re is mine," said Hervey; "a scout is always--whoa! There's
where I nearly dipped the dip. Watch me swing over this branch. I bet
you can't hang by your knees--like this."

There are some people who think that trees were made to bear fruit and
to afford shade, and to supply timber. But that is a mistake; they were
made for Hervey Willetts. They were the scenes of his gayest stunts. He
had even been known to dive under the water and shimmy up a tree that
was reflected there. He even claimed that he got a splinter in his hand,
so doing! Upside down or wedged across a channel under water, trees were
all the same to Hervey Willetts. He lived in trees. He knew nothing
whatever about the different kinds of trees and he could not tell spruce
from walnut. But he could hang by one leg from a rotten branch, the
while playing a harmonica. He was for the boy scout movement, because he
was for movement generally. As long as the scouts kept moving, he was
with them. He had a lot of merit badges but he did not know how many.
"He should worry," as Roy said of him.

"Here's a good one--known as the jazzy-jump," he exclaimed. "Put your
left foot...."

"You put your left foot on the trunk and don't let go the branches and
follow me," said Tom, soberly. "Do you think this is a picnic we're on?"

"After you, my dear Tomasso," said Hervey, blithely. "I guess we're not
going to be killed after all, hey?"

"I'm afraid not," said Tom.

"I wish I had an ice cream soda, I know that," said Roy.

"Careful how you step ashore now," Tom said.

"Terra cotta at last," said Roy; "I mean terra firma."

"Jump it," called Hervey, who was behind Roy.

Thus, emerging from a peril, which none but Tom had fully realized, they
found themselves on the comparatively low shore of the cove. The tree,
itself a victim of the storm, poked its branches up out of the black
water like specters, which seemed the more grewsome as they swayed in
the wind. These had guided the little party to shore.

So it was that that once stately denizen of the lofty forest had paused
here to make a last stand against the storm which had uprooted it. So it
was that this fallen monarch, friend of the scouts, had contrived to
check somewhat the mad rush of water out of their beloved lake, and had
guided four of them to safety.

CHAPTER V

WIN OR LOSE

The dying mission of that noble tree suggested a thought to Tom. The
water from the lake was pouring over it, though