Produced by Sean Pobuda
"As long as I can't be at home," said Harry Fleming, "I'd rather be herethan anywhere in the world I can think of!"
"Rather!" said his companion, Dick Mercer. "I say, Harry, it must befunny to be an American!"
Harry laughed heartily.
"I'd be angry, Dick," he said, finally, "if that wasn't so English—andso funny! Still, I suppose that's one reason you Britishers are as bigan empire as you are. You think it's sort of funny and a bit of amisfortune, don't you, to be anything but English?"
"Oh, I say, I didn't quite mean that," said Dick, flushing a little."And of course you Americans aren't just like foreigners. You speak thesame language we do—though you do say some funny things now and then,old chap. You know, I was ever so surprised when you came to Mr. Grenfeland he let you in our troop right away!"
"Didn't you even know we had Boy Scouts in America?" asked Harry. "Myword as you English would say. That is the limit! Why, it's spread allover the country with us. But of course we all know that it startedhere—that Baden-Powell thought of the idea!"
"Rather!" said Dick, enthusiastically. "Good old Bathing-Towel! That'swhat they used to call him at school, you know, before he ever went intothe army at all. And it stuck to him, they say, right through. Evenafter Mafeking he was called that. Now, of course, he's a lieutenantgeneral, and all sorts of a swell. He and Kitchener and French are sobig they don't get called nicknames much more."
"Well, I'll tell you what I think," said Harry, soberly. "I think he dida bigger thing for England when he started the Boy Scout movement thanwhen he defended Mafeking against the Boers!"
"Why, how can you make that out?" asked Dick, puzzled. "The defence of
Mafeking had a whole lot to do with our winning that war!"
"That's all right, too," said Harry. "But you know you may be in abigger war yet than that Boer War ever thought of being."
"How can a war think, you chump?" asked the literal-minded Dick.
Again Harry roared at him.
"That's just one of our funny American ways of saying things, Dick," heexplained. "I didn't mean that, of course. But what I do mean is thatevery-one over here in Europe seems to think that there will be a bigwar sometime—a bigger war than the world's ever seen yet."
"Oh, yes!" Dick nodded his understanding, and grew more serious. "Mypater—he's a V. C., you know—says that, too. He says we'll have tofight Germany, sooner or later. And he seems to think the sooner thebetter, too, before they get too big and strong for us to have an easytime with them."
"They're too big now for any nation to have an easy time with them,"said Harry. "But you see what I mean now, don't you, Dick? We Boy Scoutsaren't soldiers in any way. But we do learn to do the things a soldierhas to do, don't we?"
"Yes, that's true," said Dick. "But we aren't supposed to think ofthat."
"Of course not, and it's right, too," agreed Harry. "But we learn to beobedient. We learn discipline. And we get to understand camp life, andthe open air, and all the things a soldier has to know about, sooner orlater. Suppose you were organizing a regiment. Which would you ratherhave—a thousand men who were brave and willing, but had never campedout, or a thousand who had been Boy Scouts an