TOM SLADE AT BLACK LAKE BY PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH Author of THE TOM SLADE AND THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY HOWARD L. HASTINGS PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK |
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1920, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PREFACE.
Several persons have asked me when Tom Slade was ever going to grow upand cease to be a Scout. The answer is that he is already grown up andthat he is never going to cease to be a Scout. Once a Scout, always aScout. To hear some people talk one would think that scouting is likethe measles; that you get over it and never have it any more.
Scouting is not a thing to play with, like a tin steam-engine, and thento throw aside. If you once get caught in the net of scouting, you willnever disentangle yourself. A fellow may grow up and put on longtrousers and go and call on a girl and all that sort of thing, but if hewas a Scout, he will continue to be a Scout, and it will stick out allover him. You'll find him back in the troop as assistant or scoutmasteror something or other.
I think Tom Slade is a very good example. He left the troop to go andwork on a transport; he got into the motorcycle messenger service; hebecame one of the greatest daredevils of the air; he came home quite"grown up" as you would say, and knuckled down to be a big business man.
Then, when it came to a show down, what did he do? He found out that hewas just a plain Scout, shouldered his axe, and went off and did a bigscout job all alone. So there you are.
I am sorry for those who would have him too old for scouting, and whoseem to think that a fellow can lay aside all he has learned in thewoods and in the handbook, the same as he can lay aside his shorttrousers. It isn't as easy as all that.
Did you suppose that Tom Slade was going to get acquainted with nature,with the woods and streams and trees, and make them his friends, andthen repudiate these friends?
Do you think that a Scout is a quitter?
Tom Slade was always a queer sort of duck, and goodness only knows whathe will do next. He may go to the North Pole for all I know. But onething you may be sure of; he is still a Scout of the Scouts, and if youthink he is too old to be a Scout, then how about Buffalo Bill?...