# Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp/Chapter XVII

CHAPTER XV
TELLS ABOUT CAMP-FIRE AND SKINNY
"ALL of a sudden I heard a fellow shout, "There he is!" And then everbody around the camp-fire set up a howl.
Skinny was standing in the dark away from the fire, just as if he was afraid to come in among the fellows. His uniform was all wrinkled and stained and he looked even worse than he did other times. There was a long mark on his cheek where I guess the gold dust twin had scratched him, and he didn't have his hat or his shoes. Good night, he didn't look much like pictures you see of heroes. But he was all quieted down, that was one thing. I guess he was played out.
"There he is, the crazy little Indian!" a fellow shouted; "come in here, Skinny, till we get our fists on you. You've won the gold cross, you little spindle shanks!"
Then a lot of fellows shouted, "Hurrah for Skinny! Come here, Skinny, till we pat you on the back—you little water snake!" They didn't ​even seem to know his last name or his front name either, and it made me mad.
"You trot right over here to mamma, Skinny," Vie Norris of the Elks shouted; "we'll take care of you."
The kid was smiling, all confused, as if he didn't know what to do.
"Come ahead over; don't be scared," Connie Bennett shouted. So then Skinny went over, kind of bashful and staring all around him, and sat down with the Elk patrol.
Westy leaned over and whispered to me, "Can you beat that? His own patrol leader telling him not to be afraid to go and sit down with his own patrol! I'll fix that bunch," he said.
Then he stood right up and shouted—oh, boy, you ought to have heard him. He said, "Let's give three cheers for Alfred McCord, of the 1st Bridgeboro Troop, B. S. A., the second fellow to win the gold cross in his troop and the first one to win it in his patrol—the only one in his patrol that could win it!"
Oh, boy, that was some whack.
Well, you should have heard the fellows shout for Skinny. Merry Christmas! but that was some noise. They all stood up, the Elks too, and gave ​him the biggest send-off I ever heard at Temple Camp. Even the scoutmasters and the trustees joined in and old Uncle Jeb kept shouting, "Hooo—ray! Hooo—ray!' Cracky, you would have laughed if you'd heard him. Oh, bibbie! when Temple Camp once gets started, the west front in France is Sleepy Hollow compared to it.
And oh, didn't it make me feel good to see Skinny. He looked as if he was going to start to run away, but Connie had him by the collar, and all the Elks were laughing, and now I could see they were proud of him, anyway.
Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand and as soon as the racket died down, he began to speak. This is what he said, because Mr. Barrows (he's a trustee) knows shorthand, and afterwards he gave it to me all written out to copy in our troop book. He said: .
"Scouts, you have heard that speech is silver and silence is golden. I think this kind of shouting is highest grade sterling silver. It is chunks of silver, as one might say. But since this is a matter of the gold cross, I ask for just a moment or two of golden silence, while I speak to you. I see about me, scouts from Ohio, and Michigan, and New Hampshire—
​"And Hoboken!" Pee-wee piped out. Jiminy, that kid is the limit.
"Yes, and Hoboken," Mr. Ellsworth said, trying not to laugh. "I speak to all of you from north, south, east and west—"
"One of them has been up in an airplane, too!" Pee-wee yelled.
"I speak to all scouts here," Mr. Elisworth said, "whether they come from the heavens above or from the earth beneath or from the waters under the earth. That will include any scout who may happen to have been in a submarine. Will that do?" And he gave Pee-wee an awful funny look.
Then he said, "I want to thank you all for the tribute you have paid our troop in its moment of pride and honor. This little scout is brand new, he is not even out of the tenderfoot class, and the gold cross award for heroism will be his. I think that every scout of his patrol should thrill with pride at this thought. I dare say we all find him a little strange, we as well as you, and I'm afraid he is a kind of law unto himself—if you understand what I mean. But this beautiful cross which will soon be his will bring him closer to us all, I am sure. It is said in our Handbook that a ​scout is a brother to every other scout, so he has many thousands of brothers all over this broad land. The gold cross is very bright. Look in it and you will see your face reflected. You will see the scout smile, and that is brighter than any gold.
"The best of all, it reflects honor—honor on him who wears it, honor on his patrol, on his troop and on every troop and scout in this whole great camp. And Alfred McCord has brought us this honor. Come here, Alf, my boy, and let me shake your hand."
Wasn't that a peach of an address?
But I noticed that Skinny didn't move. He just stood there close to Connie Bennett. He was shaking all over and he was smiling and he was erying. I saw Hunt Ward jump up and give him a rap on the back and he was so little and so thin, that it kind of made him stagger.
Then he said, "Can't I stay here with them?"
Oh, boy, wasn't I glad!