cabin eating his dinner, probably," Harry said. "Chuck on a
couple more logs, Westy old boy."

"He saw a meeting-shack, too," Gaylong said.

"It was just like real," the kid piped up.

"That point on the blaze made the roof. You can see things better if you
half shut your eyes."

"That's the idea," Harry said; "you've got to get kind of dreamy. You're
getting the hang of it all right. Over in France one night I saw the house
I live in at home. There was a new chicken coop. Once I saw Teddy
Roosevelt."

"One good thing," Brent said in that funny way he had; "the things you see
in the fire don't cost anything."

Harry said, "Yes, but they're going up like everything else. They go up in
smoke."

"Like everything else," Gaylong said.

"There you go," Harry said; "Hard Luck Gaylong, the boy grouch. How do you
know when you may strike luck. Look at Charlie Collins over there on the
west front; ran plunk into his own brother while he was on sentry duty;
brother said, 'H'lo Charlie'--just like that. Neither one knew the other
was in France. You've been looking at maps and things and you believe
everything the geography tells you. I've been all around this world and you
can take it from me, its about the size of a coconut. Look how Stanley
met Livingstone in South Africa. You take a tip from me and keep that
newspaper picture."

Brent said, "I'd paste it in a scrapbook only we haven't got a scrapbook."

"We haven't got any paste either," Willie shouted.

"Poor, but honest," Gaylong said.

Then Harry put his arm around little Willie Wide-awake's shoulder, awful
nice and friendly like, and he said, "Don't you mind him, Bill old boy. Let
him grouch. Now let's you and I see what we can find there."

Gee, he was awful nice and it made me like him a lot. Because, anyway, it
showed that even if he was kind of wild and reckless, he could be nice to a
little fellow like that. I wish he'd be a scoutmaster, but I don't believe
he ever will. He's got too many dates. We all looked into the fire and
listened when he began.

He said, "I can see old Grouch Gaylong, there, with a fine scout uniform
and one of those big long sticks and about 'steen hundred badges; badges
for being sarcastic, badges for lying on his back and sticking his feet up
in the air, Calamity Jane badges-all kinds. I can see you head of the
Church Mice patrol, only the Church Mice have struck it rich. They won't
speak to the Silver Foxes any more. See that