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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29260-h.zip b/29260-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8681cb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/29260-h.zip diff --git a/29260-h/29260-h.htm b/29260-h/29260-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0e47d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/29260-h/29260-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4758 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts, by Roy Rutherford Bailey</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + .hang2 {text-indent: -1em; margin-left: 4em;} + + .cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; margin: -0.2em 0.1em 0; margin-top: 0%; + padding: 0; line-height: .75em; font-size: 300%; text-align: justify;} + .cap {text-align: justify;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts, by Roy +Rutherford Bailey</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts</p> +<p>Author: Roy Rutherford Bailey</p> +<p>Release Date: June 28, 2009 [eBook #29260]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by David Edwards, Emmy,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from digital material generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/surepopsafetysco00bailrich"> + http://www.archive.org/details/surepopsafetysco00bailrich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> + +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + +<h1>Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts</h1> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<div class="blockquot"><i>Being a Safety Scout means doing +the right thing at the right time.</i><br /> + + +<div class='right'>—<span class="smcap">Colonel Sure Pop</span><br /></div> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<h1>SURE POP AND<br /> +THE SAFETY SCOUTS</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ROY RUTHERFORD BAILEY</h2> + +<div class='center'> +PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NATIONAL<br /> +SAFETY COUNCIL<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><i>ILLUSTRATED</i><br /><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 72px;"> +<img src="images/i002.png" width="72" height="70" alt="Emblem" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class='center'> +<small>YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK</small><br /> +WORLD BOOK COMPANY<br /> +1916<br /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<i>Get the Safety Habit</i><br /></div> +<div class='copyright'><br /><br /><br /><br /> +<i>Copyright, 1915, by World Book Company. Copyright, 1915, in Great Britain.</i><br /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Introduction</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Adventure Number</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">One: Bob Thirsts for Adventure and Gets It</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Two: The Royal Signet Ring</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Three: The Woman and the Wizard</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Four: The Persistent Pigm</span>y</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Five: The Magic Button's Warning</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Six: The Live Wire</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seven: Betty Evens the Score</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eight: Little Schneider's Fire Alarm</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nine: "Chance Carter's Way"</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ten: The Twins Meet Bruce</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eleven: "Just for Fun"</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Twelve: Getting Down to Business</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thirteen: Dalton Patrol</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fourteen: Six Timely Tips</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fifteen: Twin Uniforms</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sixteen: Where Safety Was a Stranger</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seventeen: Giving the Other Fellow a Square Deal</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eighteen: An Adventure in Safety</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nineteen: One Day's Boost for Safety</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE SAFETY SCOUT'S PLATFORM</h2> + + +<div class='poem2'> +<i>I will bear in mind the value of human life and a sound body.</i><br /> +<i>I will take no risks to endanger my body or any of its parts.</i><br /> +<i>I will do nothing to endanger the life or limb of any other person.</i><br /> +<i>I will be vigilant not only for my own safety, but for that of others,<br /> in the street or indoors, on foot or in conveyances, anywhere and at all times.</i><br /> +<i>I will try to do at least one Good Turn for Safety every day.</i><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Safety First—The Prevention of Accidents</span></h3> + + +<div class='unindent'><span class="smcap">Americans</span> are realizing the need for preventing accidents. +The general conservation and efficiency movements and the +Workmen's Compensation Laws first directed the attention of +employers to the needless waste of human life. The discovery +that by the safeguarding of machinery and the education of +workmen ninety per cent of the industrial accidents could be +prevented, has proved the value of educational methods in Public +Safety work, and the Safety activities of public officials, trade +organizations, public schools, churches, and other agencies have +been directed toward the prevention of accidents on the street, +in public places, and in homes. Every phase of human life is +affected by accidents, and their elimination means saving human +life and the avoidance of destitution and misery.</div> + +<p>The National Safety Council realizes the importance of educating +school children in the principles of Safety; for they will be +the future industrial workers and the representatives of public +opinion; their interest must be aroused to practice and preach +"Safety First" everywhere. Children can be taught to become +alert to their own safety, and can influence their parents to a +deeper realization of their responsibilities.</p> + +<p>The National Safety Council has directed the preparation of +this book and hopes that through its pages children will be +brought to realize the manliness of caution, the importance +of courtesy and consideration; that, in short, the Safety way +is simply the right way of doing things; and that the efficiency, +comfort, and happiness of many individuals will be increased +by the practicing day in and day out of "Safety First."</p> + +<div class='sig'> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">R. W. CAMPBELL</span><br /> +<i>President National Safety Council</i><br /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><i>You have no right to take a chance; +some one else may have to take the<br /> +consequences.</i> + +—<span class="smcap">Colonel Sure Pop</span><br /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + +<h2>SURE POP AND THE<br /> +SAFETY SCOUTS</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="450" height="284" alt="Pulled out of the way" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE</h2> + +<h3>BOB THIRSTS FOR ADVENTURE AND GETS IT</h3> + + +<p>"Bully for Uncle Jack!" cried Bob, a stalwart lad just +on the edge of twelve, excitedly waving a letter with a +South American postmark. "What wouldn't I give to be +with him on his exploring trips! Here, Betty, listen to this +part about their fight with the natives!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, please!" said his twin, clapping both hands +over her ears, but listening just the same. "I'm always so +afraid Uncle Jack will get killed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Uncle Jack get killed? Hardly! Just listen to what +he says:</p> + +<p>"'This last scrimmage was one of the liveliest I've ever +been up against. The warlike up-river tribes, it seems, mistook +our native scouts for a war party and lay in ambush +for us. Might have been worse, though. Our losses were +two men killed and seven wounded—but of course that's +only a fraction of what you wound and kill every day back +there in the States.'"</p> + +<p>"Why, what does he mean by that?" wondered Betty. +"There's no war going on in this country, is there?"</p> + +<p>"Not that I know of." Even Brother Bob looked puzzled +for a moment. "No Indians left to fight! But say, Betty, +Uncle Jack's life is just fairly dripping with adventure! +Think of it—every day chock-full of thrills and narrow +escapes—and adventures every time he turns around! +Well, it won't be many years now before I can be a scout +and explorer myself."</p> + +<p>A yell from their playmates outside brought the twins +to the street in a hurry. Bob's legs were longer, but Betty, +quick as a cat, got there first.</p> + +<p>"You're it, Bob!" "Bob's last, so he's it!" Like a +band of savages the screeching boys and girls scuttled across +the car tracks and around the corners, while Bob counted +up to five hundred "by fives."</p> + +<p>"Four hundr' nine' five, FIVE HUNDRED!" yelled +Bob, and started to dash across the tracks, for he had caught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +a glimpse of Jimmy West's new red boots disappearing under +his grandmother's porch across the street. The sound of +the wind in his ears as he ran drowned out the roar of the +coming street car, and of course he had eyes only for those +tell-tale red boots.</p> + +<p>Another jump and Bob would have been under the +wheels—but a strong little hand on his shoulder stopped +him. The street car roared by with a startled clang of its +gong, for the motorman had seen Bob too late to throw off +the power.</p> + +<p>Bob gasped in relief—then whirled around to see what +had stopped him. And what do you think he saw, right +there beside him in the street? Was it a scout—or a +pygmy—or what?</p> + +<p>He was old and snowy haired, but as fresh as a daisy +and as spry as a cricket. His cheeks were as ruddy as +Spitzenberg apples and his only wrinkles were the laughter +wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. And such eyes! They +were big and clear, and so bright that Bob could only look +at them a moment and then turn away. It was like trying +to stare at the sun.</p> + +<p>He was tiny, but straight as a ramrod in his natty khaki +uniform. And he was holding up his right hand just like +the big policeman on the corner downtown. As he dropped +it to shake hands with Bob, there was a sudden flash of +green.</p> + +<p>"Why, hello there!" Bob could scarcely believe his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +eyes. "Where on earth did <i>you</i> come from? And who—who +<i>are</i> you, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"My name is Sure Pop!" answered the scout in a clear +voice, like the note of a bugle. "I've dropped in on the +United States on my second tour of scouting duty, and I +hear you are thirsting for adventure. Well, you've had +<i>one</i>, at any rate; if I hadn't grabbed you just in the nick +of time—" He shuddered and hustled Bob back to the +sidewalk.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, old scout!" stammered Bob. "I didn't +know there was a car coming, and you see I was in such +a hurry—"</p> + +<p>"I see!" said Sure Pop, dryly. "<i>I</i> see, Bob, but <i>you</i> +didn't. How do you suppose a wee chap like me ever +gets across the busy streets downtown?"</p> + +<p>"Give it up!" said Bob, "unless you can fly!" And +he gave a sly glance at the scout's square little shoulders, +half expecting to see wings.</p> + +<p>Sure Pop grinned. "No more than you," he chuckled. +"So I keep my eyes and ears open. Folks who have no +wings must use their wits."</p> + +<p>Bob felt a bit uncomfortable to have his mind read so +easily, and promptly changed the subject. "What a funny +name you have—'Sure Pop'!"</p> + +<p>"Well, 'tis a funny one, sure pop! That name was wished +on me by a crowd of Borderland folk, and then His Majesty +gave it to me for keeps."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + +<p>"His Majesty—do you mean your King?"</p> + +<p>"Right—the King of the Borderland." The two had +been walking toward the Dalton house as they talked. +Now Sure Pop followed Bob up the steps and curled up in +the big porch chair to tell him all about it.</p> + +<p>"Once upon a time, some years ago, when I was a younger +man than I am now," began Sure Pop, "I was standing on a +corner in the largest city in the Borderland. It was noontime, +and crowds of horsemen and chariots were dashing +up and down the street.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly I saw a youngster start over to my side of +the street without looking either way. There was a chariot +almost upon him when I held up my hand, as I did to +you now, and yelled, 'Look sharp!' He stopped short—and +those thundering wheels missed him by about an inch.</p> + +<p>"He picked his way across the street, then, and held +out his hand. 'That was a close shave,' he said. 'You've +saved my life, Mr.—Mr.—' For of course he didn't +know <i>my</i> name from Captain Kidd's.</p> + +<p>"'That's all right!' I said. 'But you should always +look before you cross.'</p> + +<p>"'Do <i>you?</i>' he asked, with a sudden sharp glance.</p> + +<p>"'Sure pop!' I told him. 'Safety First!'</p> + +<p>"By this time quite a crowd of Borderland folk had +gathered around us, and they all laughed and cheered and +called me 'Sure Pop.' And one bold-eyed rascal threw +up his pointed cap and shouted, 'Bully for Sure Pop!' and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +ran off to tell the King. At that all the rest of the crowd +clapped their hands, for though they laughed at the name +they knew I had the right idea."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" said Bob. "So that's how you came by that +comical name of yours?"</p> + +<p>"Sure pop!" answered the Safety Scout with a twinkle.</p> + +<div class="center"><i>Folks who have no wings must use their wits.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="450" height="289" alt="The Royal Signet Ring" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO</h2> + +<h3>THE ROYAL SIGNET RING</h3> + + +<p>Sure Pop paused in his story as Betty came dashing +around the house. Like a shot the stranger jumped to his +feet, and again Bob caught that sudden flash of green as +he raised his hand in salute.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Betty, glad to see you!"</p> + +<p>"Why, goodness me!" exclaimed Betty. "You seem +to know me, but I don't know who you are—unless you +are one of those Boy Scouts Bob is so crazy to join?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly <i>Boy</i> Scouts," chuckled Sure Pop with a +wink at Bob, "unless you count us boys till we're ninety-nine +years old! Girls are scouts, too, in <i>my</i> regiment."</p> + +<p>"Now, Betty," warned Bob, "sit down here and don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +you dare interrupt, for Sure Pop's right in the middle of a +story—and I think he's come to stay a while, haven't +you, Sure Pop?"</p> + +<p>"Sure pop! I'll stay as long as the King will let me," +laughed the merry little scout.</p> + +<p>"Well, after I got away from the crowd," he went on, +"my eyes must suddenly have been opened to the thousand-and-one +things that might happen even in Borderland to +folks who didn't look sharp on the street, for on my way +home I saved several others from getting hurt.</p> + +<p>"The first was a careless little cabin boy, who went +along whistling with his hands in his pockets. He slipped +and fell plump in front of a chariot, and of course he couldn't +jerk his hands out of his pockets in time to save himself. +I grabbed him up in the very nick of time, or he'd have been +smashed flatter than a pancake.</p> + +<p>"And only a block farther on, I met a carpenter hurrying +through the crowd with a ladder on his shoulder. Some +one shouted to him, and he whirled around with never a +thought of his ladder. The end of it would have hit a fat +old banker squarely between the eyes if I hadn't been watching +for that very thing and caught it as it swung. I went +home and thought no more about all this, till that night, +at midnight, I was summoned before the King."</p> + +<p>"The King!" cried Betty. "My, weren't you scared?"</p> + +<p>"I was, sure pop! When I marched into the throne room +it was crowded with richly dressed people. The King and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +Queen sat on their thrones, and as I went toward them I +had to pass between two long lines of trumpeters.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly up went the silver trumpets, and the trumpeters +blew a mighty blast. Let me tell you, it was enough to +send the shivers down your spine, that trumpet call was! +It seemed as if I never had climbed a longer flight of steps. +But at last I found myself bowing before the King and +Queen. The King, who wore a brand new uniform, just +like this one I have on, beckoned a herald to his side.</p> + +<p>"'Now hark to his words,' he said to me, 'and say if he +speaks the truth.' And then the herald read aloud from a +long white scroll, with scarlet seals on it, the story of how I +had saved the young chap from the chariot that noon, and +all about the cabin boy and the fat old banker I'd helped +on my way home!</p> + +<p>"'Does the herald speak truly?' asked the Borderland +King. And all the rest strained their ears for my answer.</p> + +<p>"'Sure pop, Your Majesty!' I replied before I knew +what I was saying. At that he pulled from his finger a new +signet ring, inked it with some magic ink, and motioned for +me to hold out my right hand. How do I know it was +magic ink? Why, it must have been, for the print it +made has never faded. Look!"</p> +<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="150" height="153" alt="UNIVERSAL SAFETY" title="" /> +</div> +<p>Bob and Betty looked at the little +scout's right hand, which he held up +again like the crossing policeman downtown. +And this is what they saw:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Hold it up,' commanded the King, 'where all can +see!' And then the trumpets sounded again.</p> + +<p>"'Long live Colonel Sure Pop, the Safety Scout!' cried +the herald. The court wizard stepped forward, waved his +hand and mumbled a few magic words over me, and—what +do you think!—I found myself dressed in a brand new +scouting uniform, the only one just like the King's!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Long live the Safety Scouts!</i> + + + +—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i006.jpg" width="450" height="288" alt="THE WOMAN AND THE WIZARD" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE</h2> + +<h3>THE WOMAN AND THE WIZARD</h3> + + +<p>Sure Pop, the Safety Scout, drew a long breath and +watched the automobiles whirling recklessly down the busy +street. "But say, haven't you twins had enough stories +for one day?"</p> + +<p>"Not much we haven't! What did the King do next?"</p> + +<p>No doubt about the twins' being thirsty for adventure! +Sure Pop smiled.</p> + +<p>"Well, a single wave of the King's hand dismissed his +people. Looking very sorrowful, he opened the great book +in which he keeps the record of everything that happens +over here in the New World.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I looked where he pointed, and trembled. For this +was what I read:</p> + +<div class='center'> +"'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</div> +<div class='poem2'> +'Fathers and mothers and boys and girls killed by accidents last year. . . .<br /> +'Injured, blinded, crippled, and maimed. . .'<br /> +</div> + +<p>"He ran his finger across the page to the totals, and I saw +that the first total ran clear up into the thousands—and +the second one into the millions!</p> + +<p>"'Colonel Sure Pop,' said the King, 'if only the thought +you put into the mind of that lad you saved this noon, +might be put into the mind of all America!'</p> + +<p>"'Your Majesty means—Safety First?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"The King nodded. 'All the lives lost in all our battles,' +he said grimly, 'are but a drop in the sea as compared with +the slaughter of a single year in a single land!'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, Your Majesty, let me go and teach them Safety +First—now, before another life is thrown away!'</p> + +<p>"'No, Colonel. Not yet. The time is not yet ripe. +But—perhaps we can make a beginning. Come to me +again tomorrow night, at midnight, and we shall see.'</p> + +<p>"The next night I went to the throne room and found the +King studying a big map. He had a red pencil and a blue +one in his hand, and he pointed to a lot of red rings he had +drawn on the map.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Those,' he told me, 'are America's great mills. In +them and the other factories, thousands upon thousands +of workmen are killed by accident every year—by accident, +Colonel, not in battle.</p> + +<p>"'And that is not all,' the King went on. 'These blue +lines mark the trails of the great iron horses—the railroads. +Last year these iron horses trampled out thousands of lives +in America alone. And all because the Americans haven't +learned to <i>think</i> Safety!'</p> + +<p>"That was too much for me. I pleaded with him to let +me come straight to America and help end that awful suffering. +But the King shook his head.</p> + +<p>"'The more haste, the less speed, Colonel. Before you +can help America, you must help yourself; and the quickest +way to do that is first to teach Safety to our own people. +Let me see you win your spurs here in the Borderland, and +then—to America you go!'</p> + +<p>"'Teach Safety to our own people?' I repeated, a bit +puzzled. 'How ought I to go about it, Sire?'</p> + +<p>"'Go through all the Borderland,' said the King, 'and +muster an army of Safety Scouts. Train them to know +signs that spell DANGER, as an Indian scout reads the signs +of the trail. Teach them to report every danger signal +they see—and they will teach their neighbors, and so the +knowledge will spread. But above all, be sure your Safety +Scouts are well chosen.'</p> + +<p>"'But how?' I asked. 'Shall I pick out wise people?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Colonel of the Scouts,' said the King, shrewdly, 'the +wisest are not always the safest. Have you never thought +why it is "bad luck to go under a ladder"?'</p> + +<p>"'Never,' I owned up. 'I've always thought of it as just +a proverb.'</p> + +<p>"'True. But proverbs without reason would be like +trees without roots. Stop and think: sometimes a ladder +breaks or slips, which is bad for the climber—and bad for +any one who happens to be under that ladder just then. And +sometimes a painter's heavy paintpot falls—and woe to +him who walks under the ladder then, be he the wisest man +in the kingdom. Now go, and one moon from tonight bring +me a full regiment of Safety Scouts.'</p> + +<p>"So out through the Borderland I went, saying over and +over to myself, 'It is bad luck to go under a ladder,' and +waiting for the King's meaning to be made plain.</p> + +<p>"First I went to the home of a great wizard, the wisest +man in the Borderland. As I neared the house, the door +opened and the wizard came out, a heavy book of wisdom +under his arm.</p> + +<p>"He had a long black pipe in his mouth. Pulling out a +match, he lighted his pipe, threw the burning match over his +shoulder, and hurried on toward the city.</p> + +<p>"I started to run after him, when a flicker of light caught +my eye. There in the straw that littered the roots of the +ivy vines by the steps, a little tongue of flame was lapping +up the tangle of leaves!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bob jumped to his feet as if he had heard the clang of +a fire bell. "Good enough for him, the old fossil! Did it +burn his house down?"</p> + +<p>"Came mighty near it," said Sure Pop, looking at the +scars on his hands. "He had a sick wife in there all alone, +and if I hadn't happened along just then—</p> + +<p>"Well, anyway," he went on cheerfully, "I got the fire +out at last. And the King's meaning was made plain—it +is one thing to have wisdom and another thing to use it. +So I didn't ask the wizard to join the Safety Scouts, after +all."</p> + +<p>"I should say NOT!" cried Bob and Betty with one voice. +"But where <i>did</i> you find your Scouts?" added Bob.</p> + +<p>"Well, the next idea I had was to ask mothers, for mothers +give up much of their time, anyhow, to keeping children out +of harm's way. I found one whose house looked so trim +and neat, and her children so clean and happy, that I had +almost made up my mind to invite her to join—when my +eye fell on a shining butcher knife hanging beside the kitchen +table, where even the baby could reach it without half +trying.</p> + +<p>"And that wasn't all I saw. There was a saucer of fly +poison on the window sill! Then I saw the mother starting +to carry out a pail of water to scrub the steps, when +the brass knocker on the door gave a thump, and she left +that hot water right there in the middle of the floor while +she talked to a peddler!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just then the baby came toddling across the room. +He got safely past the scalding water and the fly poison, but +the next moment I saw him climb up on a chair, open the +medicine chest, and grab a bottle from the bottom shelf—the +bottom shelf, Betty, of <i>all</i> shelves in the house! Out +came the cork, and up went the bottle to his lips, just as I +saw to my horror a skull and crossbones on its label. Like +a flash I—"</p> + +<p>"What's a skull and crossbones, Sure Pop?" broke in +Betty.</p> + +<p>"Poison sign!" explained Bob, shortly. "Don't interrupt! +Go on, Sure Pop!"