s on their faces."

"I bet we have the town hall wished on us."

"I bet it's the fire-house."

"I feel it in my bones we have to go to school."

"Let's see the cup."

"Did you eat?"

"What is this, a questionnaire?" asked one of the arrivals, the one who
had driven the car.

"Let's hear the worst."

"Break it gently."

"We thought your new junk wagon broke down."

"Don't say anything against his new junk Wagon or he'll never tell us
anything."

"Did you put the baby to bed?"

"Yes and locked him in."

"What kept you so late?"

"We got mixed up with a Bandit of Harrowing Highway."

"Who's he?"

"He's a villyan."

"A which?"

"A movie play."

"That's a nice thing for two scoutmasters to go and see. Your two troops
are ashamed of you."

"If our two troops don't shut up--"

"We'll shut up--come on, _altogether_!"

Followed a welcome silence.

"We've gone to a lot of trouble today for you kids," said one of the
scoutmasters. "We've got the cup but we had to wait a couple of hours
for it. The merchants in the great metropolis of Bridgeboro are so slow
that a turtle would be arrested for speeding there. Poke up the fire,
Nick, we're cold, and I'll tell you all about our adventures. We've made
a day of it, huh?"

The scout whom he called Nick jogged up the waning blaze while others
brought a fresh log, and soon the camp-fire was roaring a warming,
hearty welcome home to the weary scoutmasters. One of these (who was
evidently young enough to be addressed by his Christian name, for they
called him Ned) sat on an old grocery box and related the happenings of
the day, while the others sprawled about, listening. Occasionally his
fellow scoutmaster (Safety First they called him) contributed a few
words.

"Well, the first thing we did when we got ashore was to--"

"Get out of the boat?" a scout asked. There was surely not much
constraint between scouts and scoutmasters in this outfit.

"We went up to town and saw the school board; at least we saw Mr. Cram.
He says everything's upside down and they don't know what they'll
do--says there won't be any school for a month anyway. (Cries of
despair.) They can't use the town hall and they can't use the fire-house
and they're talking of using the old Wilder mansion. We told him if
there wasn't going to be any school till the middle of October or so,
we'd like to bunk right here on the island and study nature. He said,
'Go to it.' So there's no school fo