afraid to go and sit down with his
own patrol! I'll fix that bunch," he said.

Then he stood right up and shouted--oh, boy, you ought to have heard
him. He said, "Let's give three cheers for Alfred McCord, of the 1st
Bridgeboro Troop, B.S.A., the second fellow to win the gold cross in
his troop and the first one to win it in his patrol--the _only_ one in
his patrol that _could_ win it!"

Oh, boy, that was some whack.

Well, you should have heard the fellows shout for Skinny. Merry
Christmas! but that was some noise. They all stood up, the Elks too,
and gave him the biggest send-off _I_ ever heard at Temple Camp. Even
the scoutmasters and the trustees joined in and old Uncle Jeb kept
shouting, "_Hooo--ray! Hooo--ray!_" Cracky, you would have laughed if
you'd heard him. Oh, bibbie! when Temple Camp once gets started, the
west front in France is Sleepy Hollow compared to it.

And oh, didn't it make me feel good to see Skinny. He looked as if he
was going to start to run away, but Connie had him by the collar, and
all the Elks were laughing, and now I could see they were proud of him,
anyway.

Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand and as soon as the racket died
down, he began to speak. This is what he said, because Mr. Barrows
(he's a trustee) knows shorthand, and afterwards he gave it to me all
written out to copy in our troop book. He said:

"Scouts, you have heard that speech is silver and silence is golden. I
think this kind of shouting is highest grade sterling silver. It is
chunks of silver, as one might say. But since this is a matter of the
gold cross, I ask for just a moment or two of golden silence, while I
speak to you. I see about me, scouts from Ohio, and Michigan, and New
Hampshire--"

"And Hoboken!" Pee-wee piped out. Jiminy, that kid is the limit.

"Yes, and Hoboken," Mr. Ellsworth said, trying not to laugh. "I speak
to all of you from north, south, east and west--"

"One of them has been up in an airplane, too!" Pee-wee yelled.

"I speak to all scouts here," Mr. Ellsworth said, "whether they come
from the heavens above or from the earth beneath or from the waters
under the earth. That will include any scout who may happen to have
been in a submarine. Will that do?" And he gave Pee-wee an awful funny
look.

Then he said, "I want to thank you all for the tribute you have paid
our troop in its moment of pride and honor. This little scout is brand
new, he is not even out of the tenderfoot class, an