</p> + +<p>"Like a flash," said Sure Pop, "I bounded to the baby's +side and snatched the bottle away. I tell you, I did some +earnest thinking as I left that house. I realized that it +would never do to ask that mother to join our army of Safety +Scouts, for until she herself had formed the Safety habit, +she could hardly be expected to teach Safety to others. +The adventure of the baby and the poison bottle had opened +my eyes to the real meaning of the King's words about +finding Scouts who could read the little signs that spell +DANGER.</p> + +<p>"By the way, I told the poison bottle story to a great +doctor the other day, and now he's doing his best to get a +law passed requiring that all poison bottles be of some +special shape, different from any other bottles. That will +make them much safer, even in the dark."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But how can they be made different in shape?" asked +Betty. "What shape, Sure Pop?"</p> + +<p>"Three-cornered, probably. That certainly would be a +life-saving law, if he could only get it passed. Just think! +There were several thousand deaths in the United States +last year from that one cause alone—just from mistaking +bottles of poison for other medicine."</p> + +<p>"But what I can't see," said Bob, "is how anybody <i>could</i> +mistake a poison bottle. They all have skulls and crossbones +on them, haven't they?"</p> + +<p>"Stop and think a moment," said the Safety Scout. +"Suppose baby has croup in the night, and mother is roused +out of a sound sleep and rushes to the medicine chest; she's +only half awake—the light is dim—poor baby is gasping +and choking—not a moment to lose. She isn't likely to +stop and read labels very carefully, is she? But if she felt +her hand close over a <i>three-cornered</i> bottle, it would wake +her up in a hurry. Even in the darkness and in the excitement—if +she had been trained to think of a three-cornered +bottle as meaning DANGER, perhaps death—it would +stay her hand as surely as a red light stops an engine."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Betty, "that when folks are badly +hurt, or awfully, awfully sick, other folks lose their heads +and don't know what they really <i>are</i> doing."</p> + +<p>"Betty, you've hit the nail right on the head. Now +that's why we must fix things so safety won't depend on +level heads or time to think. The danger signal must pop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +right into our heads from force of habit. The sooner American +boys and girls—yes, and the grown-ups, too—get the +Safety habit, the sooner 'Safety First' will change from +phrase into fact.</p> + +<p>"The first day I ever spent in America opened my eyes +to the price your country is paying for the word 'guess.' +The more I studied the situation, the oftener I noticed folks +saying 'I guess' where they should have said '<i>I know</i>.' In +nearly all of America's accidents, guesswork is the real +cause.</p> + +<p>"The moment I realized that, I said to myself, 'It's high +time America dropped guesswork out of its daily life.' My +work was cut out for me: I began right then and there to +study out ways of getting folks to stop guessing, once for all, +<i>and be sure</i>—sure pop!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Stop guessing, once for all, and be sure.</i> + + + +—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i007.jpg" width="450" height="283" alt="THE PERSISTENT PIGMY" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR</h2> + +<h3>THE PERSISTENT PIGMY</h3> + + +<p>"Say, Sure Pop!" burst out Bob, as the Safety Scout +paused in his story. "A whole regiment—did you realize +that was a lot of Scouts to get together in one month?"</p> + +<p>"Did I?" echoed Sure Pop with a chuckle. "<i>Did</i> I? +Well, if I didn't when I set out on my search, I did before +the first day was over. I had lost out on the wisest man in +the Borderland—<i>he</i> wouldn't do, for all his wisdom. He +only served to remind me of what the King had said, that +the wisest are not always the safest."</p> + +<p>"Sure—sure pop!" Bob broke in again. "But how +did you ever get a whole regiment together in one month? +You simply couldn't disappoint the King, you know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're right, Bob, I simply couldn't. So as fast as I did +find one that would do for the army, I set him to work finding +others—passing the good work along. I soon saw I +could never make good with the King by trying to do it +all myself, and I do believe the King knew all along that +there was only one way a really big work could be done—by +getting <i>everybody</i> stirred up and enthusiastic. So I +turned each new Scout loose to hunt for more.</p> + +<p>"You'd laugh to know who was the first Scout enrolled. +As I slipped out of the poison-bottle house, I saw a funny +little pigmy hurry out of a cottage across the lane and go +z-z-zam! down the front steps. We'd had a nip of frost the +night before, and the slippery steps took him by surprise. +For a moment he stood rubbing his head, with his merry little +face puckered up into a comical sort of bowknot. Then he +picked his way slowly up the steps into the house.</p> + +<p>"A minute or two and out he came again with a bag of +salt and sprinkled the steps with it. Though he was in +just as big a hurry as our friend the wizard, the Safety +First idea had got him, and he plainly had made up his mind +to begin right then and there.</p> + +<p>"'Well, I declare!' I said to myself. 'I've a notion to +muster him into the scouting service—but what would the +King say to my enrolling a pigmy?' Just as I was wondering +about it, down he went again, flat on his little back!</p> + +<p>"This time it was on the sidewalk in front of his house. +Some careless youngster had thrown a banana skin on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +walk. Poor little pigmy, what a bump he did get that +time! But again he picked himself up, and this time he +didn't wait a moment—just poked the banana skin off into +the gutter where it could do no more harm.</p> + +<p>"Such persistence was too much for me! I told him the +King wanted him for the royal army of Safety Scouts, and +that he was to have the honor of being the first one enrolled. +His eyes fairly popped out of his head as he listened, and +before you could say 'Jack Robinson,' he +had scampered off to help me raise an +army—with one of these buttons in the +lapel of his leather jerkin."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="150" height="153" alt="Universal Safety" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Sure Pop pulled a sparkling button out +of his pocket and laid it before the twins.</p> + +<p>"There, that's the Safety Scouts' badge of honor, and no +Scout can wear one till he earns the right. The King himself +designed it."</p> + +<p>"My! I wish—!" The twins remembered their manners +and stopped short, but Sure Pop understood. He threw +back that wise little head and how he did laugh!</p> + +<p>"You wish—eh? That's what they all say, the minute +they lay eyes on that button! You see, that's a magic +button, so it's no wonder everybody wants one. Friends, +that button can <i>talk!</i>"</p> + +<p>Bob stared at the button as if he couldn't believe his +ears. Betty, taking Sure Pop at his word, grabbed the +button and laid it to her ear. She gave a squeal of delight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It does! It does talk—doesn't it?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Sure pop it does!" laughed the Safety Scout. "That's +all it can say, just four words at a time—but those four +are enough to save thousands of lives every year."</p> + +<p>"What four words?" yelled Bob, clapping the magic +button to his ear. How his jaw dropped when he heard—or +seemed to hear—the magic button's words, four +words he will never, never forget, even if he lives to be a +hundred years old!</p> + +<p>"<i>Safety First</i>," whispered the magic button in his ear. +"<i>Get Busy!</i>"</p> + +<p>Bob sprang to his feet, so startled that he nearly dropped +the button.</p> + +<p>"Get busy?" he echoed. "Well, let's!"</p> + +<p>"And let's be quick about it," chimed in Betty. "I +want to earn one of those magic buttons myself."</p> + +<p>"Here too!" Bob whirled around to Sure Pop. "But +we'll have to get the soil ready first, won't we, just as the +King told you? So the seed won't be wasted, you know."</p> + +<p>"That's the first move, Bob. Waste is something no +Scout can bear to see. Waste of life, waste of health, waste +of time, waste of food—even waste of money seems a crime +to a Safety Scout."</p> + +<p>Betty was thinking hard. "Then before we can plant the +Safety First idea in other people's minds, shan't we have to +start it growing in our own, Sure Pop?"</p> + +<p>"Sure pop, we shall! And now listen, friends. When I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +first came to America, after years of Safety training among +my own people, I took up the task of planting the Safety +First idea among the great American mills and factories. +Some day I'll tell you about those years of Safety work +among the mill hands, but just now what I want to explain +is this: when I had got the work well established among +the mills, I thought at first that my work in America was +finished; but the more I thought it over, the plainer it became +that my most important work still lay before me."</p> + +<p>"Your most important work," echoed Betty. "What +do you mean, Sure Pop—teaching Safety to the President +of the United States?"</p> + +<p>"No, Betty. A far more important work than that—teaching +Safety to children. I saw that by making Safety +Scouts out of the boys and girls, I should be solving the +whole problem of the years to come—for workmen, Presidents, +and all. So I drew a long breath and started in again, +this time in America's homes.</p> + +<p>"Now how do you suppose I came to choose your home +to begin on? Just as I was wondering which house to tackle +first, I overheard Bob wishing he had Uncle Jack's life of +adventure—though the United States has more real adventure +to the square mile than all South America put together!"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean it? Why, this is a civilized country!"</p> + +<p>"You Americans think so, Bob. And you're trying to +bring about world-wide peace, because you feel that war is +out of place in civilized life. But what about the thousands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +you kill and the millions you wound every year? More +than you killed and wounded, remember, in the whole Civil +War. What about that? Does that sound so very civilized?</p> + +<p>"You want adventure. Good! You shall have it—early +and often. And you won't have to go to any other +country to find it, either."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bob, "here's hoping. What comes first?"</p> + +<p>"First, we must get our eyes and ears open. That's the +first thing for any Scout to learn, and he isn't good for +much until he gets the habit of noticing things. Scout-craft +means reading signs in everything you come across and +acting on little silent hints that most folks wouldn't notice.</p> + +<p>"Now, to begin with, here are three practical rules for +you to bear in mind—three things we found out in our +first year of Borderland Safety Scouting: First, a true Scout +is always on the alert. Second, a Scout always keeps cool. +Third, a Scout does one thing at a time. Do you suppose +you can remember these three things?"</p> + +<p>"That's easy," said Betty.</p> + +<p>"Easy as anything," said Bob. "Keep wide awake, keep +cool, and keep your mind on one thing at a time. Three +'keeps'—anybody can remember them!"</p> + +<p>"Think so?" Sure Pop's voice sounded surprisingly far +away. "All right, we'll see!" And before the twins' very +eyes he faded away into thin air!</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>A true Scout is always on the alert.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i009.jpg" width="450" height="288" alt="THE MAGIC BUTTON'S WARNING" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER FIVE</h2> + +<h3>THE MAGIC BUTTON'S WARNING</h3> + + +<p>"He's gone!" Bob and Betty stared at each other. +For a moment the whole thing seemed like a dream, and +they hated to think of waking up.</p> + +<p>"But it <i>was</i> real!" Bob turned the magic button over +and over in his hand, glad to have something left to prove +the reality of their new friend, something they could still see +and touch.</p> + +<p>"We can't wear that button, though," Betty reminded +him. "We've got to earn it first. What shall we do with it?"</p> + +<p>Bob stuck it into his deepest pocket. "I'll hang on to +it till Sure Pop comes back—if he does come back. Oh, +hello, Joe!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Joe Schmidt, a wiry boy of Bob's own age, but fully half +a head shorter, turned around and gazed up at the Daltons' +porch.</p> + +<p>"Why, hello, Bob! What are you doing?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing." Bob ran down the steps and began talking +with Joe. In fact, the two lads were so busy talking that +they did not see George Gibson till he purposely bumped +into Joe's back with a sudden "Hey, there! Get off the +walk!"</p> + +<p>Joe bristled like a ruffled sparrow. "Let's see you throw +me off!" When George good-naturedly took him at his +word, Joe clinched with him and managed to get a half-Nelson +hold on him. Joe always went at things in dead +earnest, anyway. Bob and Betty, laughing and shouting, +hopped gleefully around the swaying wrestlers, Bob +yelling encouragement to George, and Betty yelling just +as hard for Joe.</p> + +<p>Suddenly—was it just Bob's imagination?—something +seemed to give a wiggle in his pocket—then a warning +flop. It must be that magic button!</p> + +<p>Bob jumped, gave a snort of surprise, and jammed his +hand into his pocket. What had got into the button anyway?</p> + +<p>Then an idea flashed across his mind—perhaps the +Safety button was trying to warn him. To be sure, if the +wrestlers went down hard on the cement sidewalk, it might +mean a broken skull! In his hurry to get them off the walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +and over on the grass, Bob lost his head. He made the mistake +of trying to do it by force; he caught hold of George's +elbow, and got a sharp dig in the pit of his stomach for +his pains.</p> + +<p>"Hey, fellows—danger!" he yelled, when he could +catch his breath. "Get over on the grass—look out!"</p> + +<p>His warnings came too late. George, much the bigger +of the two, got a hip-lock on Joe, and, forgetting everything +else in his struggle to "lay him out," gave a sudden heave +that sent Joe sprawling on his back. His head struck +the sidewalk with a thud.</p> + +<p>That was all. Joe lay like a lump of lead.</p> + +<p>"He's <i>dead!</i>" screamed Betty wildly. She threw herself +at the gasping George. "You—you've <i>killed</i> him!"</p> + +<p>George, puffing and blowing from his struggle, held her +at arm's length. A big policeman suddenly came around +the corner. "Here, what's all this?" he asked sternly, +bending over the fallen wrestler.</p> + +<p>"He struck on the back of his head," spoke up Bob. +"They were wrestling—just in fun, you know—and Joe +struck his head on the sidewalk. Is—is he dead?"</p> + +<p>"Small thanks to you young rascals if he isn't," growled +the officer. "Crazy Indians, wrestling on a cement walk! +Where does he live?"</p> + +<p>He lifted the limp body in his arms and hurried to the +Widow Schmidt's modest little cottage with the green blinds +and the neatly scrubbed doorstep. George and Bob, feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +very sick, trailed sadly along after him; they hated to +think of the look that would come into the Widow Schmidt's +motherly face. Joe was all she had in the world.</p> + +<p>Betty, womanlike, was first to think of the doctor. Almost +before the policeman had reached Joe's side, she was +running to the corner drug store as fast as her feet would +carry her. The druggist would know where to reach a +doctor with the least delay—she could telephone.</p> + +<p>It seemed ages before the fluttering lids opened and Joe's +black eyes looked out on the world again. "No bones +broken," said the doctor at last. "Half an inch farther to +the right or left, though—"</p> + +<p>He stopped, but the twins understood. Silently they +gripped Joe's hand as it lay helpless on the bed, nodded to +George, and the three tip-toed out of the hushed little room.</p> + +<p>That night, before Bob and Betty went to bed, Sure Pop +came back. He found the twins sitting with their heads +together, studying Bob's <i>Handbook of Scout-Craft</i> as if their +lives depended on learning it by heart in one evening. Bob +still lacked a few months of being old enough to join the +Boy Scouts; he had long looked forward to his coming +birthday, but it had never meant so much to him as now.</p> + +<p>Sure Pop nodded and smiled as he saw the familiar handbook. +"Good work!" he said. "All true Scouts are +brothers, you know. Well, how about the 'three keeps' +of the Scout Law? Did you find them as easy as you +thought?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bob and Betty grew very red. They did not know what +to say.</p> + +<p>The Safety Scout saved them the trouble. "Joe's better +tonight," he told them, comfortingly. "I've just come from +there, and the doctor says he'll be up again in a day +or so. What shall we do tomorrow, friends—begin hunting +for adventure and planting Safety First ideas?"</p> + +<p>Bob looked at Betty and swallowed hard at a lump in +his throat. Somehow this wise little Sure Pop knew everything +that happened!</p> + +<p>"I think," said Bob, frankly, "we really planted one today!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>All true Scouts are brothers.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /> +<br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i010.jpg" width="400" height="93" alt="Sure Pop" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i011.jpg" width="400" height="251" alt="THE LIVE WIRE" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER SIX</h2> + +<h3>THE LIVE WIRE</h3> + + +<p>Sure Pop saw, the moment he laid eyes on Bob and Betty +next morning, that they had made up their minds to earn +a magic button apiece that day.</p> + +<p>"Where shall we go for today's adventure?" was the first +question.</p> + +<p>The Safety Scout laughed. "We probably shan't have +to go far. Once a Scout's eyes are really open, so that +danger signs other folks wouldn't notice begin to mean something +to him, why, adventure walks right up to him. +It walked right up to you two yesterday, but you didn't +read the signs till too late. Being a Scout, remember, +means doing the right thing at the right moment. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +let's start out and walk a few blocks, and see what danger +signals we come across that other folks are overlooking."</p> + +<p>Just as they opened the gate, Mrs. Dalton came to the +door. "Bob! Come here a moment, please. I want you +to take a note over to Mrs. Hoffman's for me. Their telephone +is out of order."</p> + +<p>She lowered her voice as she handed him the letter, and +added, "Who is that out there with Betty?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's one of the Scouts. We're going out for a +little practice scouting."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dalton knew how eagerly Bob had been awaiting +the day when he could become a Boy Scout. She trusted +the Scouts and was glad to have Bob and Betty spend their +vacation time in scouting. She little guessed that the three +friends were to start an order of Safety Scouts which even +fathers and mothers would join.</p> + +<p>Bob hurried back to Betty and Sure Pop. "Can you +wait while I run over to Mrs. Hoffman's with this? All +right, I'll be back in no time!"</p> + +<p>Hurrying though he was, he looked both ways before he +crossed the car tracks, for already the habit of "thinking +Safety" was growing on him. He reached Mrs. Hoffman's +in record time, delivered the note, and raced back toward +home.</p> + +<p>As he slowed down to catch his breath, he met a crowd +of yelling youngsters "playing Indians." Several of them +wore Indian suits. One, dressed as a cowboy, tried to rope<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +him as he passed. This gave the Indians an idea, and they +came howling after Bob, waving their tomahawks and +promising to scalp him. Two yelping dogs joined in the +chase.</p> + +<p>Bob grinned and broke into a long, easy run which soon +shook the redskins off his trail. But at a sudden delighted +whoop from the enemy he stopped and looked back.</p> + +<p>"Hi-yi!" yelled the biggest Indian. "Look at that +telephone wire on the ground! Come on, let's chop it off +and use it to bind the palefaces to the stake."</p> + +<p>Pellmell across the street swarmed the little fellows, each +bound to get there first. But Bob was too quick for them. +Hatless, breathless, he threw himself between the Indians +and the swaying wire. "Get back!" he roared. "That's +no telephone wire—it's alive! Keep back, I say! You'll +be killed!"</p> + +<p>It was no easy thing to stand between the youngsters +and the deadly wire. They were laughing and yelling so +hard, and the dogs were barking so wildly, that at first Bob +couldn't get the idea of danger into their heads. He fairly +had to knock two or three of them down to keep them from +hacking at the wire with their hatchets. Would they +never understand? "I won't forget this time, anyway!" +muttered the boy, gritting his teeth as he remembered the +"three keeps" of the Scout Law.</p> + +<p>Up ran one of the dogs, capering around with sharp, ear-splitting +barks, and tried to get his teeth into Bob's ankle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +When Bob tried to kick him away, of course the Indians and +cowboys yelled harder than ever. The dog stumbled and +fell across the electric wire—gave one wild yelp of pain—and +lay there kicking and struggling, unable to jerk +himself loose. Worst of all, he had landed in a puddle of +water, so that the electric current was pouring straight +through his twitching body into the wet earth.</p> + +<p>At last Bob managed to drive all the boys back out of +harm's way, only to see one of the cowboys rush for the dog +with a cry that tore at Bob's heartstrings.</p> + +<p>"It's Tige! Oh, Tige!—poor old Tige! Let me go! +I've <i>got</i> to save my dog!"</p> + +<p>Bob had grabbed the little fellow and held him tight. +"Too late, old scout," he said, with tears in his own eyes as +he saw the dog kicking his last. "Tige's done for, I'm afraid. +Keep back, there—that wire will get you too!" For the +boys were crowding nearer again.</p> + +<p>"Who has a telephone at home?" asked Bob.</p> + +<p>"We have," said one of the larger boys.</p> + +<p>"Then run home quick, call up the Electric Light Company, +and have them send their repair crew. Tell them a +live wire has killed Tige and may kill the boys if they don't +hurry. Tell 'em it's at the corner of Broad Street and +Center Avenue. Run!"</p> + +<p>While he waited for the repair wagon, Bob managed to +get the boys lined up in all directions, where they could +mount guard over the danger zone. Then he stood guard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +with the rest, and they succeeded in keeping all teams and +passers-by from running into danger till the repair men +came.</p> + +<p>It seemed a long while before the clatter of hoofs and the +rumble of heavy wheels told him the rescue party was coming +at last. He jumped with surprise when the repair +wagon dashed around the corner and pulled up beside the +curb, for there beside the driver sat Sure Pop, the Safety +Scout! Puzzled by Bob's long stay and hearing the +gong as the wagon hurried up, he had decided to come +along.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later the live wire was back in place, the +repair crew had clattered off again, and a little band of +mourning Indians and cowboys had carried poor Tige's +body over to his master's back yard, where they buried him +after a solemn funeral service. Only a dog—but the tears +they dropped on his little grave were very real and sincere, +for he had been a jolly playmate and a loyal friend.</p> + +<p>Bob was very sober as he walked home with Sure Pop. +"Wish I could have saved Tige, somehow!"</p> + +<p>The Safety Scout laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. +"Bob, you did just right. You remembered the 'three +keeps' this time—you kept wide awake, kept cool, and kept +your mind on one thing at a time. No Scout could have +done more. If you had risked touching that wire, it would +have cost a good deal more than the life of a dog, I fear. +It's important to know what <i>not</i> to do, sometimes. Robert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +Dalton, I'm proud of you! Here—you've earned it this +time, sure pop!"</p> + +<p>He reached down into his pocket, pulled out the Safety +button, and fastened it in Bob's coat lapel. The boy flushed +with pride as he lifted the magic button to his ear. And +never had words thrilled him more than those which greeted +him now—for two of them were new words which his own +quick wits had earned:</p> + +<p>"<i>Safety First!</i>" whispered the button, clear and sweet +as a far-away bugle call. "<i>Good Work!</i>"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Safety first—not part of the time, but all the +time.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i012.jpg" width="450" height="105" alt="Carrying a ladder" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i013.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="BETTY EVENS THE SCORE" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVEN</h2> + +<h3>BETTY EVENS THE SCORE</h3> + + +<p>All through supper time Betty schemed and plotted.