Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, Ball State University and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: "I wouldn't go when you dared me to," said the tenderfoot, "but this is--different." And he added in his heart: "This is for _my country_." [_Page 23._]]
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TO MY MOTHER'S NAMESAKE AND MY OWN VIRGINIA OWEN GREENE AND FRANCES NIMMO GREENE
"I wouldn't go when you dared me to," said the tenderfoot, "but this is--different." And he added in his heart: "This is for _my country_" _Frontispiece_
A man was sitting over some sort of instrument 36
"You can't touch Rudolph!" she cried. "He's under the flag!" 86
"Riego Yañez," he said, "I am proud to shake hands with an American hero!" 120
This is the story of a "tenderfoot"--of a pink-cheeked, petted lad, and of his first service as a Boy Scout.
Danny Harding was what his mother's friends termed "wonderfully fortunate," but Danny himself took quite another view of his life's circumstances as he hurried home from school one afternoon, an hour before the regular time for dismissal.
The day was golden with sunshine, but the boy's spirit was dark. There was singing in the air and singing in the tree tops, but in the heart which pounded against his immaculate jacket were silent rage and despair.
The Whippoorwill Patrol had been called to the colors, and he the untried, the untested tenderfoot would have to remain at home in luxurious security, while the huskier, browner, less-sheltered lads answered their country's call. It was beyond the power of a boy's heart to endure--the mortification--the wild despair of it! They would call him a slacker, a _coward_! But, worse still, his country needed him, and he could not answer!
Danny brushed away the tears which threatened to blind him, and stumbled on.
The call had come through a telegram from the Scout Master to the boys while they were yet at school, and the teacher had promptly dismissed them to service. The Whippoorwills were to leave immediately upon an expedition to the mountains, but just what duty they were called to perform was not stated in the brief message. All they knew was that they were to leave at once for a certain distant mountain-top, there pitch tents and await orders for serious service.