point where the stream petered out so that
further navigation even by canoe was impossible; but they were already
in the outskirts of West Nyack.

"The next number on the program," said Roy, "is to administer first aid
to the canoe in the form of a burlap bandage. Pee-wee, you're appointed
chairman of the grass committee--pick some grass and let's pad her up."

If you have never administered "first aid" to a canoe and "padded it up"
for shipment, let me tell you that the scout way of doing it is to bind
burlap loosely around it and to stuff this with grass or hay so that the
iron hook which is so gently wielded by the expressman may not damage
the hull.

Having thus prepared it for its more prosaic return journey by train,
they left the boat on the shore and following a beaten path came
presently into the very heart of the thriving metropolis of West Nyack.

"I feel as if we were Lewis and Clarke, or somebody, arriving at an
Indian village," said Pee-wee.

At the express office Roy arranged for the shipment of the canoe back to
Bridgeboro, and then they started along the road toward Nyack. It was on
this part of their journey that something happened which was destined
materially to alter their program.

They had come into the main street of the village and were heading for
the road which led to the Hudson when they came upon a little group of
people looking amusedly up into an elm tree on the lawn of a stately
residence. A little girl was standing beneath the tree in evident
distress, occasionally wringing her hands as she looked fearfully up
into the branches. Whatever was happening there was no joke to her,
however funny it might be to the other onlookers.

"What's the matter?" Tom asked.

"Bird up there," briefly answered the nearest bystander.

"She'll never get it," said another.

"Oh, now he's going away," cried the little girl in despair.

The contrast between her anxiety and the amusement of the others was
marked. Every time she called to the bird it flitted to another limb,
and every time the bird flitted she wrung her hands and cried. An empty
cage upon a lawn bench told the story.

"What's the matter?" said Pee-wee, going to the child and seeking his
information first-hand.

"Oh, I'll never get him," she sobbed. "He'll fly away in a minute and
I'll never see him again."

Pee-wee looked up into the branches and after some difficulty succeeded
in locating a little bird somewhat smaller than a