</p> + +<p>"I certainly am proud of the way Bob won his," she said +to herself. "But I've never been behind Bob <i>yet</i>, and that +magic button's going to be twins before tomorrow night, +<i>somehow!</i>"</p> + +<p>The hot summer sun woke her early next morning, and +she hurried downstairs to be through breakfast before Sure +Pop came for the day's adventures.</p> + +<p>"Where do we go today?" she asked Sure Pop an hour +later, dancing up and down and looking wistfully at Bob's +new Safety button.</p> + +<p>"Sorry, friends," said the Safety Scout, "but I can't be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +with you today. I'm due for a little outside scouting duty—something +you twins aren't quite ready for yet."</p> + +<p>"Oh, say!" Bob's face fell. "What are we going to +<i>do</i> then, all day alone?"</p> + +<p>"Do?" laughed the merry Colonel, waving them goodby. +"Why, you'll be out scouring the neighborhood for new +adventures, I fancy. And as for Betty, if I'm any mind +reader, she has something up her sleeve sure enough!"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop was right, as usual. Bob fussed around the yard +awhile, managed to open a box of crockery out on the back +steps for Mother, and soon rambled off to see what new adventures +he could find in the name of Safety First.</p> + +<p>Betty spent most of the morning in the kitchen, helping +Mother. As soon as Bob was off again after lunch, she +began to roam about the yard, eyeing everything like a +hawk. Soon Mother saw her picking up the boards Bob +had pried loose from the box and scowling at the ugly nails +that stuck up where little feet might so easily be stabbed +by their rusty points. These she carefully bent down with +a big stone.</p> + +<p>"That's one on Bob, anyway," said Betty to herself, and +went on looking around the yard.</p> + +<p>Her eye roved upward to the bright geraniums on the +sill of Mother's window upstairs. "Mother," she called, +"have you ever read <i>Ben Hur?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, Betty—a long time ago. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you remember how that loose tile from Ben Hur's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +roof—the one he tried to snatch back as he saw it fall—struck +the Roman soldier on the head, and how Ben Hur +went to prison for it? Well, what about those flower pots +up there?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty!" cried her mother, more puzzled than +ever. "Ben Hur—flower pots—what is the dear child +talking about?"</p> + +<p>Betty laughed. "I read in the paper last night that one of +the big hotels has put up signs in every room, and they say:</p> + +<div class="center"><b>PATRONS—ATTENTION</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'><b>Please do not place articles of any kind ON +WINDOW SILL (bottles and chinaware most +dangerous). They may fall or be blown into +the street, causing serious if not fatal accidents.</b></div> + +<p>"That's because a flower pot fell from an upper window +on a woman's head. Baby's sand pile is right below your +window, and one of the flower pots might fall while she was +out there playing. A sudden draft could do it, or a door +slammed hard. Do you mind if I fasten them on with +wire so they can't fall? Then I'll do it right now before +anything happens!"</p> + +<p>She had just finished the job to her satisfaction, and was +looking about for something else, when Mother called +softly: "Betty, if you'll keep a lookout and let me know +if anybody comes, or if Baby wakes up, I'll take a nap."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>Betty was pleased. Here was a fine chance to play housekeeper. +Mother left a soup bone simmering over one +burner of the gas stove, and a steam pudding bubbling +away over another, and went upstairs for her nap.</p> + +<p>Betty tiptoed to the little sewing-room, next to the +kitchen, and looked in. Baby was sleeping. Then she softly +shut the kitchen door and sat down in the dining-room to +read. Suddenly a shower came up, and out she ran to +close the windows in the kitchen and the sewing-room, +where the rain was pouring in.</p> + +<p>She had hardly begun reading again when she heard Bob +clatter up the back steps, tear through the kitchen in +search of his raincoat, and hurry out again. The wind +was blowing hard and swept through the open kitchen, +banging the dustpan against the wall like a fire alarm gong.</p> + +<p>Betty read on. Presently she looked at the clock and +sprang to her feet. "Why, how long Baby is sleeping +today! 'Most three hours and never a peep. I wonder—"</p> + +<p>A faint whiff of gas from the kitchen made her turn pale +with dread. Then it flashed into her mind what must +have happened—that sudden gust of wind had blown out +the gas! As she ran to the kitchen, she realized that she +had caught the same faint smell several times before. +"Oh!" she sobbed, "what if Baby—"</p> + +<p>Mother, sound asleep upstairs, was roused by a crash +from the kitchen, a shriek from Betty, and the sound of a +shattered window-pane; for Betty, finding that the outside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +door stuck fast, had hurled a frying-pan through the window. +Then she ran to the sewing-room as the life-giving breeze +poured in through the broken pane.</p> + +<p>Startled, bewildered, still only half awake, Mother stumbled +to the kitchen and found Betty, with the unconscious +baby in her arms, groping her way toward the dining-room. +Snatching them both up and rushing toward the open air, +Mother landed in a heap on the front porch, Betty and the +baby on top of her. And then—oh, glorious sound!—came +a feeble little cry from Baby, and they knew she was +safe after all! There Father and Bob found them a few +minutes later, laughing and crying and hugging each other +by turns. Betty's quick wits had saved the day.</p> + +<p>Mother was telling the whole story that evening, not forgetting +the rusty nails and the flower pots—two risks which +neither Father nor Mother had ever thought of before—when +a sturdy little figure in a Safety Scout uniform paused +at the door and listened with a shrewd twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>It was Sure Pop, who had looked in to say good night +to the twins. He caught Betty's eye, beckoned her into +the hall—and when she came back to the supper table, +Bob's sharp eye caught the gleam of a Safety First button +over <i>her</i> heart, too.</p> + +<p>Betty had evened the score!</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Safety scouting begins at home.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i014.jpg" width="450" height="280" alt="LITTLE SCHNEIDER'S FIRE ALARM" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHT</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE SCHNEIDER'S FIRE ALARM</h3> + + +<p>Ever since the twins had earned their Safety First buttons, +they had been looking forward to the Fourth of July, +and on the eve of the Fourth came an adventure far more +exciting than any they had expected.</p> + +<p>The lights were out in Bob's and Betty's rooms, and Bob +had just dropped off to sleep when the clang of the fire bell +brought him out of bed in a hurry.</p> + +<p>As his feet struck the floor, his ear caught the rattle of +gravel on the window. The room was half lighted by a +ruddy glow, and looking out he saw Sure Pop standing below +his window.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Come on to the fire!" the Safety Scout called up to +him. "Perhaps we can do somebody a good turn. Bring +Betty along, if your mother doesn't mind."</p> + +<p>Bob got dressed first and hurried in to help Betty. Her +teeth were chattering with excitement, and she could hardly +button her clothes. "Where is the fire, Bob?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly—a mile or two north of here, I +think. Come on—Mother says you may go, if you'll +stick close to me."</p> + +<p>The two clattered down the back stairs and joined Sure +Pop.</p> + +<p>"Bother that shoe string, anyhow!" panted Bob as they +scampered off to the fire.</p> + +<p>"Better stop and tie it up," advised the Safety Scout. +"It'll trip you the first thing you know."</p> + +<p>Bob thought otherwise. A couple of blocks farther +on, however, he stepped on the dragging string, caught his +toe on a loose board in the sidewalk, and sprawled headlong. +But Bob was game. Up he jumped, gave Sure Pop the +Scout salute, and said, with a grin, "Sir, I stand corrected." +Then he tied the shoe string by the light of a street lamp, +winked at Betty, and the three ran on.</p> + +<p>The fire was farther away than it looked, and not till +they had reached the hilltop did the size of the blaze fully +show itself. "Goodness!" cried Betty. "The German +church is gone, and Turner Hall will be next. And look at +all those little houses in a row—they won't last long at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +that rate!" Then she stopped and coughed, for the air was +full of smoke and soot, both from the burning buildings and +from the fire engines.</p> + +<p>Everywhere was noise and confusion. Half-dressed men +and women stumbled over the fire hose as they hurried along +with their arms full of household articles, trying to save +everything they could.</p> + +<p>A frightened sob fell on Betty's ears. She turned to see +a chubby little baby boy, toddling along barefooted in his +nightie, the tears rolling down his fat cheeks. "Mama!" +he sobbed. "I want my Mama!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor little thing!" cried Betty. "He's lost!" +She caught the scared little fellow up in her arms and +wrapped him snugly in the folds of her loose cloak. +"Don't cry, honey. Betty'll find Mama for you!" And +she cuddled and petted him till he stopped crying and lay +still in her arms, peering out at the spreading flames with +wondering eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to find his mother for him," said Betty. +"He's scared half to death!"</p> + +<p>But Sure Pop caught her arm as she started away. +"Wait, she'll find him."</p> + +<p>Sure enough, before long a young woman came running +wildly from house to house calling out, "Karlchen! My +little Karlchen! Where are you?"</p> + +<p>The little fellow popped his head out from under Betty's +cloak with a squeal of delight. "Mama!" he cried in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +soft baby voice. "Mama!"—just that one happy word, +over and over, as his mother pressed him to her breast.</p> + +<p>The look on her face was thanks enough for Betty. Somehow +the fire did not seem so dreadful to her after that.</p> + +<p>"How'd it start?" Bob asked a fireman who was binding +up a split in the bulging canvas hose.</p> + +<p>"Fellow dropped a lighted match in a coat closet—house +next to the church," puffed the fireman, who was +breathing as if he had run a mile. He gave the hose a +parting kick and hurried to join his comrades down the +street, where the flames were fiercest.</p> + +<p>"The same old story," said Sure Pop, soberly. "Hold +on! What's that?"</p> + +<p>Bob and Betty looked up at the little old-fashioned window +in the cottage across the street. A small black-and-tan +dog was standing on his hind legs inside the room, pawing +and scratching at the window pane.</p> + +<p>Sure Pop put two fingers to his lips and gave a piercing +whistle. The dog answered him, barking wildly and running +back into the smoke-filled room, then to the window +again, as if trying to call their attention to something or +somebody in the room with him.</p> + +<p>"There's somebody in there!" cried Bob. "Come on, +Sure Pop—wait here for us, Betty!"</p> + +<p>As they ran, the two splashed into a pool of water in a +hollow of the sidewalk. Sure Pop dipped his handkerchief +in this and tied it over his nose and mouth. Bob did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +the same. Then the smoke of the burning cottage swallowed +them up.</p> + +<p>Remembering the dangers of a draft, Sure Pop carefully +closed the door after them, and stopped Bob from kicking +a hole in the window at the head of the stairs. They +knew which room it was—the farthest window from the +front door—and flung themselves against the door so hard +that it burst open and they fell headlong into the room. +The little black-and-tan dog, barking more wildly than +ever, had heard them coming and was dragging with all +his might at something on the bed.</p> + +<p>Bob and Sure Pop, half choked with smoke, ran to the +bedside. There lay a little girl only five or six years old. +Yes, she was breathing!</p> + +<p>Just then the hungry flames burst in through the flimsy +closet door and came licking along the ceiling. Bob's eyes +smarted and burned, and his lungs felt as if they would +burst. He remembered his Boy Scout studies in First Aid, +though, and threw himself beside Sure Pop on the floor, +where the smoke was not so thick. Together they dragged +the little girl to the window.</p> + +<p>Bob put his lips close to Sure Pop's ear. "Shall we +jump?"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop shook his head. "Too risky. We'll try the +stairs."</p> + +<p>With the little girl held close between them, their bodies +shielding her from the flames, the two groped and stumbled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +down the short flight of stairs, fairly falling through the +whirlwind of flame that swirled upward from the first floor. +Scorched, singed, with their clothing afire in places, they +fought their way back to the street—safe!</p> + +<p>Betty ran forward with a glad cry and flung her arms +around her twin. "Bob! Oh, Bob, I thought you were +<i>gone!</i>"</p> + +<p>Just then they heard a shout as a frightened little family +group came running up, and a roughly dressed laborer +snatched the little girl and kissed her till her eyes opened +and she smiled.</p> + +<p>"Good Schneider! Nice Schneider!" said her small +brother, patting the dog, who was wagging his tail almost +off for joy.</p> + +<p>"Nice little Schneider—he took—care—of—me!" +exclaimed the little girl between kisses. And the father +gathered up the little dog in his arms and kissed him, too!</p> + +<p>As the tired Safety Scouts opened the front gate half an +hour later, the boom of a cannon roared out, somewhere +on the other side of town, and the twelve o'clock bells and +whistles joined in an echoing chorus.</p> + +<p>Sure Pop raised his hand with a tired smile. "Midnight!" +he cried. "Hurrah for the glorious Fourth!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Don't let a careless match cost a dozen homes.</i> +—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i015.jpg" width="450" height="291" alt=""CHANCE CARTER'S WAY"" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER NINE</h2> + +<h3>"CHANCE CARTER'S WAY"</h3> + + +<p>BOOM! It was the distant roar of some Fourth of July +cannon which had escaped the watchful eye of the police.</p> + +<p>Bob Dalton stirred uneasily and flopped over in bed. +The morning sun was shining straight into his eyes.</p> + +<p>By the time the twins were dressed and downstairs, Sure +Pop was waiting for them in the back yard. He, too, had +slept late after the excitement of the fire.</p> + +<p>"I had hoped for a holiday today," he said, "but I +can see there's going to be plenty of scouting for me to do, +even on a 'sane Fourth,' so I'm off on my rounds. How are +you two going to spend the day?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Going over to where the fire was, as soon as we've had +our breakfast," said Bob. "Looks from here as if Turner +Hall's still smoking."</p> + +<p>Betty was fingering the Safety Button in Sure Pop's +lapel. "What are you doing, Betty?" asked the Safety +Scout, with a twinkle.</p> + +<p>"Turning your button right side up," Betty told him.</p> + +<p>The merry little Colonel laughed and explained: "I have +to wear it wrong side up each day till I've done my One +Day's Boost for Safety."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Bob. "Same as the Boy Scouts wear their +neckties outside their vests till they've done the day's good +turn to somebody?"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop nodded. "That one little rule is the biggest +thing in the whole Scout Law," he said. "The Scout who +lives up to that test—doing a good turn to somebody every +day, quietly and without boasting—will be classed alongside +the greatest Scouts the world has ever known. Bring +me your <i>Handbook of Scout-Craft</i> a moment, please, Bob. +Listen to this from page 7, now:</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"'Another way to remind himself is to wear his Scout +badge reversed until he has done his good turn. The good +turn may not be a very big thing—help an old lady across +the street; remove a banana skin from the pavement so +that people may not fall; remove from streets or roads +broken glass, dangerous to automobile or bicycle tires'—to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +say nothing," added Sure Pop, "of the danger to barefooted +boys and girls, or to folks with thin shoes! Don't +you see, Bob and Betty, how every one of those good turns +happens to be a good turn for Safety as well? I told you +a few days ago that all true Scouts are brothers; aren't +we all working toward the same end, after all?"</p> + +<p>Bob and Betty saw the point. They turned their Safety +buttons upside down as Sure Pop waved them goodby, +resolving to get them right side up at the very first chance +that offered.</p> + +<p>They found their father on the front porch reading the +paper, taking solid comfort in the fact that Bruce's Mills +were closed for the day. "I want you to help me with a +little work out in the yard," he said, "as soon as you've +had your breakfast." So it was almost one o'clock before +Bob and Betty set out for the scene of last night's fire. +Just across the river they met Chance Carter and George +Gibson, bound in the same direction.</p> + +<p>The German church still raised its steepled head toward +the sky, but its roof had fallen in, and Turner Hall was a +mass of blackened ruins. Parts of the walls were still +standing, swaying as if ready to topple over any moment. +Off in one corner the blackened timbers and jumbled bits +of furniture were stubbornly smoldering.</p> + +<p>The four stood and looked. "Just think!" said Betty +softly. "All that from just one little careless match! +Guess <i>that</i> man won't light a match in a coat closet again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" scoffed Chance Carter. "That wouldn't +happen once in a thousand times."</p> + +<p>"How many matches do you suppose are scratched in +the United States every second?" asked Bob, shortly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, a couple of hundred, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand, Chance, <i>every second</i>. And every match +is a possible fire. Sure Pop told me last night that one +third of the fire losses are due to carelessness in handling +matches. And the fires in this country cost us over a million +dollars every day—twice that, counting the cost of +fire departments."</p> + +<p>"Whew!" Even reckless Chance looked impressed.</p> + +<p>"When you get into the Boy Scouts," Bob reminded +him, "you'll find out what <i>they</i> think about fooling with +fire. A real Scout never leaves his camp fire till he's dead +sure it's out. Even after there's no fire left that he can see, +he pours water on it and all around it to guard against its +rekindling. A Scout who isn't careful about such things +is looked down on by the others as not of much account."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care; there's such a thing as being too +careful. I wish we had the old-fashioned Fourth of July +back again. This sane Fourth business is too tame for me!" +Chance strolled off to the far corner of the smoking ruins +and began climbing around in the half-filled basement.</p> + +<p>George winked at Betty. "Can't teach <i>him</i> anything," +he chuckled. "He was born careless and he'll die careless, +I guess. Look at him, now—poking around where those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +loose bricks may cave in on him any minute. We can't say +anything, though, or he'll get mad. Chance Carter always +has to have his own way."</p> + +<p>"It's a wonder the police aren't guarding this place," +said Bob, anxiously. "Guess they've got their hands full +elsewhere." He scowled as he watched his reckless friend +jumping from one charred timber to another, never noticing +how the crumbling walls tottered with each jump.</p> + +<p>"Whether he likes it or not," he said finally, "I'm going +to get him out of there. It's too risky. Hey, Chance! +Look out—that wall's coming over!" His voice rose in +a startled shout.</p> + +<p>"Aw, I guess not—" Chance got no further. The +overhanging wall, swaying on its wobbly base and loosened +by his sudden backward jump, toppled over on him in a +shower of bricks and mortar. "Chance Carter's way" +had come to grief again!</p> + +<p>"Too late—again!" muttered Bob, grimly, diving into +the cloud of dust that hung over the spot where Chance +had disappeared. For a picture had flashed into his mind—the +memory of how he had failed to warn the wrestlers +in time only a few days before, the picture of Joe's terrified +face as his head crashed on the cement sidewalk. Why +hadn't he warned Chance in time?</p> + +<p>A groan from the wreckage told where the boy lay half +buried under the fallen wall. "Got me that time!" he +muttered, through his set teeth. "Guess my leg's broken."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>A shadow fell on the two and Bob looked up to see George's +white face gazing down at him. "What can I do, Bob?"</p> + +<p>"Have Betty run for a doctor, or telephone. Chance +is badly hurt. Help me lift this rubbish from on top +of him." The boys worked fast but carefully, lifting one +brick at a time, till Chance was free. To their dismay he +could not move.</p> + +<p>"It's this leg." He touched his left, just below the knee. +"I felt something break when the wall hit me. Perhaps +the other's broken, too—I don't know."</p> + +<p>Very carefully Bob ripped the clothing from the injured +leg. Then he put one hand gently on the spot Chance +touched, and the other hand just below it, and lifted the +leg slightly. There was enough movement at the broken +point so that there could be no doubt. The other leg +proved to be badly bruised, but not broken.</p> + +<p>Bob carefully moved the broken leg back into the same +position as the right one and piled his coat and George's +around it so it would stay in shape. He brought the suffering +boy some water in his hat, and the three waited for the +doctor.</p> + +<p>"He said he'd come right away," reported Betty, hurrying +back from the telephone. "But, Bob, it isn't safe to +stay down there—no telling when that other chunk of the +wall may fall on all three of you. Shall I try to push it +over from the inside?"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, no, Betty! Keep as far away from it as you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +can. Well, we'll have to get him out of here, some way. +You run back to that first store, please, and get half a dozen +good strong strips of cloth about a foot wide and two or +three feet long—anything that will do to tie his leg up to +the splints. George, you bring over a few of those pieces +of flooring that are not too badly charred to use for splints. +There!"</p> + +<p>He laid a long piece of flooring along Chance's left side, +from below his foot clear to his armpit, and chose a shorter +board for the inside splint. He arranged the two coats +so that they would pad the broken leg where the boards +came up against it, and tied the splints firmly, but not +tightly, in place. Then Bob slowly gathered his groaning +friend in his arms.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to hurt you, old fellow, but we've got to get you +out of here. You take his legs, George,—gently, now. +So! We can climb out along that cave-in on the street +side if we take it easy. Up we go!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Better be safe than sorry.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /> +<br /></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i016.jpg" width="450" height="127" alt="Sure Pop and his scouts" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i017.jpg" width="450" height="281" alt="THE TWINS MEET BRUCE" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER TEN</h2> + +<h3>THE TWINS MEET BRUCE</h3> + + +<p>Chance Carter, lying helpless on the stone steps of Turner +Hall, was wondering if the doctor would ever come. Bob +and George did their best to ease his pain, while Betty gazed +anxiously down the street.</p> + +<p>"Why doesn't that doctor come?"</p> + +<p>"Surely he knows where we are, Betty?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I told him Turner Hall, and he said, 'Why, Turner +Hall burned down last night, little girl.' And I told him +I knew it, and that we were waiting right beside what was +left of it."</p> + +<p>"Hm-m-m! Something must have happened to him +then; he could have walked it in less time than this.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +If he doesn't come pretty soon, we'd better call up the +police department and have them send the ambulance. +We can't wait here much longer."</p> + +<p>While they waited, an idea popped into Bob's head.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, "somebody else is likely enough +to get hurt here, just the way Chance did. I believe we'd +better put up a sign. I'll get some paper from that store."</p> + +<p>So Bob hurried around to the store and got some wrapping +paper and nails and borrowed a pencil and hammer. +He worked fast, the shopkeeper looking curiously over his +shoulder while he lettered this sign:</p> + + +<div class='center'> +DANGER!<br /> +<br /> +These walls may fall on you any moment.<br /> +One leg already broken here today. Keep out.