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Page 8
"Don't let the girls get too far away from us," cautioned
Madeline. "I wouldn't like to get really lost, even for the joke
of having you find me, Gracie."
"But you would do a little thing like that to help me out on my
personal bravery stunt?" teased her companion. "I wonder why only
the first class girls are permitted to do all those wonderful
things and get all the really high honors?"
"Because they have gone through all the necessary trials and
examinations," replied Madaline sagely. "You and I can get credit
for our deeds, but we must show our full records to get the
highest B. C. That's fair. You can't make a major out of a
private. He has got to go up by degrees."
"Well, maybe it is fair, but I just love the glory of
presentations. I am so sorry for Margaret. I would have dug up the
town today to find that Merit Badge she lost last night."
"I like the way she braved it out, though," added Madaline. "She
felt badly enough, and it did mean so much to her," finished the
sympathetic scout.
"Oh, yes, I suppose so," rather reluctantly agreed the ambitious
Grace. "But I shouldn't relish the feeling that some grimy mill
girl was wearing the badge in a smoky factory."
"Oh, Grace, shame! That's not scouty. You must not speak so of the
mill girls. We hope to take some of them in our troop before long.
We would have no right to public support if we did not do
something definite for others, and the mill girls have so few
chances. So don't, Gracie dear, ever speak like that again."
"I won't if you say so, also if it isn't scouty. I am out to win
the goal, and I don't mind what I may have to do to get my scout
good conduct ball into the official basket. Now, how's the heel?
Did the little pad of soft leaves help to keep the pressure off?"
"Yes, that was a fine idea, and I shall see to it that some day,
when original work is called for, you get credit for the nature-
aid heel pad. Rather a clumsy title, but when we explain how easy
it is to get soft leaves to make pads for suffering feet, I am
sure it will be welcome news to many an ambitious hiker."
"Oh, Madie dear," suddenly exclaimed Grace. "Where are the girls
gone? They are not in the hazel nut clump, and I can't hear a
sound!"
"Oh, my! Suppose they have gone looking for us the other way?"
Both girls in alarm, now scurried through the woods, calling and
giving the "Coo-ee" call, but not a sound answered them. Birds
were flitting about from limb to branch, and the strange stillness
of the woods frightened the little Tenderfoots.
"You go along the bank, and I'll scour the elderberry patch. This
wood is so dense in spots, and so clear under the hemlocks, it is
easy to lose and hard to find anyone in it," declared Grace. "I'm
glad I brought my big rope. I intended to tie every knot in the
course, and cut them all out to fetch back finished, and I haven't
even unwound the rope."
"If there is anything easier than getting lost in the woods it
must be getting caught at whispering in the eighth grade,"
grumbled Madaline. "I wish my old heel had behaved itself."
"And all the plans for my brave stunt gone to naught," put in the
now breathless Grace. "I would never have made up the hike if I
had not determined to get a glory mark out of it. Now see where we
are! Miles from home, and darkness coming on at each end. Where
could those girls have gone to?"
"Sure as shooting they have gone on searching for us. There's the
reservoir road, going in the opposite direction, and also Chestnut
Hill. To go either of those roads meant getting entirely away from
the foolish little scouts who stopped to chatter and chin. Just
shows what we can do when we don't know we shouldn't."
For some moments they brushed their way through the thicket,
beating down briars with their stout sticks, then coming to a
broad clearance they found themselves in a great grove of pines,
clean as a floor, except for the layer of savory pine needles, and
almost dark as night from the density of the pine canopies.
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