The Boy Scouts at the Panama Canal

e had read in his morning paper (of the day before) to the effect that his pet abomination and aversion, The Boy Scouts, had held

sp, and odorous with the scent of apple blossoms. Robins twittered cheerily

ined by a rather heavy-set youth with small, shifty eyes and a sallow skin which gave the impression of languishing for soap and water. A

ed and wrinkled features, just then aglow with self-sa

is offspring from under h

ly, "you just back frum Panamy-under a cloud, too, and yet

?" he went on after a pause

as if denying some di

since the day I was kicked out of-that is, s

never tole me what you qui

I told you when I got back from the Isthmus, I

ant it fer,-hey?" he repeated, co

re was nothing for it

in debt. Debts I ran up on the Isthmus," was the rejoinde

e ter learn engin-e-ring thrun in. You git fired fer misbehavin' yerself an' then yer co

violence. Jared, eying him askance, saw that his father was working himse

t going to get it back. And there'll

mpton spoke correctly, the old man had made most of his large fortune, not

it, "uv course you've tole me all that; but what you h'aint tole

oke. Jared hesitated an instant before

o go into shortly. I'm-I'm under a sort of promise not to, you see. Bu

the old man warily. "I-Gee Whitakers

e farmer's eyes fell on it. In the center of the track it paus

bumble bee, came out of the distance. As he heard the peculiar dron

makes the third time in ther last two weeks that Jake's bin out when she come along.

up from his rooting as the car came dashing on. Possibly the recollection of those other two narrow escapes was upon him. At any rate, with a s

rl gave the steering wheel of the auto a quick twist to avoid the pig, one

w feet and then, alighting on his feet, galloped off u

the girl alarmedly,

and land in the ditch, where it came to a standstill. Farmer Applegate, ra

makes three times you run over Jake. You got away them other times, but I got yer naile

, "really I had no intention of hurting-er-Jak

tion. Jake, at the moment, was engaged in combat ov

nted the farmer. "Anyhow, it's time

girl, and out came a dainty hand-bag. "Er-how

to catch the note of amus

d; "besides, your pop fired my boy down on the Ist

orner of her eye Jared's figure slinking around the side of the porch; "how much do you wa

her voice, old Applegate's fac

ay five dollars each time,-that ud be yer fine for o

irl's voice showed her a

s. You bang over him at sixty mile an hour an' scare him out'n all his fat an' six

. Send your bill to my father. He'll settle it. A

ll hev yer up afore the justice. Lucindy!" he raised his voice in a call for his wife; Jared ha

hour? Jake's bin run over

"it looked like sixty; but I recki

te triumphantly, "an' th

an ten miles!" cried the gir

to push yer machine out'n ther ditch an' then I

e your hand off my car at once, or-oh, dear!

t you'll do," declared Farmer Applegate stubbornly; "now then-

natured face was streaming with perspiration from the long "hike" on which they had been. But his companions looked trained to the minute, brown-faced, lithe-limbed, radiating health and st

into full view of the strange scene,-the ditched auto, the flu

pplegate disgustedly, as, in answer to the girl's appealing look, the three y