<br /> +<br /> + +SAFETY FIRST!</div> + +<p>Bob had just finished the lettering when a big automobile +came purring along in front of the ruined building. The +chauffeur was in uniform. The big man inside looked almost +lost among the cushions, so roomy was the machine. +At a word from him, the car slowed down, and he scanned +the ruins sharply. Bob knew him in a moment for Bruce, +the great mill owner, one of the richest men in the city.</p> + +<p>"Hello, what's this? What's this?" Bruce stood up in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +the car when the little group on the steps caught his eye. +In a twinkling he was out of the automobile and bending +over the groaning boy, while Bob and George and Betty +told him what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut!" snapped the great man whose mills gave +work to thousands of men, the twins' father among them. +"This won't do at all! If the doctor won't come to him, we +must get him to the doctor." Pushing aside the chauffeur, he +lifted Chance into the car and on to the deep, comfortable +cushions as easily as if he had been a child of two instead of +a lad of twelve and big for his age.</p> + +<p>"Now, jump in, the rest of you," he said, "and we'll +take him over to Doctor MacArthur's."</p> + +<p>Betty climbed in and George followed. The chauffeur +took his seat and looked around at Bob, waiting. "What's +the matter now?" asked Bruce, impatiently, as Bob lingered +on the step.</p> + +<p>"It's those walls," answered the boy. "I hate to leave +them in that shape—somebody else will be getting hurt +just as Chance did. I'd better put up the sign. You folks +go on, please, and I'll follow on foot."</p> + +<p>The mill owner shook his head. "Put up your sign and +come along. We'll wait."</p> + +<p>Bruce looked sharply at Bob's sign as the boy nailed it +up in place, but said nothing. Bob climbed into the waiting +automobile, and the big machine rolled smoothly, silently +to the doctor's office.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>Doctor MacArthur, surgeon's case in hand, came out. +He was a little gray man—gray-haired, dressed in a gray +suit, with keen gray eyes that seemed to take in everything +at once.</p> + +<p>"Who put those splints on?" He jerked out the words +like a pistol shot.</p> + +<p>"I did," said Bob, reddening; for the doctor's tone made +him feel that he must have bungled his work.</p> + +<p>Swiftly the doctor bared the leg and laid a deft finger +on the exact spot of the break. "Simple fracture," was +his verdict. "Bone badly splintered, though—would +have come through the skin in short order if you hadn't +got the splints on when you did. Where does he live?"</p> + +<p>He took George's seat and George climbed over beside the +chauffeur. On the way to Chance's house, he insisted on +knowing how Bob had learned to give First Aid to the injured.</p> + +<p>"So you're a Boy Scout, eh?" Another keen glance +from those sharp gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"N-no, sir—but I'm going to be."</p> + +<p>"Eh? How's that?"</p> + +<p>"He isn't quite old enough yet," explained George. +"You have to be twelve or over to join the Boy Scouts. +I'm one—but Bob knows a heap more about it already +than I do," he added frankly.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Well, I'll have to change my opinion of the Boy +Scouts, young man. I always took it for granted they +were a sort of feeder to our regular army—playing soldier,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +you know. But if this is the kind of work they turn out, +I don't know but I'll join myself."</p> + +<p>George got out when they reached Chance's house, and +helped the doctor carry the injured lad up the steps. "You +needn't wait for me," he told the twins, "I'm going to +stay a while."</p> + +<p>"Come in and see me some time," Doctor MacArthur +called back to Bob. "I want you to tell me more about +your First Aid work! See you later, Mr. Bruce."</p> + +<p>"Home, Jennings," said Bruce. "And be quick about +it—I'm late."</p> + +<p>Bob leaned back against the cushions and studied the +grim, square-jawed face of the great man whom everybody +was so anxious to please. So this was the way he looked +at close range, this self-made, stubborn man of millions +who always managed to bend every other man in his line +of business to his own iron will! As he looked, Bob felt it +was no wonder they all feared him—feared and followed.</p> + +<p>For Bruce was the man who, more than all the others +put together, was responsible for keeping Safety First +work out of the mills in his line of business. Hundreds +of men were killed and thousands injured every year in +the great string of mills of which Bruce's was the head. +Over and over it had been pointed out to him that the +same Safety First work which had saved thousands of lives +in other lines would save them in his line as well. But +he was stubborn, iron-willed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're wasting your time," was all he would say. +"No theories or new-fangled notions in <i>my</i> mills."</p> + +<p>Because Bruce said this, all the other mills hung back, +too. There were reasons. They knew Bruce.</p> + +<p>All this Bob knew from talks he had had with his father +about the risks of working in Bruce's mills. He understood +it better, now that he was face to face with Bruce himself.</p> + +<p>All too soon, to the twins' way of thinking, the automobile +drew up in front of Bruce's big stone house. The mill +owner wasted no words. Jumping out, he waved his hand +to the three, said to Jennings, "Take them wherever they +want to go," and hurried up the walk.</p> + +<p>The eager face pressed against the big bay window disappeared, +the front door flew open, and a sweet little fair-haired +girl threw herself into Bruce's outstretched arms. +"Daddy! What made you so late? Here I've been waiting +and waiting—"</p> + +<p>"Bonnie!" That was all the twins heard as the big +automobile bore them away toward home. But the way +he said it, and the way he caught his little daughter to his +big, broad chest, told Bob and Betty all they needed to +know about the soft spot in the millionaire's heart.</p> + +<p>What did his great house and his mills and all his +money amount to, after all? He would gladly have thrown +them all aside rather than have the slightest harm come to +his Bonnie; for her mother had died when Bonnie was only +a baby, and the little girl was all Bruce had left in the world.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i018.jpg" width="450" height="282" alt=""JUST FOR FUN"" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER ELEVEN</h2> + +<h3>"JUST FOR FUN"</h3> + + +<p>The twins missed Chance Carter during the next few +weeks. The boy had been a regular nuisance in some ways, +for he was always getting into scrapes; but he was a clever +lad and had a way of making up games that nobody else +seemed able to think of.</p> + +<p>"It does seem lonesome without Chance," Bob told +Sure Pop when the broken leg had kept their friend tied +up indoors for a week or more. "And yet we don't get into +half as much trouble when he isn't round."</p> + +<p>Sure Pop looked wise. "Perhaps it's because Chance +hasn't learned that he must play according to the rules,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +he said. "The fellow who is always taking chances isn't +playing up to the rules of the game."</p> + +<p>"Anyhow," said Betty, "Chance has had his lesson now. +By the time he's able to run around again, he will be ready +to quit taking chances."</p> + +<p>Sure Pop changed the subject, though a shrewd twinkle +seemed to say that it would take more than one lesson to +teach Chance how to play life's game according to the rules. +"How'd you like to take a trip with me today?"</p> + +<p>"Fine!" exclaimed Bob and Betty. "Where?"</p> + +<p>"To a kind of moving picture show," answered Colonel +Sure Pop. "Let's start right away, then. And be sure +you wear your Safety First buttons."</p> + +<p>The twins couldn't help smiling at the idea of going anywhere +without their magic buttons. They boarded the +crowded street car with Sure Pop and stood beside the motorman +all the way to the railroad yards. It seemed as if +somebody tried to get run over every block or two, and the +way people crossed the crowded streets in the middle of +blocks was enough to turn a motorman's hair gray.</p> + +<p>"How'd you like to be the motorman, Bob?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I tell <i>you</i>, Sure Pop, I don't believe it's as much +fun as it looks from the outside. If fellows like Chance +and George would ride beside the motorman for just one +day, seeing what he has to see right along, they'd be Safety +workers forever after. Look at that, now! Those chaps +have no business to cross in the middle of the block."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nobody has," agreed Sure Pop, with a keen glance at +Bob. The boy flushed as he remembered what he himself +had been doing when he first felt the warning touch +of the Safety Scout's hand.</p> + +<p>He and Betty noticed, too, how carefully Sure Pop looked +all around him before leaving the car, and they did likewise. +Two short blocks more and they were in sight of the railroad +roundhouse. The Safety Scout stuck his head inside +the great doorway and peered around at the smoking engines +that impatiently awaited their turn. "There she is!" +he exclaimed. "There's old Seven-Double-Seven!" And +he waved his hand at the engineer up in the cab.</p> + +<p>The three climbed into the engine cab, where the fireman +stood waiting with his eye on the steam gauge. From the +way the engineer shook hands with Sure Pop, the twins +decided they must be old friends.</p> + +<p>"Got my orders?" asked the engineer. He ripped open +the envelope Sure Pop handed him, glanced at the message, +nodded to the fireman, and gently pulled open the throttle. +The big, powerful engine answered his touch like a race horse. +With a warning clang of the bell, they slipped down the shining +track, through the crowded yards, and toward the city limits.</p> + +<p>"Bob, what are you looking for?" asked Sure Pop.</p> + +<p>Bob went on looking in all the corners of the cab as if +greatly puzzled. "Looking for the moving picture machine," +he said with a grin. "I thought I heard you +promise us a moving picture show."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You just wait. Be ready to rub your magic buttons +when I say the word, both of you, and you'll see some +moving pictures you'll never forget—pictures of what +<i>might</i> happen to boys and girls like yourselves. The pity +of it is, it does happen, every day of the year."</p> + +<p>Sure Pop paused to call their attention to some little +blurry patches of blue scattered along the track. "Wild +flowers," he said. "Pretty things, aren't they? If we +weren't going so fast, we'd stop and get some."</p> + +<p>The engineer scowled. "Pretty? They don't look +pretty to me any more. Look there, now!"</p> + +<p>The brakes jarred as he spoke, and the shriek of the +whistle scattered a group ahead. Several young couples, +going home from town by way of the railroad track, had +stopped to gather wild flowers. One couple were walking +hand in hand over the railroad bridge, deaf at first to whistle +and bell and everything else. Suddenly they heard, looked +up, and turned first one way and then another, uncertain +whether to jump off the bridge or stand their ground.</p> + +<p>"Is it any wonder that I don't like the flower season?" +grunted the engineer in disgust. "It's the worst time of all, +seems to me. Now you'd think those young fellows and girls +were old enough and would have sense enough to keep off the +railroad's right of way, wouldn't you? But look at 'em!"</p> + +<p>He mopped his forehead and glared ahead at the frightened +couple, holding the panting engine at a standstill +till they could scramble off the bridge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They act as if we had nothing to do but just watch out +for 'em," he went on, getting under way again. "They got +off scot-free this time, but imagine what old Seven-Double-Seven +would have done to 'em if this had been my regular +run! Forty miles an hour on schedule—and where would +they be now?</p> + +<p>"It's the same old story, day after day—boys riding bicycles +down the tracks, when the road's ten times smoother +and a million times as safe! Boys playing on the turntables +and getting crippled for life, one by one!</p> + +<p>"They'll run like mad to get across the track ahead of +a fast train—and then stand and watch it go through! I +ought to know—I did it myself when I was a boy, but +little I knew then of the way it wrecks an engineer's nerves!</p> + +<p>"They flip the cars and try to imitate the brakemen +without the least idea of how many thousands of brakemen +have lost their lives just that way. They crawl under +cars, instead of waiting or going around. Why, Colonel, +the railroads kill thousands and thousands of people every +year—you know the figures—dozens every day, week +in and week out. And somebody's badly hurt on the +railroads every three minutes or less—<i>and a third of them +are boys and girls and little children!</i> That's what I can't +stand—the little folks getting hurt and getting killed, when +just a bit of common sense would save them! Oh, if their +fathers and mothers had any idea—"</p> + +<p>The big engineer choked up for a moment. "Even on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +the trains," he added, "when they're safe inside the cars, +they get hurt. I'm not the only one that worries on my +run—ask the conductor. He'll tell you how they run up +and down the aisle, till a sudden jar of the brakes throws +'em against a seat iron or into the other passengers. They +get out into the vestibules, which is against the rules, and +when the train takes a sudden curve they get smashed up."</p> + +<p>Three minutes later he slowed down for the twins to +watch the fast mail thunder past. It was near a village +crossing, and a little group of boys stood waiting. As +No. 777 came to a stop, the twins saw that most of the boys +had stones in their hands.</p> + +<p>On came the fast mail, tearing past the little village as if +it were not even on the map. The mail cars—the smoker—the +long rows of glass windows, a head beside each—</p> + +<p>Smash! The flying splinters of glass told of one stone +that had found its mark. The boys ran like scared cats +around the corner into a lumber yard.</p> + +<p>"Little cowards!" The fireman glared angrily after +them. "They may have killed somebody on that train—<i>they</i> +don't know!"</p> + +<p>"Rub your buttons!" whispered Sure Pop, whose eyes +were still fixed on the fast mail, now disappearing in a cloud +of smoke and dust.</p> + +<p>Bob and Betty rubbed. At their first touch of the magic +buttons the disappearing train took on a queer, unreal +look, like a film at the "movies."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>They seemed to be inside one of the cars. They seemed +to be watching a sweet-faced old lady—somebody's grandmother—snowy +haired, kind, gentle, not used to traveling, +as even the twins could see. She kept looking first at the +time-table and then at an old key-winding silver watch +she wore on a quaint little chain around her neck.</p> + +<p>Her lips were moving, smiling. "Only two stops more," +she seemed to be saying, "and then I shall see little Jim." +She took a kodak picture out of her handbag and looked at +it long and lovingly. She glanced out of the window and +saw a group of boys standing by the village crossing "to +watch the fast mail go through." She liked boys. She +smiled at them—she did not see the stones in their hands.</p> + +<p>Smash! The other passengers sprang to their feet as +one of the stones, thrown at random, shivered the car window +into bits and struck the kind old face, full between +the eyes. A quick, startled cry—a pitiful fumbling of +kind old hands before shattered spectacles and eyes suddenly +blinded—and the moving picture seemed to fade away. +The twins were left with the sickening fear that perhaps +little Jim's grandmother might never see him after all.</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh!" gasped Betty, rubbing her eyes. "How +terrible!" Bob caught Sure Pop by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Did we imagine it, Sure Pop—or was it true?"</p> + +<p>"Too true," said Sure Pop, sadly. "It happens almost +every day somewhere—where boys throw stones at the +cars 'just for fun'!"</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i019.jpg" width="450" height="280" alt="GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER TWELVE</h2> + +<h3>GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS</h3> + + +<p>"And just to think," said Bob, as the three sat on the +home steps talking over their exciting trip on old No. 777, +"just to think of how many boys and girls are killed on the +railroad tracks every day!"</p> + +<p>"Every day," echoed the little Safety Scout, "and all +over the world. Go into any village graveyard along any +railroad, and you'll find the grave of some boy or girl who +has been killed trespassing on the railroad tracks. No way +to save them, I'm afraid, till folks wake up to the fact that +it's not so much the tramps who are being killed this way—it's +the children!"</p> + +<p>"It's just awful," said Betty, puckering up her brow in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +thoughtful scowl. "I think we ought to do something +about it."</p> + +<p>"What, for instance?" Sure Pop was watching her +sharply.</p> + +<p>"Well, something to put a stop to it. Surely we could +find <i>some</i> way of teaching the boys and girls how to play +safely; and then when they grew up they'd be in the habit +of <i>thinking</i> Safety. Then they'd teach <i>their</i> boys and +girls—and all this awful killing and crippling, or most +of it, would be ended."</p> + +<p>"The trouble is," said Bob, "in going at the thing in +too much of a hit-or-miss style. We could do some good +by talking to the few boys and girls we could reach, but +not enough. Why can't we organize?"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop's eager face lighted up, overjoyed at the turn +Bob's thoughts were taking. "You can," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Why, sure!" went on Bob, getting more and more +excited as the idea took hold. "Let's get busy and organize +an army of Safety Scouts right here. We've already +got the biggest thing in the Safety Scout Law at work—don't +you see?—our 'One Boost for Safety' every day. +We can get some more Safety Scout buttons made, and as +fast as a boy earns his—"</p> + +<p>"—Or a girl earns hers!"—interrupted Betty, so +seriously that Bob couldn't help smiling.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course—girls too—why, as fast as boys and +girls earn the right to wear Safety Scout buttons, we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +form them into patrols. It wouldn't be long before we +could have several troops hard at it. I tell you, Sure Pop, +if we go at it that way we can do big things for Safety +just as sure as you're a foot high!"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop gave Betty a droll little wink. "It's a go, +then," he said cheerfully. "Well, where are you going to +begin?"</p> + +<p>Bob looked up at him with a sudden idea shining in his +eyes. "Why not begin by organizing in patrols and then +in troops, just about like the Boy Scouts? First, we can +get a few of our friends interested, and let each one of them +get eleven others interested—that will make a patrol of +twelve, commanded by the one who got them together."</p> + +<p>"Spoken like a Scout and a gentleman!" cried the little +Colonel, giving him a sounding thump on the shoulder. +"Go on, Bob—what next?"</p> + +<p>"Well, just as fast as we get four new patrols, we can form +them into a troop, with a Scout Master for their leader."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Sure Pop. "It will take some lively work +to pick your Scout Masters and get them trained in time, +but the difference in their efficiency will be worth your +while."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Betty, "we'll have to choose only boys +and girls who have good records for Safety?"</p> + +<p>Bob looked doubtful. "What do you think about that, +Sure Pop?"</p> + +<p>"I think it would be a mistake, Bob. You'll find too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +few who have even learned to think Safety. A better +plan will be to take in those who seem most in earnest +over the idea, especially those who have been taught a +hard lesson through accidents which care would have +avoided."</p> + +<p>"Go on, please. Tell us more—how would you work +out the details?"</p> + +<p>"Bob, I would—but I believe I've told you enough. +You and Betty go ahead in your own way and work +out the details yourselves. Let me see you get your +Safety Scouts together, if you really do mean business, +and I'll show you about the work that's already been +done among the factory hands and mill-workers of +America.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you this much, though: you'll find, when +you get your Safety Scouts of America organized, that the +good work will go ahead by leaps and bounds. All this +talk about 'efficiency' is really part of the same movement, +though very few realize it; it's nothing more or less than +cutting out guess work and waste—and what else, after +all, is our Safety work?"</p> + +<p>"That's so. It really is all working in the same direction, +isn't it?" agreed Bob. "Chance Carter's oldest brother is +studying to be an efficiency engineer—perhaps he can +give us some ideas."</p> + +<p>"Then—you really do mean to get busy and organize +the Safety Scouts of America?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mean it!" Bob and Betty fairly shouted the words in +their eagerness to get to work. And as Sure Pop said good +night to them, there was a joyous light in his eye which +showed his plan was working out just as he had thought it +would.</p> + +<p>He smiled a satisfied smile as the door closed on the +excited Dalton twins. "And now," said Colonel Sure +Pop to himself, "<i>now</i>, we're getting down to business!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Enlist now! We fight to save life, not +to take it.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i020.jpg" width="450" height="104" alt="Sure Pop Watching" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i021.jpg" width="450" height="281" alt="DALTON PATROL" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER THIRTEEN</h2> + +<h3>DALTON PATROL</h3> + + +<p>The next few weeks were busy ones for Bob and Betty +Dalton. The plan was a big one—the Safety Scouts of +America. Growing out of an idea planted by Colonel Sure +Pop, it sprouted and grew surprisingly fast. Already the +news was spreading like wildfire among the boys and girls +all over the city.</p> + +<p>Joe Schmidt was out again, his head as good as ever. +George Gibson, always brim full of energy and enthusiasm, +had set his heart on becoming a Safety Scout Master and +heading a troop of his own. Even Chance Carter, hobbling +about on crutches, had caught the fever of Safety Scouting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +and was making all sorts of plans as to what he would do +when his broken leg got well.</p> + +<p>Chance really had changed, somehow. The twins supposed +it was all due to his accident, but the real reason was +Colonel Sure Pop. Chance seemed almost magnetized by +the little Colonel and never lost a chance to be near him.</p> + +<p>"Honestly now, Colonel," he owned up to Sure Pop one +day, "I'd read so many stories about reckless heroes and +all that, I got in the habit of thinking I had to be reckless. +Story books seem to make out that it's a brave thing to +risk your life—and wasn't that exactly what Bob did +when he found that live wire?"</p> + +<p>Sure Pop laid an understanding hand on Chance's +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Chance! You've caught only half the point, +that's your main trouble. It <i>is</i> a manly thing to take a +risk—<i>when it's necessary</i>. When somebody's life is in +danger, it's the manliest thing on earth to take a risk for +the sake of saving it. That's why Bob's act in patrolling +the live wire earned him a Safety Scout button—the lives +of those smaller boys were in danger, to say nothing of anybody +else who might blunder across the wire just then—that's +where the difference comes in."</p> + +<p>"That's so. I never thought of it in just that way."</p> + +<p>"I know you haven't. When you stop to think it over, +you see it's a fellow's plain duty to take a chance when it's +necessary, but it's downright foolish to do it on a dare.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +One thing about Bob's live-wire adventure I don't believe +even he realizes," added Sure Pop. "It was that hurry-up +patrol of small boys that he threw out around the live wire +which really gave him the idea of how to organize the +Safety Scouts of America. I knew the idea would strike +him and Betty sooner or later."</p> + +<p>Chance looked admiringly at the little Colonel. What +a wise Scout he was, sure enough, as keen and clever at +reading signs of the trail as any Indian fighter that ever +stepped in deerskin!</p> + +<p>The boy looked longingly after the Safety Scout Patrol, +which was just starting off on an "observation hike," as +Bob called it. Part of the training Bob had laid out for +his men was an hour's brisk walk, after which each Safety +Scout wrote out a list of the unsafe things he had noticed +while "on the trail."</p> + +<p>"There's one thing that stumps me, though," said Chance. +"How did Bob <i>know</i> that was a live wire?