y, reckless, impulsive young
dare-devil, whose very talk, as he jumped from one theme to another,
made him smile in spite of himself, could not be expected to bear in
mind the record of his whole remarkable accomplishment. He was no
handbook scout.

There is the scout who learns a thing so that he may know it. But there
is the scout who learns a thing so that he may do it. And having done
it, he forgets it. Perhaps there is the scout who learns, does, and
remembers. But Hervey was not of that order. He had made a plunge for
each merit badge, won it and, presto, his nervous mind was on another.
It takes all kinds of scouts to make a world.

Perhaps Hervey was not the ideal scout, but there was something very
fascinating about his blithe way of going after a thing, getting it, and
burdening his mind with it no more. He lived for the present. His naive
manner of asking Tom for a tip as to a trail had greatly amused the more
experienced scout, who now could not understand how Hervey had used the
handbook so much and knew it so imperfectly.

"Didn't you ever see one before?" Tom asked.

"Not while I was conscious," Hervey shot back, "but if he likes to live
that way it's none of my business. He's inside taking a nap, I guess. He
had some rocky road to Dublin coming down. I wonder what he thinks? That
wasn't the right kind of a trail, was it?"

"Wasn't it?" Tom queried.

"No; I want a trail along the ground."

"Still after the Eagle, huh? Do you realize what you have done?"

"I've torn my suit all to shreds, I know that. Right the first time,
hey? I'd look nice going up on the platform Saturday night? Good I won't
have to, hey?"

"I thought you were going to," Tom said soberly.

"So I am," Hervey shot back at him; "trails up in the air don't count.
Never mind, I'll find a trail to-morrow. It's my troop I'm thinking of.
I'll land it, all right. When I get my mind on a thing.... Hey, Slady,
what in the dickens is that streak of red in the nest? Is it a trade
mark or something like that? You're a naturalist."

"It's an oriole's nest," Tom said, with just a note of good-humored
impatience in his voice. "I thought you'd know that."

"You see my head is full of the Eagle badge just now," Hervey pleaded,
"but I'm going to look up orioles."

Tom smiled.

"I'm going to look up orioles, and I'm going to get Doc to put some
iodine on my leg, and I'm going to do that tracking stunt to-morrow.
There's three things I'm go