS OFTHE NAVAL RESERVE,” “BOY SCOUTS IN THE SADDLE,”“BOY SCOUTS FOR CITY IMPROVEMENT,” “BOYSCOUTS IN THE GREAT FLOOD,” “BOY SCOUTSOF THE FIELD HOSPITAL,” “BOY SCOUTSWITH THE RED CROSS,” “BOY SCOUTSAS COUNTY FAIR GUIDES,” ETC.
NEW YORK
HURST & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1915,
BY
HURST & COMPANY
CONTENTS
- CHAPTER PAGE
- I. Oakvale’s One Wise Man 5
- II. What Presence of Mind Meant 16
- III. The Threatening Peril 27
- IV. The Call of Duty 39
- V. Carried to the Front 48
- VI. The Burning Forest 59
- VII. As Busy as Beavers 73
- VIII. Back-firing 85
- IX. Peter, the Bound Boy 96
- X. At the Dry Spring 105
- XI. Babes In the Woods 116
- XII. When the Rain Came Down 130
- XIII. Right-about Face! 142
The Boy Scouts as Forest Fire Fighters.
CHAPTER I.
OAKVALE’S ONE WISE MAN.
“Don’t believe in it, I tell you! All a humbug!No boy of mine will ever fool away histime strutting around and wearing soldiers’clothes when he ought to be doing his choresat home! Take that from me, young fellow!”
“But Mr. Prentice, if you care to ask anyone of the best citizens of Oakvale——”
“Foolish of them to be so blind, I tell you,boy!”
“There’s Mr. Hayward, the minister, sir!”
“A good man, but an easy mark all thesame!”
“And Judge Marshall!”
“Surprised to hear that a long-headed manlike the judge should allow his name to beused in connection with such utter foolishness.If he had boys of his own instead ofthree girls he might see things in a differentlight.”
“There’s Dr. Kane, and—well, the father ofevery one of the thirty boys in the troop. Infact, Mr. Prentice, I think you’re almost theonly prominent man in or around Oakvale whohasn’t enthusiastically endorsed the local scouttroop, wh