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't. He simply had sense enough to treat <i>all</i> +fallen wires as if they <i>were</i> alive. See? Better safe than +sorry. Just the same in turning on an electric light: it +<i>may</i> not harm you to touch an iron bedstead with one +hand while you turn the light on with the other—but it's +taking a chance. Same's the fellow who turns an electric +bulb on or off while standing in a bathtub: he <i>may</i> go on +with his bath in safety—and then again he may drop lifeless +in the water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's a good deal like the gun that isn't loaded, Chauncey. +There <i>was</i> a lad, you know, who found a gun was dangerous +without lock, stock, or barrel—his father whipped him with +the ramrod! A real Scout knows how to take care of himself—and +of others. And that's especially true of Safety +Scouts."</p> + +<p>"Well, Colonel," said Chance, reaching for his crutches +and rising painfully to his feet, "I'm <i>for</i> it! Perhaps if +I make good, the fellows will quit calling me Chance and +call me either Chauncey or Carter, I don't care which—but +Chance makes me sick!"</p> + +<p>"Here's <i>to</i> you, Carter!" said Sure Pop, with a hearty +handshake. Again came that smile of satisfaction as he +watched the boy hobble off on a slow "observation hike" +of his own. In Carter's mind, too, the big idea was taking +root.</p> + +<p>Ten days later, Colonel Sure Pop was reviewing Dalton +Patrol.</p> + +<p>"Safety Scouts," he said, saluting the even ranks drawn +up before him, "your Colonel is proud of the work you're +doing. These 'observation hikes,' as your Scout Master +calls them, show better than anything else how much +more alert you are to danger signs than you were a month +ago.</p> + +<p>"Now, I've been sizing up these risks as covered by +your patrol reports. They seem to be of three kinds—home, +street, and railroad risks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nobody can study these reports without seeing that +our work is plainly cut out for us for the next few months. +Charity and every other good work begin at home—though +they end there only with the weak-minded! So our work +in Safety patrolling will naturally begin in our homes and +with ourselves, and will begin with the risks which these +reports show to be most common. Let me read you a few +of the common risks reported by the Scouts of this patrol:</p> + +<div class="hang2">Matches: left on floor where they may be stepped +on; or where mice may nibble them; or next the +stovepipe or chimney; or thrown down before +the last spark is out.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Celluloid things: brushes and combs handled +near the gas jet, where they may burst into flame.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Kerosene: poured on the fire to make it burn +faster (three bad cases of burns reported from this +cause alone).</div> + +<div class="hang2">Gasoline: left near a flame, or anywhere except +clear outside the house.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Gas: lighting oven of gas stove without first opening +oven door; leaving gas jet burning near +window, where breeze may blow curtains across +(five fires started that way during last month).</div> + +<div class="hang2">Electric wires: loose wires crossing, which often +cause fires.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Bathers: venturing too far out in deep water. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +nearly every case, it is the rescuer who drowns. +Never take a chance that may cost another's +life.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Safety pins: left open within baby's reach. You +all know what happened to Mrs. Fuller's baby +girl two weeks ago, all through an open safety pin.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Hot water and grease: left standing where children +may get into them.</div> + +<div class="hang2">Dogs: left unmuzzled and running loose.</div> + +<p>"These are only a few of the common dangers shown in +your scouting reports. So far, our work has been hunting +out these risks and listing them. From now on, we'll fall +to with a will and set them right as fast as we can, in our +own homes first and next among our neighbors.</p> + +<p>"Just one word of caution before we take up this new +patrol duty. Let's be careful how we go about setting +these things right. Remember, we can catch more flies +with honey than with vinegar, so let's not give people +the idea we are criticizing them—just suggesting.</p> + +<p>"For instance: if a Safety Scout sees a mop and a pail +of scalding water on Mrs. Muldoon's back steps and one of +her babies in danger of pitching into it headfirst, he'd better +not walk up and begin to scold about it. Mrs. Muldoon +may have done that for years without scalding any one yet. +More likely than not she'd just order you off the place—and +go right on as before. But if, instead, a Scout steps up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +and begins playing with the baby, he can first get baby +out of harm's way and <i>then</i> watch his chance to say, 'Baby +seems to have his eyes on that pail of hot water, Mrs. Muldoon. +Two babies over on the west side were scalded +to death last week; did you hear about it?' Chances are +Mrs. Muldoon will be around warning all her neighbors +before you've been gone ten minutes. Get the idea?—honey +instead of vinegar."</p> + +<p>"Honey works better down in South America, anyhow!" +said a deep voice, and a tall, handsome man stepped forward, +saluted, and shook hands cordially with Colonel +Sure Pop. He was brown as a berry from the tropical sun +and he carried his left arm in a sling.</p> + +<p>"Uncle—Uncle Jack!" The Dalton twins forgot that +the troop was on review, forgot Mrs. Muldoon's babies, +forgot everything and everybody but Uncle Jack. What +a surprise! And he knew Sure Pop, too!</p> + +<p>"Sure pop, I do!" laughed the explorer, kissing Betty +warmly before the whole admiring troop. "Here, look +out for that lame arm, you rascals! Our surgeon told me +it would be well in a month, but he was too optimistic, for +once!" For Bob and Betty were fairly swarming over +their favorite uncle, home at last from the jungle.</p> + +<p>"Nellie," said Uncle Jack to Mrs. Dalton that night, +when the Safety Scouts were off to bed at last, "those twins +of yours are making history—do you realize that?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said his sister, "they have their faults, like all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +the rest, but they're pretty fine youngsters at that. But, +oh, Jack, they're growing up so fast!"</p> + +<p>"They are, sure enough, like weeds; but their harvest +isn't going to be any weed crop, now mark my words. I +heard most of what was said at their patrol review this +afternoon before anybody saw me; and on my word, Nell, +those youngsters have started something bigger than they +have any idea of, something that no power on earth is +going to be able to stop. After all, I'm just as pleased that +the old chief's spear thrust sent me home in time to see +the Safety Scouts of America in the making!"</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>A real Scout knows how to take care of himself—and +of others.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i022.jpg" width="450" height="108" alt="Crossing the street" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i023.jpg" width="450" height="319" alt="SIX TIMELY TIPS" title="" /> +</div> + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER FOURTEEN</h2> + +<h3>SIX TIMELY TIPS</h3> + + +<p>Sure Pop and Uncle Jack were sprawled out side by side +on the green river bank, talking over old times. Bob and +Betty were hanging on every word.</p> + +<p>"My first few months of Safety work among American +factories and mills," Sure Pop was saying, "was largely +planting. I planted the Safety First idea and gave it +time to grow. I began with the steel mills; then I turned +to the railroads, then to the wood-working shops, and so +on."</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack gazed thoughtfully at the sparkling river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +"Well," he said at last to Sure Pop, "what results and +how?"</p> + +<p>"How?" repeated the little Colonel. "First, by putting +the idea, Safety First, into the mind of every workman +we met. Second, by whispering in his ear new ways of +cutting out accidents—<i>after</i> the Safety First idea had +had a chance to sink in. Results? Three fourths of the +deaths and injuries in the steel mills were cut out entirely +in six years' time; in the railroads, the number of accidents +was cut squarely in two in three years' time; in other +kinds of work—all except one—big reductions all along +the line."</p> + +<p>"Great!" There was no mistaking the admiration in +Uncle Jack's voice. "What about the one exception—what +line was that?"</p> + +<p>"It's a certain class of mills that is practically controlled +by one man, a very able man, but exceedingly self-willed +and stubborn. He owns a chain of mills from coast to +coast, and the rest of the manufacturers in his line follow +his lead in everything. He has fought the Safety First +idea from the start—calls it 'one of these new-fangled +notions'—will have nothing at all to do with it—and he +has held back the Safety movement in his whole line of +work."</p> + +<p>"Hm-m-m! Hard nut to crack, eh? What's the old +codger's name?"</p> + +<p>"Bruce. He's done more to handicap Safety work than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +any other man in the country—and I do believe he's +proud of it," said Sure Pop, grimly.</p> + +<p>"Bruce—isn't that the man your father works for, +Bob?"</p> + +<p>Bob nodded. "He has a heart, though"—and he told +them how the mill owner had come to Chance Carter's +aid, and how like a different man he had seemed when little +Bonnie threw her happy arms around him.</p> + +<p>"Queer mixture, isn't he?" said Uncle Jack.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is. But don't you suppose our patrol could +do something to change his mind?"</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack waved the idea aside. "Forget it, Bob, +forget it! Don't lose sight of what the Colonel told you +Scouts yesterday about the right way to go at things. Well, +the right way to go at Bruce is to leave him alone for a +while. If he's as prejudiced as all that, interfering would +only make him worse. He'll come around by and by, won't +he, Colonel?"</p> + +<p>"All in good time," said Sure Pop. "Your work is cut +out for you, Bob, as I told you yesterday. Get the Safety +First idea well rooted in the homes, and then we'll begin +on the streets, and get folks in the habit of thinking Safety +every time they cross the street."</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack yawned and stretched himself.</p> + +<p>"Can you spare these twins of ours for the day, Colonel? +I've a frolic of my own I want to borrow them for, if I may."</p> + +<p>"Sure pop! Go ahead, sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + +<p>Uncle Jack stepped across the street to a telephone, and +the first thing Bob and Betty knew, a big red automobile +drew up beside them. "Jump in, folks—look out for my +arm, please. Now—we're off! Goodby, Colonel."</p> + +<p>"My, but isn't this glorious!" Betty nestled closer +to her uncle as they sped along toward the shopping district. +"Is this your car, Uncle Jack?"</p> + +<p>"For today it is," laughed her uncle. "Today we'll just +make believe I own the mint. Careful there, driver!"</p> + +<p>Forgetful of his lame arm, he jumped to his feet and +waved his hand in warning. They had been running +smoothly along the car tracks, and another automobile +had cut in ahead of them from around the corner. A tow-headed +lad of about Bob's age, who was stealing a ride on +it, holding himself on by main strength as the automobile +jounced along over the crossing, had just made up his mind +he would ride no farther and was getting ready to jump. +Down he came, kerflop, in the street, stubbing his toe as +he tried to catch his balance.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack's chauffeur, warned by his shout, gave the +steering wheel a quick turn—and cleared the boy by a +hand's breadth! Uncle Jack sank back on the cushions, +his eyes flashing.</p> + +<p>"Reckless young rascal! Trying to make murderers +of us, is he? What are you Safety Scouts going to do about +the boys' hitching on like that, Bob?"</p> + +<p>Bob pulled a notebook out of his pocket. "Here's how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +Sure Pop has summed up our patrol reports on street +accidents. He calls it—</p> + +<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Six Timely Tips on Street Safety</span></div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 1: Make the street car stop before you step +on or off—the car can wait. But step lively!</div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 2: Face forward in getting off. Hold the +grip iron with your left hand—it's a friend +in need. Left foot to the step, right foot to the +ground, eyes front!</div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 3: Before leaving the car, look both ways for +automobiles, wagons, and motor cycles.</div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 4: In passing behind a car, first peek around +to see what's coming. When carrying an umbrella, +peek around that, too.</div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 5: Before you hitch on or steal rides on street +cars, automobiles, or wagons, better make your +will.</div> + +<div class='hang2'>Tip 6: Keep wide awake in getting on and off +cars and in crossing streets. Walk fast, <i>but don't +run</i>. Use all the sense you have; you're likely to +need it and to need it quick!</div> + +<p>"Those six tips are not guess work either, Uncle Jack. +They're boiled down from weeks of street scouting by every +boy and girl in our patrol."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Those are good, sensible tips," said his uncle. "What +use are you going to make of them?"</p> + +<p>"Well, by the time vacation's over, we will have a special +School Safety Patrol drilled and ready to get down to business +on this particular work among the youngsters—to +get them out of the habit of hitching on, and that sort of +thing. Our idea is to begin with the smaller school children; +there have been a good many bad accidents to them, +you see, going to and from school. Most of them have to +cross the tracks; it's altogether too easy for them to get +confused and run down by a street car or engine or auto."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Bob. How are you going to stop it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, each Scout in the School Patrol takes charge of +the school children in his block for one month. It's his +job to get them together at a convenient corner in the morning, +then herd them across the tracks and through the +crowded streets to school; to do the same thing on their +way home; and to keep an eye on their games during recess, +reporting any risky condition to their teachers. +We've planned it so this team work will not only keep the +youngsters from being run over and all that, but will also +be training them to take care of themselves and keep out +of danger just like any Safety Scout. How does the idea +strike you?"</p> + +<p>"Fine! It's a good, practical plan! Makes me wish I +were a boy again myself. Hello, here we are—out we go!"</p> + +<p>"Why, where are we?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll soon show you." Uncle Jack led the way to the +elevator and they shot up, up, clear to the roof.</p> + +<p>"Hungry?" he asked, as a white-clad waiter showed +them to a table. He enjoyed the surprise of Bob and Betty; +they had never had luncheon downtown before. Mr. +Dalton's hard-earned wages left no room for such celebrations +as this. And a roof garden—! No wonder it seemed +very strange and very grand to the Dalton twins.</p> + +<p>They must have spent a good half-hour ordering that +meal: it was fun to study the big bill of fare and pick out +delicious things which they "never had at home." Uncle +Jack seemed to find it just as much fun as they did, and he +understood pretty well how they felt as they ate and ate, +while they gazed out on the roofs of the city spread out +below them. It wasn't so <i>very</i> many years, you see, since +he had been a youngster himself!</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>Plant the Safety First idea and watch it grow.</i> + +—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span><br /></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i024.jpg" width="450" height="280" alt="TWIN UNIFORMS" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER FIFTEEN</h2> + +<h3>TWIN UNIFORMS</h3> + + +<p>"How nice and cool it is up here!"</p> + +<p>Betty, looking very grown-up and quite as if she were +used to taking luncheon in a roof garden every day, smiled +contentedly at Uncle Jack over her glass of lemonade.</p> + +<p>"Cool as a cucumber," said her uncle. "Hard to realize +how sweltering hot it is down there in the street, isn't it? +Betty, what's <i>your</i> Safety work going to be when school +begins?"</p> + +<p>Betty glanced at Bob; she had not yet told even him +about her plan. "First, I suppose, I'll serve my month +on the School Safety Patrol; and then—then, I'm going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +to talk to my teacher about starting Safety Games in the +lower grades."</p> + +<p>"Safety Games!" Bob's tone showed his surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Bob. Funny sounding idea, isn't it? But I've +thought out a lot of games that the kindergarten children +can play, games that will be brand new to them, and lots +of fun, and at the same time will get them into the habit +of thinking Safety and looking out for themselves on the +street."</p> + +<p>"Tell us one," demanded Bob.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Betty, "one of them I call 'Little Safety +Scout.' We can begin by asking the little folks in one +grade what things they ought to keep in mind when crossing +a busy street. The one that gives the best answer is made +'Little Safety Scout.' One of the biggest boys plays he's +the crossing policeman, other children play street cars, +others make believe they're automobiles, and so on. The +rest are just people trying to get across the street, and they +have trouble trying to understand what the policeman's +whistle signals mean, and some get run over, and some are +saved by the 'Little Safety Scout,' and others show the right +way to get on and off a car, and all that."</p> + +<p>"Well, Betty Dalton," cried Uncle Jack, "you're a +regular little witch! Why, that's a dandy plan. The +first thing you know, you'll have the little folks able to take +care of themselves on the streets better than the grown-ups +do!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fine!" chimed in Bob. "And we can give them Sure +Pop buttons, too!"</p> + +<p>"That's right, we can," said Betty. "We can give +buttons to the children who pass an easy little Safety First +examination after we've played the Safety Games a few +weeks. And perhaps we might make some Safety posters +to hang on the schoolroom walls; just big posters in colored +crayons, with a picture of Sure Pop and one of his Safety +mottoes below it in big letters,—like, 'Folks that have no +wings must use their wits,'—something that would make +the children remember the point of the story longer. Don't +you think that would help along?"</p> + +<p>Thus the three friends went on planning, till the jolly +head waiter asked them for the ninth time if they wouldn't +have something more, and Uncle Jack looked at his +watch with a start of surprise.</p> + +<p>"Four o'clock! Whew! We must get out of this. +We have lots to do yet before we go home, and I told the +chauffeur to be back here at five. Let's stop in the cold-storage +room below."</p> + +<p>"Is that what makes the roof so cool?" asked Betty, +as they looked around on the floor below.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha! Not a bad idea—perhaps it does have +something to do with it. No, this is where the store keeps +its furs during the summer months. Moths can't stand +the cold, you know. Come on, we'll go on down now."</p> + +<p>The elevator car was nearly full of people from the roof<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +garden. Betty started to step in, hesitated, then turned +back. Uncle Jack motioned her and Bob in, stepped in after +them, and carefully turned so that he faced the elevator +door.</p> + +<p>"That was a risky thing you did just then," he whispered +to Betty. "Three quarters of all the elevator accidents +are due to stepping in or out in the wrong way. Never +do the thing halfway, you know. Always wait till the +elevator man stops the car at the floor level and throws the +door wide open."</p> + +<p>Next to them in the elevator stood two boys—cash +boys in the store—who were fooling and scuffling so close +to the door that the elevator man cautioned them twice +as the car dropped swiftly downward. Finally one of them +brought his heel down on the other's foot so hard that the +other jumped backward, forgetting everything else for the +pain. Forward went his head—bang went his face +against the iron grating of the door they were just +passing.</p> + +<p>The elevator stopped with a jerk. They carried the boy +out and sent for the store doctor. Bob and Betty never +had to be reminded, in all the years to come, to look +sharp when riding in elevators. The memory of that +bruised and battered face was warning enough.</p> + +<p>"It's a dangerous machine," said Uncle Jack as they +left the store. "A fellow who will scuffle in an elevator is +foolish enough for almost anything. Here's our next stop,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +and he showed them into a shop with a big sign over the +double door:</p> + +<div class='center'> +UNIFORMS—READY MADE OR TO ORDER<br /> +</div> + +<p>"Uncle Jack must be going to have a new uniform," +whispered Betty to her twin as the tailor came up with +his tape over his shoulders. But it was not around their +uncle that the tape measure went, it was around Bob!</p> + +<p>"Yes, the regulation khaki," Uncle Jack was saying. +"Cut and finish it just like this one," and he handed the +tailor a photograph of Sure Pop.</p> + +<p>"Your turn next, Betty," said Uncle Jack, and to Betty's +great delight and the tailor's surprise, <i>she</i> was measured for +a special Safety Scout uniform too!</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack did not stop there. He bought the twins +Safety Scout hats of fine, light felt, made for hard service, +and he was on the point of buying them leather puttees +or leggings, but Bob stopped him.</p> + +<p>"Canvas leggings are plenty good enough," he said. +"The fellows couldn't afford leather, most of them, and we +want them all to match."</p> + +<p>"Canvas it is, then," nodded his uncle, and went on making +up the outfits. Betty sighed happily as they followed him +into another store. It all seemed too good to be true! The +first thing she knew, they were sitting at a glass-topped table.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack mopped his steaming forehead again. +"That tailor shop beats the jungle all hollow for heat!" he +exclaimed. "What kind of ice cream do you want, Scouts?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> + +<p>Betty thought it was time to object. "Oh, Uncle Jack, +we've had enough! You've done too much for us already!" +All the same, she enjoyed the ice cream just as much as the +others did, and when Uncle Jack tucked a box of chocolates +under her arm, her cup of joy was full.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking about, Betty?" asked Uncle +Jack as the big red automobile bore them merrily homeward; +for Betty had not said a word for blocks and blocks.</p> + +<p>She patted Uncle Jack's arm—the well one—with a +grateful smile. "I was thinking what a perfectly, perfectly +<i>lovely</i> day we've had! And wishing," she murmured, +wistfully, "that Mother had been along too."</p> + +<p>"Now that part's all taken care of," said Uncle Jack. +"Your mother's going out for a spin with me tonight after +Baby's asleep; she couldn't leave today, she said. She +and I will have a good long ride down the river front in +the moonlight. Be sure you get a good sleep tonight, now, +you two; I want you to be in good trim for a little exploring +party I'm planning for tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"We'll be up bright and early, ready for anything," +Bob told him. "Whew! but this has been a whirlwind +of a day! Glad you're going to take Mother out—that's +the only way she'd get a cool breeze tonight, all right!"</p> + +<p>"But it can't be as nice as the roof garden, even then!" +cried his happy twin, as she lifted out her big box of candy +and skipped up the front steps two at a time.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i025.jpg" width="450" height="292" alt="WHERE SAFETY WAS A STRANGER" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER SIXTEEN</h2> + +<h3>WHERE SAFETY WAS A STRANGER</h3> + + +<p>True to their word, Bob and Betty were up bright and +early, ready for Uncle Jack's exploring trip.</p> + +<p>"We're going to visit one of the big wood-working mills," +he explained as they left the house after breakfast. "I'm +curious to see the result of Colonel Sure Pop's Safety +patrolling, and it seems to me that will be about as interesting +a shop as we can begin on. It will be fun to see what +they're doing to make it safer for the men—perhaps we can +get some ideas for your outside patrols, Bob."</p> + +<p>The twins looked around them sharply as they went into +the mill by way of its lumber yard. "I don't see anything +here that looks dangerous," was Bob's first remark. "Hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +on, though—what about those piles of lumber? Don't +you think they're piled too high to be safe?"