."

"Then you have lost one, have you sir?" questioned the scout master,
not from idle curiosity, either, Tom Chesney felt positive.

The old man heaved a great sigh.

"Yes, my youngest, and the darling o' his maw's heart, little Jim. Only
last summer he was off swimmin' with several o' his chums, and got
caught with a cramp. They got him out, brave enough, but--he never kim
to agin."

Mr. Witherspoon cast a quick and meaning glance around the circle of
eager faces. Several of the scouts nodded in a significant fashion as
though they guessed what was flashing through the mind of their leader.

"Mr. Brush," said the scout master, gravely, "I'd like to tell you some
things that to my own personal knowledge scouts have done; things that
they never would have been capable of performing in the wide world had
they remained outside of this organization that first of all teaches
them to be manly, independent, helpful to others, and true to
themselves. May I, sir?"

"Jest as ye please, Mr. Witherspoon," came the low reply, for the
farmer had evidently been partly overcome with the sad remembrance of
the vacant chair, and the face he missed so much at his table.

The scout master went about it in a very able manner. Again he
explained the numerous duties of a scout, and how he was taught to
render first aid to the injured in case, for instance, his services
should ever be needed when some comrade cut himself with an ax, and was
in peril of bleeding to death.

"There are other ways," Mr. Witherspoon continued, "in which the scout
is instructed to be able to depend on himself should he be lost in the
wilderness, caught in a tornado, tempted to take refuge in a barn, or
under an exposed tree during a thunder storm."

"All o' that sounds mighty interestin', I must say, sir!" commented the
farmer, deeply interested.

"To my own personal knowledge, Mr. Brush," finally said the other, "on
three separate occasions I have known of cases where a boy in swimming
was apparently dead when dragged from the water after having been under
for several minutes; in every one of those instances his scout
companions, working according to the rules that had become a part of
their education, managed to revive the fluttering spark of life and
save the lad!"

There was an intense silence as the last word was spoken. Every one of
those boys realized how terribly the man was suffering, for they could
see his face working. Presently he looked u