n of the word, "and what is best for one isn't necessarily
best for another. These posters are for fellows older than you, as you
know perfectly well. I'm talking now of what is best for _you_--at
present. Won't you trust me? If you can't obey and trust your
scoutmaster, you couldn't obey and trust your captain and your general."

"I never said I didn't," said Tom.

"Well, then, leave it to me. When the time comes for you to join the
army, I'll tell you so, and I'll shout it so loud that you can't make
any mistake. Meanwhile, put aside all that idea and knuckle down and
help. You're just as much with the colors now as if you were in the
trenches.... You'll be on hand early to-morrow?"

"I s'pose so," said Tom sullenly.

Mr. Ellsworth looked at him steadily. No doubt it was something in Tom's
grudging manner that made him apprehensive, but perhaps too as he
looked at the boy who had been growing up before his eyes in the past
two years, he realized as he had not realized before that Tom had come
to be a pretty fine specimen and could stand unconcerned, as he
certainly would, at the most rigid and exacting physical test.

When Tom's rapid growth had brought the inevitable advent of long
trousers, arousing the unholy mirth of Roy Blakeley and others, Mr.
Ellsworth had experienced a jarring realization that the process had
begun whereby his scouts would soon begin slipping away from him.

He had compromised with Time by making Tom a sort of assistant
scoutmaster and encouraging Connie Bennett to work into Tom's place as
leader of the Elk Patrol; and he had lived in continual dread lest Tom
(who might be counted on for anything) discover his own size, as it
were, and get the notion in his stubborn head that he was too big to be
a scout at all.

But Tom had thought too much of the troop and of the Elks for that, and
a new cause of apprehension for Mr. Ellsworth had arisen which now
showed in every line of his face as he looked at Tom.

"I want you to promise me, Tom, that you won't try to enlist without my
permission. If you'll say that and obey Rule Seven the same as you have
always obeyed it, I'll be satisfied."

"How about Rule Ten?" said Tom, in his usual dogged, half-hearted
manner; "a scout has got to be brave, he's got to face danger, he's----"

"You notice Rule Seven comes before Rule Ten," snapped Mr. Ellsworth.
"They put them in the order of their importance. The men who made the
Handbook knew what they w