</p> + +<p>"I can tell you this much," said Uncle Jack, who had +been reading up on the year's long list of accidents. "The +danger of being hit by falling or flying objects in mills and +factories is the biggest risk in the whole country today."</p> + +<p>He walked around to the laborers who were piling +lumber and began talking with the foreman. The twins +stepped nearer so that they could hear what he was saying.</p> + +<p>"They're getting that pile rather high," said Uncle +Jack, as if he had only just noticed it. "It's beginning to +look a bit wobbly on its pins. Isn't there danger of its +toppling over and hurting somebody?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," was the foreman's answer. "We +do have a few men smashed up that way, off and on; it's +all in the day's work, though."</p> + +<p>Hardly were the words out of his mouth when a heavily +loaded wagon in passing beside the lumber piles swayed +and came squarely up against the one the men were +working on. With a crash and a clatter the whole thing +went over. One man jumped clear of the wreck, another +slid down with the lumber, bruised but not much hurt—and +two disappeared under the huge mass of falling boards.</p> + +<p>The three Safety Scouts stood watching the ambulance, +fifteen minutes later, as it carried off the two men to the +hospital, one with a broken arm and a gash over one eye, +the other hurt inside so badly that he died that night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +Both of them had boys and girls of their own—families +whose living depended on their daily wages at the mill!</p> + +<p>"Hard luck for their folks," said Uncle Jack, as the ambulance +rumbled away. "The Colonel told me yesterday +his men had done a lot of successful Safety scouting among +the wood-working mills. I can't understand it. By the +way, Bob, that ambulance reminds me: what drill are you +giving your Safety Scouts on how to call the fire department, +and the police and the ambulance and so on?"</p> + +<p>"We've got that well covered in our Saturday reports, +Uncle Jack. Once a week each Scout adds to his report +the telephone number of the police and the fire department—it's +usually a number that's easy to remember, like +'Main 0' for fire and 'Main 13' for police—as well as the +street address of the nearest station."</p> + +<p>"Bob, how did they happen to choose those numbers?" +wondered Betty.</p> + +<p>Her brother grinned. "I suppose because after a bad +fire there's nothing left, and because it's unlucky to fall into +the hands of the police!" and he cleverly ducked the box +Betty aimed at his ear.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack's twinkle didn't last long, though. He was +too much puzzled over the carelessness he was noticing in +this mill, carelessness where he had expected to find up-to-date +Safety methods. He poked with his foot at a board +with several ugly nails sticking up in it and jammed them +carefully down into the ground.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's the fourth bad case of upturned nails I've found +here already," he said quietly. "There's no end of broken +bottles and such trash under foot, and just look at that +overloaded truck, will you? One sharp curve in the track +and that load will spill all over the place. Why, these +chaps don't realize the first thing about Safety, Bob."</p> + +<p>They moved on into the engine room. One of the engineer's +helpers, a boy who looked hardly older than Bob, +stood beside a swiftly moving belt, pouring something on it +out of a tin can. His sleeve was dangling, and every time +the belt lacing whirled past, it flipped the sleeve like a +clutching finger trying to jerk his arm into the cruel wheel.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack walked over for a word with the engineer, +a fat, jolly looking man who seemed well satisfied with life. +"Do your helpers often put belt dressing on while the belt +is running?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The jolly engineer was plainly surprised. "Why, they +never do it any other time!" he exclaimed. "Why do +you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Only," said the explorer, dryly, "because there are +several hundred men killed in just that way every year—and +most of them have families. Don't you put guards +around any of your belts in this mill, either?"</p> + +<p>Again that puzzled look in the engineer's eyes. "No, +not here," he answered slowly. "There was some talk +about putting them on, but nothing came of it. It wouldn't +be a bad idea, either; every now and then some poor fellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +loses a hand or an arm. Last spring a new man from out +in the yards was walking through here, and the wind blew +his sleeve too near the belt. It yanked him clear in between +the belt and pulley—smashed him up so he didn't live +more'n a couple of hours. That certainly was hard luck."</p> + +<p>"Luck!" snorted Uncle Jack, when the three were out of +hearing. "A moving belt is almost as dangerous as a can +of gunpowder! Yet these men call it luck when it takes +off an arm or snuffs out a life. It's disgusting."</p> + +<p>All through the plant they found the same state of affairs—careless +men, unguarded machinery, guesswork everywhere. +In the machine shop they found men and boys +cleaning machines that were running at top speed. Any +one could see how easily the rags and soft cotton waste they +were using could catch in the moving parts and draw a +hand or an arm into the flying wheels.</p> + +<p>"I noticed in the accident reports of one single state," +Uncle Jack told Betty, "that more than five hundred people +were hurt in that very way, by cleaning machines that +were moving. Half of them lost fingers and many lost +their hands or arms. No sensible workman, these days, +treats his machine as anything but downright dangerous +as long as it's running."</p> + +<p>The buzz saws fascinated the twins. They felt as if +they could stand all day long and listen to the drone of +the saw as it ate its way into the clean white boards, snarling +like an angry dog when its teeth struck a knot in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +wood. There were a good many of these saws in the big, +long room; now and then they would get to singing together +like a music class at school and then they would +drop out of tune again.</p> + +<p>"Not a saw guard in the place," shouted Bob in Uncle +Jack's ear, for the saws drowned out his ordinary tone.</p> + +<p>But Uncle Jack's keen eyes had already caught sight of +some metal guards hung up on the wall here and there. +"They've got them," he corrected, "but they are not making +any use of them." He stepped up to one of the saws +and spoke to the man who was running it. "Why don't +you keep the guard on your saw?"</p> + +<p>"Aw, those things are a nuisance," said the man. "Yes, +we're supposed to keep 'em on, but they'd be in the way—we +couldn't get the work out so fast with them."</p> + +<p>"That's queer," said Uncle Jack. "In a good many +mills like this they've found that a man using a good saw +guard turns out more work than ever—because he's so +much more free in using his hands, I suppose."</p> + +<p>The man grunted, but did not answer. On their way +to the door, the Safety Scouts spied, clear back in one +corner, a man who really did have his saw guard in use. +"And a rattling lot of work he's turning out, too," said +Bob, after the three had watched him a while from a distance. +The neat metal guard came clear down over the +murderous saw teeth, so that no matter how much his +fingers happened to be in the way, they were safe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let's ask him why he uses his saw guard when the others +won't," said Uncle Jack. He stepped nearer the silent +workman and then—he saw the reason. Turning to Bob +and Betty, he tapped his left hand with his right and jerked +his head toward the man beside the saw. The twins +walked around to where they could get a look at the workman's +left hand. Then they understood. There was nothing +left of the fingers but the stub of one, and the thumb!</p> + +<p>"Easy enough to see why that one man was using his +saw guard, eh?" said Uncle Jack to Sure Pop that night.</p> + +<p>"Nothing easier," said the little Colonel. "A burnt +child dreads the fire, you know. Not much Safety First +idea noticeable in that mill, was there?"</p> + +<p>"Colonel, that's just what I don't understand. I thought +you said yesterday your Safety Scouts had done good work +among the wood-working mills, but if that's a sample—"</p> + +<p>"It isn't," was the quiet answer. "Do you happen to +know who's the biggest stockholder in that mill?"</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack stared. "Surely not—not Bruce?"</p> + +<p>"You've guessed it."</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack gave a long, low whistle of surprise. "But +I had no idea he owned wood-working mills too."</p> + +<p>"This is the only one. It's out of his line, I'll admit—but +it goes to show his bitter prejudice against the Safety +First movement, doesn't it? He'll come around by and by, +never fear. All in good time, my friend, all in good time."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i026.jpg" width="450" height="285" alt="GIVING THE OTHER FELLOW A SQUARE DEAL" title="" /> +</div> + + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN</h2> + +<h3>GIVING THE OTHER FELLOW A SQUARE DEAL</h3> + + +<p>The Dalton twins had something on their minds. Mother +felt it. Uncle Jack felt it. Every now and then they +forgot to go on eating their breakfast; and when a Dalton +went that far, as their uncle remarked, things were getting +very bad indeed.</p> + +<p>Betty sat and fidgeted. Bob looked as if he would like +to pop one question at his uncle, but he managed to hold it +in. Finally Betty slid down from her chair, went boldly +around to Uncle Jack, and whispered something in his ear. +How he threw back his handsome head and laughed!</p> + +<p>"Betty, you're a regular mind reader! Why, we're +going down to try them on this very morning, and I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +just going to tell you to get ready, but you were too quick +for me!"</p> + +<p>Two hours later Betty, looking very spruce in her new +Safety Scout uniform, was dancing up and down before +the mirrors while Bob's blouse was having the buttons set +over a bit.</p> + +<p>"That boy," said the tailor, looking at him with bulging +eyes, "has grown smaller since this uniform was measured!"</p> + +<p>"If you'd seen the luncheon he tucked away, just before +we came over that day to be measured," laughed Uncle +Jack, "you'd only wonder that those buttons won't have to +be set back at least a foot! Now, where are the trousers?"</p> + +<p>"They are up in the shop. Wait, I'll get them. What? +You'd like to come along? Up this way, then."</p> + +<p>On the second floor they found themselves in a big room +that looked like a forest of sewing machines, humming and +clicking so fast that at first the twins were fairly bewildered. +Girls who, it seemed, could hardly be older than Betty +were bending over their machines, sewing away as if for +dear life. Most of them did not even look up from their +work as the visitors came through.</p> + +<p>"The young man's trousers are in this next room," +said the tailor, leading the way to a heavy iron door which +separated the two rooms on that floor.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea of this iron door?" asked Uncle Jack. +"To keep a fire from spreading from one department into +the other?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Exactly so. That big, thick fire wall goes straight +through the building from top to bottom—cuts it in two. +Suppose a fire breaks out here on the piecework side: +the foreman just opens this fire door and shoos the boys and +girls right through, like a lot of chickens. Then he shuts +the fire door tight, and they are safe. That big fire we +had here four years ago taught us something. So when +the owner rebuilt it for us, he built it right."</p> + +<p>The big room on the other side of the fire wall was crowded +almost as full of workers as the first one. The main difference +was that there were more boys and men, and that +more sewing was being done by hand. Bob's khaki trousers +were quickly found and tried on—a perfect fit.</p> + +<p>"We'll give Bob a Patrol Leader's arm badge—two +white bars of braid below his left shoulder," said Uncle +Jack. "Betty will get one bar for the present, I understand. +There are some badges yet to come, Colonel Sure +Pop says."</p> + +<p>Bob and Betty looked at each other, too pleased to talk.</p> + +<p>The four were walking downstairs for a look at the other +floors of the big tailor shop when the noon whistle blew. +R-r-rip—slam—bang! A torrent of rattle-brained boys +came tearing pell mell down the stairs like a waterfall over +a dam. Most of them came pelting down three steps at +a jump, but on one of the landings somebody stumbled, +and the yelling boys piled up in a squirming, kicking heap.</p> + +<p>"Hey! WAIT!" No one would ever have suspected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +the mild-mannered tailor of having such a foghorn of a +voice! The rush from the upper floors slowed up at once, +and Uncle Jack and Bob helped the fallen lads pick themselves +up. But the boy at the bottom, a little fellow with +a thin, pinched face that looked as if he had never had half +enough to eat, nor even enough fresh air, lay there moaning +softly.</p> + +<p>Bob knew that queer, unnatural angle of the boy's right +arm, which lay awkwardly stretched out beside him, as if +it had never quite matched his left. The arm was broken.</p> + +<p>"Here, here!" roared the tailor, gently picking the little +fellow up and carrying him to the elevator. "Will you +crazy fellows never learn? Only last week, somebody hollered +'Fire!' just to see the other fellows jump up and run, +and broke that poor little Levinski's collar bone! And +now look at this!"</p> + +<p>"The old fellow's right on that score," was Uncle Jack's +remark as the twins followed him to the street car, each +hugging tight a big pasteboard box with a brand new Safety +Scout uniform inside it. "Those lads meant no particular +harm, but that certainly was about as far from a square +deal as one fellow can give another. These 'practical +jokers' who will yell 'Fire!' or run over a boy smaller than +themselves—well, if a Boy Scout had no more sense than +that, he'd be drummed out of the service!"</p> + +<p>Once on the way home, when the car stopped at the corner, +he pointed up to a fire escape on a big flat building.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +"There's your flower-pot risk over again, Betty. Even +worse, for this time they're on the fire escape steps where +folks would fall over head first in case of fire. And see +that girl leaning against that rickety old porch railing on +the third floor! Certainly there's plenty in sight for a +Safety Scout to do!"</p> + +<p>That afternoon they visited a large machine shop across +the river. To their great delight, Bob and Betty were +allowed to wear their new Safety Scout uniforms, leggings +and all. They stood very straight as they waited for their +companion to get a permit at the Company's office.</p> + +<p>"Those new uniforms are going to be about as good an +'ad' for Safety First as anything we could have," remarked +Uncle Jack, leading the way into the big machine +shop. He had caught the admiring glances that had followed +them from the older people and the longing looks +that the boys and girls had sent after them all the way over.</p> + +<p>"We haven't done our 'Day's Boost for Safety' yet, +though," said Betty. "I don't know but we ought to do our +good turn every morning before we start out on any trip—I +just hate not to get my button right side up till so late +in the day!"</p> + +<p>"Those girls have pretty neat looking uniforms of their +own, haven't they?" said Bob, a little later, as they gazed +down a long row of punch presses which were pouring out +shining streams of aluminum pin trays. "What do they +wear them for—just to look pretty?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You wouldn't have thought so," laughed the forewoman, +"if you could have seen how they fought the first +caps and aprons we tried to get them to wear. They <i>were</i> +homely things, even if they were life savers. So we kept +at it till we got something so trim and pretty that the girls +would rather wear it than not."</p> + +<p>"Life savers?" repeated Betty. "How could caps and +aprons save lives? Oh—by not catching in the machinery?"</p> + +<p>"Just so. It's easy for a girl's hair to be blown into the +machines, or for a braid to swing against a whirling shaft, +you see. Oh yes, we had several girls killed that way, +before we tried this uniform. They used to wear dresses +with baggy sleeves,—ragged ones, sometimes. Rings +and bracelets are bad, too; and even these aprons, you'll +notice, are buttoned back so they can't fly out against the +wheels. Yes, the girls all like the idea now. The caps +keep their hair from getting dusty or mussed up. Besides, +we find it saves a good many girls' feelings, too, having them +all dressed so much alike."</p> + +<p>The same good sense was shown in the other departments, +in the working clothes worn by the men and boys.</p> + +<p>"You won't find a man in this room with a necktie on," +the foreman told them. "These are the biggest punch +presses in our whole shop. A while ago one of the men got +his necktie caught between the cogwheels and he was drawn +into the machine head first. That was the end of that sort +of thing in <i>this</i> shop!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now, as you'll see, long sleeves and ragged or baggy +overalls are things of the past. If a man does wear a +long sleeve, he keeps it rolled up where it can't catch and +cost him a hand or an arm.</p> + +<p>"Watch the men and boys, and you'll see how careful +they are not to look around while their machines are running. +Before they start their machines, you'll find them +looking all around to see there's nobody near who might +get caught in the wheels or belt. These workmen are just +as anxious to give the other fellow a square deal as anybody +could be, once they catch the Safety First idea. It took +some of them a long while to learn never to fool with the +other fellow's machine—that's always dangerous, you +know, just like a machine that's out of order. Our pressmen +wouldn't think of starting up a machine which was out +of order, or which they didn't understand—they'd report +it to me at once."</p> + +<p>"What has been the result of all this Safety training—has +it got the men to 'thinking Safety,' so you don't have +so many accidents?" asked Uncle Jack.</p> + +<p>The foreman's face glowed with pride. "Why, it's got +so now, sir, that even the youngsters are too wise to scuffle +or play jokes on each other here in the shop. They've +come to see how easy it is to fall against dangerous machinery +or down a shaft or stairway. And as for throwing +things at each other, the way they used to during the noon +hour—nothing doing any more in that line.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Would you believe it, we haven't had a bad accident in +this shop since a year ago last July. That was when one +of the boys on a punch press got the die clogged and tried +to dig it out with his fingers instead of using a hook. That's +about the last set of fingers this shop has lost; yes, sir. +Before that, there was hardly a week went by but we had +several hands crippled, and often somebody killed. Oh, +this Safety First work is wonderful,—it's making things +a lot safer for the working man!"</p> + +<p>Uncle Jack told the kindly foreman what the twins were +doing in Safety patrol work. Bob and Betty could see how +proud the man was of the splendid Safety showing his shop +was making. "And it's a fine pair of Scout uniforms you +and the little lady have," he called after them. "More +power to you both—and to the Safety Scouts of America!"</p> + +<p>"You seem very much interested in everything in these +shops, Bob," said his uncle, who could hardly drag him +away.</p> + +<p>"You'd better believe I am!" cried the boy, warmly. +"As soon as I get through school, I'm going to get a job +in one of these factories and—well, I'm trying to make up +my mind which shop it shall be!"</p> + +<div class="center"><i>One thing you always owe the other fellow—a +square deal.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i027.jpg" width="450" height="281" alt="AN ADVENTURE IN SAFETY" title="" /> +</div> + + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN</h2> + +<h3>AN ADVENTURE IN SAFETY</h3> + + +<p>Betty told Sure Pop what Bob had said about getting a +job in one of the big mills by and by, and the little Colonel +remembered it a few weeks later when he was showing several +of the Safety Scouts through the steel mills.</p> + +<p>"Do you think it will be one of these mills you'll pick +out for your first job?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know, now. It's a pretty big, lonesome +sort of place for a fellow like me, Sure Pop, and there don't +seem to be so many fellows of my own age here as in some +of the other factories."</p> + +<p>Betty and Joe and Chance followed Bob's eyes around +the big steel mill yards. They knew how he felt. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +a lonesome looking place till you got used to it, in spite of +the thousands of men who swarmed around them. The +queer, raw smell of the reddish iron ore added to the feeling, +too.</p> + +<p>Away down in the big ore boats along the docks, gangs +of big, brawny workmen strained and sweated, filling the +iron buckets that traveled up the wire cables to the ore +dumps. Others were trucking the ore to the furnaces, +while a swarm of little switch engines panted and puffed +back and forth over the network of steel rails.</p> + +<p>The steel works covered many acres of ground, and, shut +off as they were by high fences, seemed almost like another +world. The roar of the furnaces and the din of steel on +steel made Betty and the boys feel rather confused at first. +"I should think all these men just over from the old country +would get mixed up, so many of them not understanding +a single word of English," said Betty to their guide.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we have to be mighty careful," said the man, who +was one of the Safety men who gave all his time to making +the steel mills safer for the thousands of workmen. "We +print this little book of Safety Rules in all the different +languages, so that each new man can study it and find out +how to do his day's work without getting into danger."</p> + +<p>"Wow! what's that?" Joe's black eyes opened very +wide as he pointed to a great ball of fire that rose from +one of the furnace stacks, floated a little way like a balloon, +and then burst into a sheet of flame.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just the gas from the blast furnace—regular Fourth +of July fireworks, isn't it? I remember how queer those +gas bubbles used to look to me when I first came to work +here."</p> + +<p>He waited while his visitors stared for a few minutes at +the fiery clouds, then led the way to the blast furnaces. +They went through two or three big buildings, all of them +fairly alive with hurrying, sweating laborers. But in spite +of the seeming confusion all around them, Bob noticed how +carefully the aisles and passageways were kept free and +clear of anything the hurrying men might stumble over.</p> + +<p>"We simply have to do it," explained the steel man. +"Before we woke up to the importance of never leaving +anything in the way where it might be stumbled over, we +had more broken arms and legs every month than you could +shake a stick at. Now it's different; it's as much as a man's +job is worth to leave anything lying in the passageways +for his fellow workmen to stumble and fall over."</p> + +<p>"I saw some white lines painted on the floor of that last +room we came through, the one where all those castings +were stacked up in rows," said Chance. "Was that what +they were for? Great scheme, isn't it? And as simple +as falling off a log!"</p> + +<p>"Simple? Sure—most of these things are simple +enough, once you think of them," agreed their guide. "It +took perhaps an hour of one man's time and a gallon or +two of white paint to paint those dead-lines along the sides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>—and +many's the man who has been saved weeks in the +hospital by those same white lines."</p> + +<p>The five friends followed him into the foundry department. +Hardly had they stepped through the doorway, +when the clang of a big gong overhead scattered a group +of laborers who were piling heavy castings on flat cars.</p> + +<p>Five pairs of eyes looked up as the five Safety Scouts +turned to see where the gong was. Away up above them +on a track that went from one end of the long room to the +other, they saw something like an oddly shaped freight +engine running along with a heavy wire cable dangling +toward the floor. The big, strong cable was carrying a +load of several tons of steel castings as easily as a boy carries +in an armful of wood. "And with a whole lot less fuss and +bother!" said Betty, with a sly look at Brother Bob.</p> + +<p>"When a man hears that gong overhead," said the guide, +"he knows what it means even before he looks up. That's +what is called a traveling crane. It runs back and forth +on those overhead tracks, wherever the crane driver wants +to pick up or drop his load. He kicks that gong with his +heel, just like the motorman on the street car, and it gives +warning to the workmen below just as plainly as if it yelled +out, 'Look out, below! Here comes a load that might +spill on your heads!'"</p> + +<p>"Sounds exactly like a street-car gong," said Betty.</p> + +<p>The steel man smiled. "It ought to—it was made for +use on a street car. Watch sharp when the crane comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +back this way and you'll see the gong fastened right up +under the cab floor. See? We tried whistles for a while, +and automobile horns, too; but this plain, everyday street-car +gong beats 'em all. A man doesn't have to understand +English to know what <i>that</i> sound means!"</p> + +<p>"It must have made a good deal of difference in the +number of accidents," said Sure Pop, "with so many men +working underneath those cranes right along."</p> + +<p>"Did it? Well, I should say so! That's another little +thing that's as simple as A B C, but it saves lives and +broken bones just the same. Sometimes I think we get +to thinking too much about the big things, Colonel, and +not enough about these little, everyday ideas that spell +Safety to all these thousands of men who look to us for +a square deal."</p> + +<p>Sure Pop reached up to say something in Bob's ear as +they went on to the chipping yard, where long rows of men +were trimming down the rough steel castings with chisels +driven by compressed-air hammers.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see anything like it, Bob, the way this +'square deal' and 'fair play' idea gets into their systems, +once they wake up to the possibilities of Safety First?"</p> + +<p>"It certainly does," said Bob. "I thought of that, +too. It's what that tailor told the boys in the clothing +factory, the day we got our uniforms, and it's just what +the foreman in that machine shop told us, too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Sure Pop, "the spirit of fair play means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +everything to a fellow who's any good at all—it's the very +life of the Boy Scout law, you know."</p> + +<p>Joe was looking hard at the chippers.</p> + +<p>"Every one of those men wear glasses! Isn't that +queer!"</p> + +<p>"It's all the difference between a blind man and a wage +earner," was the way the steel man looked at it. "When +those steel chips fly into a man's eyes it's all over but the +sick money." He turned to little Sure Pop again. "There +it is again, Colonel—another of the simplest ideas a man +could imagine—just putting goggles on our chippers and +emery wheel workers—but it has saved hundreds and +hundreds of eyes, and every eye or pair of eyes means +some man's living—and the living of a family."</p> + +<p>"Splendid idea," nodded the little Colonel—just as if +he, the Spirit of Safety, had not thought it all out years +before, and put it into the minds of men! "Do you ever +have any trouble getting the men to wear them?"</p> + +<p>"Plenty! Most of the men treated it as a joke at first. +Then, gradually, they began to notice that the men who +wore theirs on their <i>hats</i> (the rule is that they must wear +goggles while at this work or lose their jobs), those were the +men who lost their eyes. Several of the first men to be +blinded after the new rule was posted were those very +ones, the chaps that had made the most fun of the goggles. +Then the others began to wake up.</p> + +<p>"Over in my office, I've several hundred pairs of goggles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +that have had one or both lenses smashed by flying bits +of steel—and every pair has saved an eye, in some cases +both eyes. Seems sort of worth while, eh, Colonel?"</p> + +<p>It was an enthusiastic group of Safety Scouts that passed +out through the big steel mill gates and started home in +the mellow September twilight. "Oh, I think it's wonderful," +cried Betty, as they talked over what they had +seen, "perfectly wonderful, Sure Pop, that such little things +can save so many lives!"</p> + +<p>"But I don't see why you call a trip like this 'an adventure,'" +broke in Chance, who had never been along on any +of the twins' Safety Scouting trips before. "We didn't +see an accident or an explosion or anything!"</p> + +<p>Colonel Sure Pop gave Chance one of his wise smiles. +"That's the best part of the whole trip, as you'll see when +you've been at it as long as I have. The most delightful +adventure a lover of fair play can possibly have to look +back on, my boy, is one just like what we've had today—a +real, live adventure in Safety!"</p> + +<div class="center"><i>The spirit of fair play is the very life of the +Scout Law.</i>—<span class="smcap">Sure Pop</span></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i028.jpg" width="450" height="280" alt="ONE DAY'S BOOST FOR SAFETY" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>ADVENTURE NUMBER NINETEEN</h2> + +<h3>ONE DAY'S BOOST FOR SAFETY</h3> + + +<p>October had come and gone in busy school days and +even busier Safety Scouting trips, all but the last day. For +it was the morning of Hallowe'en,—and the Dalton twins' +birthday.</p> + +<p>"Twelve years old, eh?" said Father, at the breakfast +table. "Well, well, how time flies, Nell! Stand up here, +you Safety Scouts, and let's have a look at you. I declare, +no one would suspect Bob of being a day under fifteen, would +he, Jack?"</p> + +<p>"I'd hate to have him haul off and hit me with that fist +of his!" laughed Uncle Jack. "How are you going to +celebrate the day, Scouts?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + +<p>"As if any one need ask!" smiled Mother. "Today's +the day Bob takes his entering test and joins the Boy Scouts, +and Betty joins the Camp Fire Girls. Just think—big +enough for that! Good thing it's Saturday, Betty."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do—start out to capture all +the honor medals?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope to get a few, by and by," admitted Bob, +modestly, but with a determined gleam in his eye. "I'll +be just a tenderfoot to start with, you know. But I'm +hoping it won't be so terribly long before I can qualify as a +first-class Scout."</p> + +<p>"Hm-m-m!" muttered their uncle, winking at Mr. +Dalton over the twins' heads. For he realized what Bob +and Betty did not, that the practical, everyday Safety +scouting the twins had done had already gone far toward +qualifying them, not only for Boy Scout and Camp Fire +Girl honors, but for practical Safety work all the rest of +their lives. There is no age limit in the Safety Scouts of +America.</p> + +<p>They were wearing their handsome new uniforms when +Chance Carter came over to get some scouting tips from +Bob. Chance was going around without his crutches now, +for the broken leg seemed to be as strong and well as ever.</p> + +<p>Chance had his heart set on a Safety Scout uniform like +Bob's. "Dad says he'll get me one as soon as I do something +to earn it," he told the twins. "I'm going to put in +all day today scouting for something that will earn me that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +uniform—and I want you two to think up some stunt that +will win it, <i>sure!</i>"</p> + +<p>The twins were eager to get ready for their entrance +tests, but it seemed only fair to give their friend his chance, +too. So they sat and thought hard, while the golden minutes +flew past.</p> + +<p>"I can't seem to think of anything worth while today," +said Betty. "Why not hunt for a live wire and report it, +the way Bob did?"</p> + +<p>"Not much use on a day like this," objected Bob. "That +was the morning after the big windstorm, when wires were +down all over town. I'll tell you what you might do, +Chance: you might patrol the roads on the edge of town. +You may run across a broken culvert, or a shaky bridge, or +something."</p> + +<p>"And you might patrol the river bank and watch for +a chance to fish somebody out of the river," added Betty. +"There are lots of children playing down by the river every +Saturday, you know."</p> + +<p>"Now," said Bob, when to their great relief Chance +Carter had hurried off to begin his day's scouting for Safety, +"now, we've got to hustle, or we'll be late for those examinations. +Come along, Betty."</p> + +<p>"Wait till I turn my Safety button upside down," was +his sister's answer. "It seems a shame to go to the Boy +Scout and Camp Fire Girls tests with our Safety buttons +wrong side up, doesn't it? I feel almost like waiting till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +we've managed to do our 'One Day's Boost for Safety,' +Bob. Don't you suppose we'd better, after all?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, now, Betty, come <i>on!</i> If we can't do any better, +we can count our patrolling hints to Chance as our work +for Safety this time—certainly that took enough longer than +our day's boost usually does!"</p> + +<p>Though Betty scoffed at the idea of their talk with Chance +being work for Safety, Bob had spoken more truly than they +knew.</p> + +<p>All forenoon long Chance Carter patrolled the different +roads leading into town. By noon he was so hot and tired +that he plodded on till he came to Red Bridge, as the boys +all called the old bridge that spanned the river where it +crossed Bruce's Road, the short cut to Bruce's Mills. Here +he managed to find a shady spot on the grassy river bank +and sat down to eat the lunch he had brought along.</p> + +<p>"What luck!" he grumbled to himself. "Everything's +so dis-<i>gust</i>-ing-ly safe!" The way he bit off the syllables +showed how tired and disappointed he was.</p> + +<p>He threw the crumbs from his luncheon into the water, +hoping the fish would rise for them; but even the fish were +not at all accommodating, this sunny Hallowe'en. For a +while he amused himself by shying stones at the weather-beaten +DANGER sign which was Bruce's only reply to +the City Council's action condemning Red Bridge as unsafe. +The bridge was really on Bruce's land, and nobody knew +it better than the great mill owner himself. So, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +the public wondered why the city did not build a newer +and stronger bridge, Bruce had stubbornly insisted to the +road commissioner, "Oh, that bridge'll hold a while longer," +and was putting off spending the money for a new bridge +just as long as he could.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the farmers from that part of the country +had kept on using the shaky bridge as a short cut to town +by way of Bruce's Mills. One of them was driving up to +the bridge now. Lying on his elbow by the river's edge, +Chance idly watched the old bridge quiver and quake as +the light horse and buggy dragged lazily across.</p> + +<p>Suddenly something went kerflop into the water, like a +big fish jumping. Chance sat bolt upright, staring at the +dark shadows under the bridge. There it was again! +And this time he saw it was no fish, but a second brick which +had rotted away from the bridge supports underneath the +farther end.</p> + +<p>"Phew!" whistled Chance to himself, now fully aroused. +"If a light rig like that shakes the bricks loose, the old thing +must be rottener than it looks! What would a loaded +wagon do, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>He carefully climbed up under the bridge to see just how +bad it really was, and then climbed out again in a hurry. +The whole middle support had crumbled away. Red Bridge +was barely hanging on the weakened brickwork at the far +end, ready to plunge into the river with the next heavy +load that came along!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bruce, in the meanwhile, was getting impatient. He sat +at his desk in the little office, signing papers as fast as he +could shove his pen across the pages. He glanced again +at his watch and gave his call button a savage punch with +his big, blunt forefinger. A buzzer snarled in the outer +office, and a nervous looking secretary jumped for the private +office as suddenly as if the buzzer had stung him.</p> + +<p>"Why isn't that car here?" snapped the great man.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't understand it, sir. It should have been +here half an hour ago. Jennings is always so punctual," +stammered the clerk.</p> + +<p>"Humph! Call up the house and see if they've gone +back for any reason. Bonnie told me she'd call for me with +the car at five o'clock."</p> + +<p>The clerk hurried to the telephone, while Bruce paced +his office. "If that chauffeur has let anything happen to +Bonnie, I'll—"</p> + +<p>If Bruce had not cared more for his little golden-haired +daughter than for anything else in the world, he never +would have thought such a thing, much less said it; for he +had had Jennings for years, and knew him for the safest, +steadiest of drivers. But he scowled when the clerk hurried +back to report that Jennings, with Bonnie in the +biggest automobile, had left for the office almost an hour +before.</p> + +<p>Throwing his light coat over his arm, the big mill owner +slammed down his rolltop desk and dashed out to the sidewalk,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +straining his eyes for a glimpse of the big automobile +and Bonnie's flying curls. As he stood waiting on the curb, +fuming at the delay, suddenly he heard a voice that sent his +heart up into his throat.</p> + +<p>"Daddy! Oh, Daddy, here we are!" The big automobile +swept swiftly up to him—from the opposite +direction!</p> + +<p>"My Bonnie!" The big man snatched the dimpled, +smiling girl into his strong arms and held her there.</p> + +<p>In the excitement of the moment, Jennings interrupted +his employer as the mill owner started to question him +sternly as to the cause of the delay. Bonnie, too, broke +in with her version of the story, and together they told him +how a punctured tire had held them up fifteen minutes +just as they were leaving the house in plenty of time.</p> + +<p>They told him how, to avoid being late at the office, Jennings +had taken the old short cut across to the mills, by the +way of Red Bridge, only to be halted by a lad of fourteen who +waved a red handkerchief at them and barred the way +across the bridge in spite of the chauffeur's argument and +threats.</p> + +<p>They told him how a heavy lumber wagon, in which three +farm hands were rattling home from the city, had come +bouncing along to the other side of the river and how the +men had howled down the boy's wild warnings and entreaties +as they bowled on to Red Bridge as fast as their horses +could go.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bruce's stern face went white as his little daughter, shuddering +at the awful memory of it, told how the bridge had +gone crashing down into the river—men, horses, and all; +how the boy who had tried so hard to warn them had +almost given his own life trying to drag the drunken farm +hands from the swift-running current; how two of the men +had never come up again; and how the third, towed to shore +by the half-drowned boy a quarter mile below, had been laid +face down on the river bank as soon as the boy could catch +his own breath long enough to get the water out of the man's +lungs and start him to breathing again.</p> + +<p>Still clasping Bonnie tightly to him, her father got into +the automobile. "Home, Jennings. Why, what makes +these cushions so wet?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Bonnie, "that's where that nice boy sat while +we were taking the almost drowned man to the doctor's. +Then we took the nice boy home—he was so wet and +shivery."</p> + +<p>"Take us there first, Jennings, then home."</p> + +<p>The big car whirled swiftly back to Chance Carter's house. +Bruce found Chance with his hair still wet, but triumphant. +He was telling his father exactly how he wanted his new +Safety Scout uniform made, patch pockets and all!</p> + +<p>From him Bruce got the whole story, clear down to the +scouting hints from Bob and Betty that had started him +off that morning. The mill owner took Mr. Carter aside +and made him promise to send the bill for that uniform to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +Bruce's Mills. "Where do this other boy and the girl live?" +he asked, as he and Bonnie got back into the machine. +"All right, Jennings, we'll stop there next."</p> + +<p>"I think, sir," suggested Jennings, "that must be the +same boy and girl we took home from Turner Hall last +Fourth—the boy who put the splint on this other lad's +broken leg, sir. It's the same house, anyway."</p> + +<p>Sure enough, when they drew up at the curb, there were +Bob and Betty in their Safety Scout uniforms, just going +in to their birthday supper. They were going to have a +big double cake, with lots of frosting and with twenty-four +green candles on it—green for Safety, Betty explained—and +they were so excited over having passed their examinations +with such high marks, that it was some time before the big +man could make them understand what he was getting at.</p> + +<p>"What I want to know," persisted Bruce, "is how you +ever came to put that Carter boy up to such a stunt as that. +What difference did it make to <i>you?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Why," Betty told him, "we simply had to help him +get a start for his uniform and his Safety First button. +But we couldn't do much because we didn't have time. +You see this is our birthday, and we had to go for our examinations." +Before Bruce left they had given him <i>their</i> +whole story, too, and a good deal more than they had intended +telling him, forgetting what Colonel Sure Pop had +told Uncle Jack about the way Bruce had been holding back +the Safety First work from Maine to California.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>Bruce said little as he listened to their story, but he did +some quick thinking. So this was the sort of thing he had +fought so long and so stubbornly—this "Boost for Safety" +talk which he had called "new-fangled theory," but to which +he owed the life of his own little girl!</p> + +<p>As they talked, two Scouts came into the front hall to +remind the twins that their birthday supper was waiting, +but Bruce was too interested to see them. Quick at reading +signs, as all good Scouts are, Colonel Sure Pop and Uncle +Jack watched and listened for a moment, then smilingly went +back to the supper table.</p> + +<p>"You were right, Colonel, as usual," said Uncle Jack, +heartily. "Bruce is coming around. He'll be the biggest +Safety Booster in the whole United States before morning!"</p> + +<p>"Sure pop!" exulted the dapper little Colonel. "I'll +have to wire my King about this day's work!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was long after Bonnie's bedtime, and the nurse waiting +in the hallway was beginning to wonder if her little mistress +was never coming upstairs. On the avenue outside, +in the soft, mellow Hallowe'en breeze, jack o' lanterns and +soot bags were still being paraded up and down, horns +blowing, rattles clattering. Two street urchins, bolder than +the rest, crept up to the great iron gate in front of the Bruce +mansion and vainly struggled to lift it off its hinges. Still +the mill owner sat before the fire, Bonnie on his knee. +He could not bear to let her go tonight, even to bed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the flames dancing on the hearth, the big man was +seeing visions—visions of the Safety First work that +would be started tomorrow morning in every mill in the +whole Bruce chain. "I'll telegraph every manager to get +busy on Safety work at once if he wants to hold his job," +he thought to himself. "I won't lose another day!" +For after hearing from the Dalton twins and from Chance +Carter the way <i>their</i> spare time was spent, his own work +in the world seemed suddenly very small and mean. Here +he—Bruce the rich, Bruce the powerful, with the safety +of thousands of lives in the hollow of his hand—had been +holding back the great work which these striplings had been +steadily, patiently—yes, and successfully—building up!</p> + +<p>"I'll send those three youngsters each a copy of my +telegram in the morning," he muttered, looking more eager +and enthusiastic than he had looked for many a day. +"I'll write across the bottom of each telegram, '<i>The Safety +Scouts of America did this!</i>' And the wonderful part of it +is," he added, "that it's only what any boy and girl could +do, every day of their lives. I wonder why somebody didn't +start this Safety Scout idea long, long ago!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Over in the Dalton cottage, only a few blocks away, Bob +and Betty were going upstairs to bed.</p> + +<p>"Many, many happy returns of the day!" whispered +Betty to her brother as she kissed him good night.</p> + +<p>"Same to you, and many of 'em! But our 'One Day's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +Boost for Safety' didn't amount to much today, did it, +Betty?" For Bob and Betty had yet to hear of Chance +Carter's adventures, and Bruce had given them no hint.</p> + +<p>"No, it didn't—not unless what we told Chance gave +him a start toward a Safety Scout uniform," said Betty, +sleepily. "Never mind, though, Bob," she added. "We'll +try to do better tomorrow, if we didn't get much done +today."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>But over in the big stone house on the avenue, the +silent man with the little golden-haired girl in his arms +thought differently of their day's work.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 164px;"> +<img src="images/i029.jpg" width="164" height="300" alt="Sure Pop with his flag" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<h2>HOW CAN YOU TELL A GOOD SCOUT?</h2> + +<div class='unindent'><i>In school</i></div> + + +<div class="hang2"><i>He keeps to the right on walks, in halls, going +up and down stairs.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He goes up and down stairs one step at a time.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He looks where he runs.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He doesn't jostle in a crowd.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He doesn't bully the little fellows.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He sees that the little chaps have a fair chance +on the playground and that they don't get +hurt.</i></div> + + +<div class="unindent"><br /><i>Out of school</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not walk on railroad bridges or tracks.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not walk around lowered gates or crawl +under them.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not jump off moving trains, cars, or +engines.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not crawl over, under, or between cars.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not loiter around railroad stations or +cars or play on or around turn tables.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He does not cross tracks without remembering +to stop, look, and listen.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He looks where he goes and keeps to the right.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He crosses at regular crossings, not in the +middle of the block.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He looks out for automobiles turning corners.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He looks and listens for danger signals and +heeds them.</i></div> + +<div class="hang2"><i>He plays safe, as much for the other fellow's +sake as his own.</i></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE BEST OF GIFTS—A BOOK</h2> + + +<div class='unindent'>For the many occasions when a present is to be given, there is nothing +of more permanent value than an interesting book. It may also be an +inexpensive gift. Read the following selected list of World Book Company +books which make acceptable gifts, and note the range of prices. +All these books are well suited for gifts. They are interesting; the +pictures are the work of excellent illustrators; the type is large and plain; +the paper is good; the printing is clear; the binding is both strong and +attractive.</div> + + +<h3>FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN</h3> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Chadwick-Freeman</span>: Chain Stories and Playlets. 1. The Cat that +was Lonesome. 2. The Woman and Her Pig. 3. The Mouse +that Lost her Tail. Each, 18 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Chancellor</span>: Easy Road to Reading. 1. A Book of Animals. 2. A +Book of Children. 3. A Book of Fun and Fancy. 4. A Book of +Letters and Numbers. Each, 18 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Thompson-Cooper</span>: Making Faces with Pencil and Brush. Book I. +Book II. Each, 18 cents.</div> + + +<h3>FOR BOYS AND GIRLS</h3> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Bailey</span>: Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts. 42 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Burks</span>: Barbara's Philippine Journey. 72 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Brown</span>: Nature and Industry Readers. 1. Stories of Woods and +Fields. 2. Stories of Childhood and Nature. 3. When the World +was Young. Each, 48 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Curtis</span>: Indian Days of the Long Ago. Gift edition, $1.20.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Curtis</span>: In the Land of the Head-Hunters. Gift edition, $1.20.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">McGovney</span>: Stories of Long Ago in the Philippines. 48 cents.</div> + +<div class='hang1'><span class="smcap">Sims-Harry</span>: Dramatic Myths and Legends. Book One: Norse +Legends. Book Two: Greek and Roman Legends. Each, 30 cents.</div> + +<div class='unindent'>A post card to the publishers will bring you more detailed information +with regard to any or all of these books. The books will be +sent postpaid at the prices given above. It is requested that payment +in stamps, by registered letter, or by money order accompany all orders.</div> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<div class='center'> +WORLD BOOK COMPANY<br /> +<small>YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK</small><br /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Note:</h3> +<p>Both "tiptoe" and "tip-toe" were used in this text. This text also uses Pellmell and pell mell.</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29260-h.txt or 29260-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/2/6/29260">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/2/6/29260</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts + + +Author: Roy Rutherford Bailey + + + +Release Date: June 28, 2009 [eBook #29260] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS*** + + +E-text prepared by David Edwards, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from digital material +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29260-h.htm or 29260-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29260/29260-h/29260-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29260/29260-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/surepopsafetysco00bailrich + + + + + +Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts + + + _Being a Safety Scout means doing the right thing + at the right time._ + --COLONEL SURE POP + + + +SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS + +by + +ROY RUTHERFORD BAILEY + +Published Under the Auspices of the National Safety Council + +Illustrated + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York +World Book Company +1916 + +_Get the Safety Habit_ + +Copyright, 1915, by World Book Company. +Copyright, 1915, in Great Britain. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + Introduction 1 + + Adventure Number + One: Bob Thirsts for Adventure and Gets It 3 + Two: The Royal Signet Ring 9 + Three: The Woman and the Wizard 13 + Four: The Persistent Pigmy 21 + Five: The Magic Button's Warning 27 + Six: The Live Wire 32 + Seven: Betty Evens the Score 38 + Eight: Little Schneider's Fire Alarm 43 + Nine: "Chance Carter's Way" 49 + Ten: The Twins Meet Bruce 58 + Eleven: "Just for Fun" 62 + Twelve: Getting Down to Business 69 + Thirteen: Dalton Patrol 74 + Fourteen: Six Timely Tips 82 + Fifteen: Twin Uniforms 89 + Sixteen: Where Safety Was a Stranger 95 + Seventeen: Giving the Other Fellow a Square Deal 102 + Eighteen: An Adventure in Safety 110 + Nineteen: One Day's Boost for Safety 117 + + + + +THE SAFETY SCOUT'S PLATFORM + + + _I will bear in mind the value of human life and a sound body._ + _I will take no risks to endanger my body or any of its parts._ + _I will do nothing to endanger the life or limb of any other person._ + _I will be vigilant not only for my own safety, but for that of others, + in the street or indoors, on foot or in conveyances, anywhere and + at all times._ + _I will try to do at least one Good Turn for Safety every day._ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +SAFETY FIRST--THE PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS + + +AMERICANS are realizing the need for preventing accidents. The general +conservation and efficiency movements and the Workmen's Compensation +Laws first directed the attention of employers to the needless waste of +human life. The discovery that by the safeguarding of machinery and the +education of workmen ninety per cent of the industrial accidents could +be prevented, has proved the value of educational methods in Public +Safety work, and the Safety activities of public officials, trade +organizations, public schools, churches, and other agencies have been +directed toward the prevention of accidents on the street, in public +places, and in homes. Every phase of human life is affected by +accidents, and their elimination means saving human life and the +avoidance of destitution and misery. + +The National Safety Council realizes the importance of educating school +children in the principles of Safety; for they will be the future +industrial workers and the representatives of public opinion; their +interest must be aroused to practice and preach "Safety First" +everywhere. Children can be taught to become alert to their own safety, +and can influence their parents to a deeper realization of their +responsibilities. + +The National Safety Council has directed the preparation of this book +and hopes that through its pages children will be brought to realize the +manliness of caution, the importance of courtesy and consideration; +that, in short, the Safety way is simply the right way of doing things; +and that the efficiency, comfort, and happiness of many individuals will +be increased by the practicing day in and day out of "Safety First." + + R. W. CAMPBELL + _President National Safety Council_ + + _You have no right to take a chance; some one else + may have to take the consequences._ + --COLONEL SURE POP + + + + + + +SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE + +BOB THIRSTS FOR ADVENTURE AND GETS IT + + +"Bully for Uncle Jack!" cried Bob, a stalwart lad just on the edge of +twelve, excitedly waving a letter with a South American postmark. "What +wouldn't I give to be with him on his exploring trips! Here, Betty, +listen to this part about their fight with the natives!" + +"Oh, don't, please!" said his twin, clapping both hands over her ears, +but listening just the same. "I'm always so afraid Uncle Jack will get +killed." + +"Uncle Jack get killed? Hardly! Just listen to what he says: + +"'This last scrimmage was one of the liveliest I've ever been up +against. The warlike up-river tribes, it seems, mistook our native +scouts for a war party and lay in ambush for us. Might have been worse, +though. Our losses were two men killed and seven wounded--but of course +that's only a fraction of what you wound and kill every day back there +in the States.'" + +"Why, what does he mean by that?" wondered Betty. "There's no war going +on in this country, is there?" + +"Not that I know of." Even Brother Bob looked puzzled for a moment. "No +Indians left to fight! But say, Betty, Uncle Jack's life is just fairly +dripping with adventure! Think of it--every day chock-full of thrills +and narrow escapes--and adventures every time he turns around! Well, it +won't be many years now before I can be a scout and explorer myself." + +A yell from their playmates outside brought the twins to the street in a +hurry. Bob's legs were longer, but Betty, quick as a cat, got there +first. + +"You're it, Bob!" "Bob's last, so he's it!" Like a band of savages the +screeching boys and girls scuttled across the car tracks and around the +corners, while Bob counted up to five hundred "by fives." + +"Four hundr' nine' five, FIVE HUNDRED!" yelled Bob, and started to dash +across the tracks, for he had caught a glimpse of Jimmy West's new red +boots disappearing under his grandmother's porch across the street. The +sound of the wind in his ears as he ran drowned out the roar of the +coming street car, and of course he had eyes only for those tell-tale +red boots. + +Another jump and Bob would have been under the wheels--but a strong +little hand on his shoulder stopped him. The street car roared by with a +startled clang of its gong, for the motorman had seen Bob too late to +throw off the power. + +Bob gasped in relief--then whirled around to see what had stopped him. +And what do you think he saw, right there beside him in the street? Was +it a scout--or a pygmy--or what? + +He was old and snowy haired, but as fresh as a daisy and as spry as a +cricket. His cheeks were as ruddy as Spitzenberg apples and his only +wrinkles were the laughter wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. And such +eyes! They were big and clear, and so bright that Bob could only look at +them a moment and then turn away. It was like trying to stare at the +sun. + +He was tiny, but straight as a ramrod in his natty khaki uniform. And he +was holding up his right hand just like the big policeman on the corner +downtown. As he dropped it to shake hands with Bob, there was a sudden +flash of green. + +"Why, hello there!" Bob could scarcely believe his eyes. "Where on +earth did _you_ come from? And who--who _are_ you, anyway?" + +"My name is Sure Pop!" answered the scout in a clear voice, like the +note of a bugle. "I've dropped in on the United States on my second tour +of scouting duty, and I hear you are thirsting for adventure. Well, +you've had _one_, at any rate; if I hadn't grabbed you just in the nick +of time--" He shuddered and hustled Bob back to the sidewalk. + +"Thanks, old scout!" stammered Bob. "I didn't know there was a car +coming, and you see I was in such a hurry--" + +"I see!" said Sure Pop, dryly. "_I_ see, Bob, but _you_ didn't. How do +you suppose a wee chap like me ever gets across the busy streets +downtown?" + +"Give it up!" said Bob, "unless you can fly!" And he gave a sly glance +at the scout's square little shoulders, half expecting to see wings. + +Sure Pop grinned. "No more than you," he chuckled. "So I keep my eyes +and ears open. Folks who have no wings must use their wits." + +Bob felt a bit uncomfortable to have his mind read so easily, and +promptly changed the subject. "What a funny name you have--'Sure Pop'!" + +"Well, 'tis a funny one, sure pop! That name was wished on me by a crowd +of Borderland folk, and then His Majesty gave it to me for keeps." + +"His Majesty--do you mean your King?" + +"Right--the King of the Borderland." The two had been walking toward the +Dalton house as they talked. Now Sure Pop followed Bob up the steps and +curled up in the big porch chair to tell him all about it. + +"Once upon a time, some years ago, when I was a younger man than I am +now," began Sure Pop, "I was standing on a corner in the largest city in +the Borderland. It was noontime, and crowds of horsemen and chariots +were dashing up and down the street. + +"Suddenly I saw a youngster start over to my side of the street without +looking either way. There was a chariot almost upon him when I held up +my hand, as I did to you now, and yelled, 'Look sharp!' He stopped +short--and those thundering wheels missed him by about an inch. + +"He picked his way across the street, then, and held out his hand. 'That +was a close shave,' he said. 'You've saved my life, Mr.--Mr.--' For of +course he didn't know _my_ name from Captain Kidd's. + +"'That's all right!' I said. 'But you should always look before you +cross.' + +"'Do _you_?' he asked, with a sudden sharp glance. + +"'Sure pop!' I told him. 'Safety First!' + +"By this time quite a crowd of Borderland folk had gathered around us, +and they all laughed and cheered and called me 'Sure Pop.' And one +bold-eyed rascal threw up his pointed cap and shouted, 'Bully for Sure +Pop!' and ran off to tell the King. At that all the rest of the crowd +clapped their hands, for though they laughed at the name they knew I had +the right idea." + +"Ha!" said Bob. "So that's how you came by that comical name of yours?" + +"Sure pop!" answered the Safety Scout with a twinkle. + + _Folks who have no wings must use their wits._ + --SURE POP + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO + +THE ROYAL SIGNET RING + + +Sure Pop paused in his story as Betty came dashing around the house. +Like a shot the stranger jumped to his feet, and again Bob caught that +sudden flash of green as he raised his hand in salute. + +"Hello, Betty, glad to see you!" + +"Why, goodness me!" exclaimed Betty. "You seem to know me, but I don't +know who you are--unless you are one of those Boy Scouts Bob is so crazy +to join?" + +"Not exactly _Boy_ Scouts," chuckled Sure Pop with a wink at Bob, +"unless you count us boys till we're ninety-nine years old! Girls are +scouts, too, in _my_ regiment." + +"Now, Betty," warned Bob, "sit down here and don't you dare interrupt, +for Sure Pop's right in the middle of a story--and I think he's come to +stay a while, haven't you, Sure Pop?" + +"Sure pop! I'll stay as long as the King will let me," laughed the merry +little scout. + +"Well, after I got away from the crowd," he went on, "my eyes must +suddenly have been opened to the thousand-and-one things that might +happen even in Borderland to folks who didn't look sharp on the street, +for on my way home I saved several others from getting hurt. + +"The first was a careless little cabin boy, who went along whistling +with his hands in his pockets. He slipped and fell plump in front of a +chariot, and of course he couldn't jerk his hands out of his pockets in +time to save himself. I grabbed him up in the very nick of time, or he'd +have been smashed flatter than a pancake. + +"And only a block farther on, I met a carpenter hurrying through the +crowd with a ladder on his shoulder. Some one shouted to him, and he +whirled around with never a thought of his ladder. The end of it would +have hit a fat old banker squarely between the eyes if I hadn't been +watching for that very thing and caught it as it swung. I went home and +thought no more about all this, till that night, at midnight, I was +summoned before the King." + +"The King!" cried Betty. "My, weren't you scared?" + +"I was, sure pop! When I marched into the throne room it was crowded +with richly dressed people. The King and Queen sat on their thrones, +and as I went toward them I had to pass between two long lines of +trumpeters. + +"Suddenly up went the silver trumpets, and the trumpeters blew a mighty +blast. Let me tell you, it was enough to send the shivers down your +spine, that trumpet call was! It seemed as if I never had climbed a +longer flight of steps. But at last I found myself bowing before the +King and Queen. The King, who wore a brand new uniform, just like this +one I have on, beckoned a herald to his side. + +"'Now hark to his words,' he said to me, 'and say if he speaks the +truth.' And then the herald read aloud from a long white scroll, with +scarlet seals on it, the story of how I had saved the young chap from +the chariot that noon, and all about the cabin boy and the fat old +banker I'd helped on my way home! + +"'Does the herald speak truly?' asked the Borderland King. And all the +rest strained their ears for my answer. + +"'Sure pop, Your Majesty!' I replied before I knew what I was saying. At +that he pulled from his finger a new signet ring, inked it with some +magic ink, and motioned for me to hold out my right hand. How do I know +it was magic ink? Why, it must have been, for the print it made has +never faded. Look!" + +Bob and Betty looked at the little scout's right hand, which he held up +again like the crossing policeman downtown. And this is what they saw: + +[Illustration: UNIVERSAL SAFETY] + +"'Hold it up,' commanded the King, 'where all can see!' And then the +trumpets sounded again. + +"'Long live Colonel Sure Pop, the Safety Scout!' cried the herald. The +court wizard stepped forward, waved his hand and mumbled a few magic +words over me, and--what do you think!--I found myself dressed in a +brand new scouting uniform, the only one just like the King's!" + + _Long live the Safety Scouts!_ + --SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE + +THE WOMAN AND THE WIZARD + + +Sure Pop, the Safety Scout, drew a long breath and watched the +automobiles whirling recklessly down the busy street. "But say, haven't +you twins had enough stories for one day?" + +"Not much we haven't! What did the King do next?" + +No doubt about the twins' being thirsty for adventure! Sure Pop smiled. + +"Well, a single wave of the King's hand dismissed his people. Looking +very sorrowful, he opened the great book in which he keeps the record of +everything that happens over here in the New World. + +"I looked where he pointed, and trembled. For this was what I read: + + "'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + 'Fathers and mothers and boys and girls killed by + accidents last year.... + 'Injured, blinded, crippled, and maimed...' + +"He ran his finger across the page to the totals, and I saw that the +first total ran clear up into the thousands--and the second one into the +millions! + +"'Colonel Sure Pop,' said the King, 'if only the thought you put into +the mind of that lad you saved this noon, might be put into the mind of +all America!' + +"'Your Majesty means--Safety First?' I asked. + +"The King nodded. 'All the lives lost in all our battles,' he said +grimly, 'are but a drop in the sea as compared with the slaughter of a +single year in a single land!' + +"'Oh, Your Majesty, let me go and teach them Safety First--now, before +another life is thrown away!' + +"'No, Colonel. Not yet. The time is not yet ripe. But--perhaps we can +make a beginning. Come to me again tomorrow night, at midnight, and we +shall see.' + +"The next night I went to the throne room and found the King studying a +big map. He had a red pencil and a blue one in his hand, and he pointed +to a lot of red rings he had drawn on the map. + +"'Those,' he told me, 'are America's great mills. In them and the other +factories, thousands upon thousands of workmen are killed by accident +every year--by accident, Colonel, not in battle. + +"'And that is not all,' the King went on. 'These blue lines mark the +trails of the great iron horses--the railroads. Last year these iron +horses trampled out thousands of lives in America alone. And all because +the Americans haven't learned to _think_ Safety!' + +"That was too much for me. I pleaded with him to let me come straight to +America and help end that awful suffering. But the King shook his head. + +"'The more haste, the less speed, Colonel. Before you can help America, +you must help yourself; and the quickest way to do that is first to +teach Safety to our own people. Let me see you win your spurs here in +the Borderland, and then--to America you go!' + +"'Teach Safety to our own people?' I repeated, a bit puzzled. 'How ought +I to go about it, Sire?' + +"'Go through all the Borderland,' said the King, 'and muster an army of +Safety Scouts. Train them to know signs that spell DANGER, as an Indian +scout reads the signs of the trail. Teach them to report every danger +signal they see--and they will teach their neighbors, and so the +knowledge will spread. But above all, be sure your Safety Scouts are +well chosen.' + +"'But how?' I asked. 'Shall I pick out wise people?' + +"'Colonel of the Scouts,' said the King, shrewdly, 'the wisest are not +always the safest. Have you never thought why it is "bad luck to go +under a ladder"?' + +"'Never,' I owned up. 'I've always thought of it as just a proverb.' + +"'True. But proverbs without reason would be like trees without roots. +Stop and think: sometimes a ladder breaks or slips, which is bad for the +climber--and bad for any one who happens to be under that ladder just +then. And sometimes a painter's heavy paintpot falls--and woe to him who +walks under the ladder then, be he the wisest man in the kingdom. Now +go, and one moon from tonight bring me a full regiment of Safety +Scouts.' + +"So out through the Borderland I went, saying over and over to myself, +'It is bad luck to go under a ladder,' and waiting for the King's +meaning to be made plain. + +"First I went to the home of a great wizard, the wisest man in the +Borderland. As I neared the house, the door opened and the wizard came +out, a heavy book of wisdom under his arm. + +"He had a long black pipe in his mouth. Pulling out a match, he lighted +his pipe, threw the burning match over his shoulder, and hurried on +toward the city. + +"I started to run after him, when a flicker of light caught my eye. +There in the straw that littered the roots of the ivy vines by the +steps, a little tongue of flame was lapping up the tangle of leaves!" + +Bob jumped to his feet as if he had heard the clang of a fire bell. +"Good enough for him, the old fossil! Did it burn his house down?" + +"Came mighty near it," said Sure Pop, looking at the scars on his hands. +"He had a sick wife in there all alone, and if I hadn't happened along +just then-- + +"Well, anyway," he went on cheerfully, "I got the fire out at last. And +the King's meaning was made plain--it is one thing to have wisdom and +another thing to use it. So I didn't ask the wizard to join the Safety +Scouts, after all." + +"I should say NOT!" cried Bob and Betty with one voice. "But where _did_ +you find your Scouts?" added Bob. + +"Well, the next idea I had was to ask mothers, for mothers give up much +of their time, anyhow, to keeping children out of harm's way. I found +one whose house looked so trim and neat, and her children so clean and +happy, that I had almost made up my mind to invite her to join--when my +eye fell on a shining butcher knife hanging beside the kitchen table, +where even the baby could reach it without half trying. + +"And that wasn't all I saw. There was a saucer of fly poison on the +window sill! Then I saw the mother starting to carry out a pail of water +to scrub the steps, when the brass knocker on the door gave a thump, and +she left that hot water right there in the middle of the floor while she +talked to a peddler! + +"Just then the baby came toddling across the room. He got safely past +the scalding water and the fly poison, but the next moment I saw him +climb up on a chair, open the medicine chest, and grab a bottle from the +bottom shelf--the bottom shelf, Betty, of _all_ shelves in the house! +Out came the cork, and up went the bottle to his lips, just as I saw to +my horror a skull and crossbones on its label. Like a flash I--" + +"What's a skull and crossbones, Sure Pop?" broke in Betty. + +"Poison sign!" explained Bob, shortly. "Don't interrupt! Go on, Sure +Pop!" + +"Like a flash," said Sure Pop, "I bounded to the baby's side and +snatched the bottle away. I tell you, I did some earnest thinking as I +left that house. I realized that it would never do to ask that mother to +join our army of Safety Scouts, for until she herself had formed the +Safety habit, she could hardly be expected to teach Safety to others. +The adventure of the baby and the poison bottle had opened my eyes to +the real meaning of the King's words about finding Scouts who could read +the little signs that spell DANGER. + +"By the way, I told the poison bottle story to a great doctor the other +day, and now he's doing his best to get a law passed requiring that all +poison bottles be of some special shape, different from any other +bottles. That will make them much safer, even in the dark." + +"But how can they be made different in shape?" asked Betty. "What shape, +Sure Pop?" + +"Three-cornered, probably. That certainly would be a life-saving law, if +he could only get it passed. Just think! There were several thousand +deaths in the United States last year from that one cause alone--just +from mistaking bottles of poison for other medicine." + +"But what I can't see," said Bob, "is how anybody _could_ mistake a +poison bottle. They all have skulls and crossbones on them, haven't +they?" + +"Stop and think a moment," said the Safety Scout. "Suppose baby has +croup in the night, and mother is roused out of a sound sleep and rushes +to the medicine chest; she's only half awake--the light is dim--poor +baby is gasping and choking--not a moment to lose. She isn't likely to +stop and read labels very carefully, is she? But if she felt her hand +close over a _three-cornered_ bottle, it would wake her up in a hurry. +Even in the darkness and in the excitement--if she had been trained to +think of a three-cornered bottle as meaning DANGER, perhaps death--it +would stay her hand as surely as a red light stops an engine." + +"I suppose," said Betty, "that when folks are badly hurt, or awfully, +awfully sick, other folks lose their heads and don't know what they +really _are_ doing." + +"Betty, you've hit the nail right on the head. Now that's why we must +fix things so safety won't depend on level heads or time to think. The +danger signal must pop right into our heads from force of habit. The +sooner American boys and girls--yes, and the grown-ups, too--get the +Safety habit, the sooner 'Safety First' will change from phrase into +fact. + +"The first day I ever spent in America opened my eyes to the price your +country is paying for the word 'guess.' The more I studied the +situation, the oftener I noticed folks saying 'I guess' where they +should have said '_I know_.' In nearly all of America's accidents, +guesswork is the real cause. + +"The moment I realized that, I said to myself, 'It's high time America +dropped guesswork out of its daily life.' My work was cut out for me: I +began right then and there to study out ways of getting folks to stop +guessing, once for all, _and be sure_--sure pop!" + + _Stop guessing, once for all, and be sure._ + --SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR + +THE PERSISTENT PIGMY + + +"Say, Sure Pop!" burst out Bob, as the Safety Scout paused in his story. +"A whole regiment--did you realize that was a lot of Scouts to get +together in one month?" + +"Did I?" echoed Sure Pop with a chuckle. "_Did_ I? Well, if I didn't +when I set out on my search, I did before the first day was over. I had +lost out on the wisest man in the Borderland--_he_ wouldn't do, for all +his wisdom. He only served to remind me of what the King had said, that +the wisest are not always the safest." + +"Sure--sure pop!" Bob broke in again. "But how did you ever get a whole +regiment together in one month? You simply couldn't disappoint the King, +you know." + +"You're right, Bob, I simply couldn't. So as fast as I did find one that +would do for the army, I set him to work finding others--passing the +good work along. I soon saw I could never make good with the King by +trying to do it all myself, and I do believe the King knew all along +that there was only one way a really big work could be done--by getting +_everybody_ stirred up and enthusiastic. So I turned each new Scout +loose to hunt for more. + +"You'd laugh to know who was the first Scout enrolled. As I slipped out +of the poison-bottle house, I saw a funny little pigmy hurry out of a +cottage across the lane and go z-z-zam! down the front steps. We'd had a +nip of frost the night before, and the slippery steps took him by +surprise. For a moment he stood rubbing his head, with his merry little +face puckered up into a comical sort of bowknot. Then he picked his way +slowly up the steps into the house. + +"A minute or two and out he came again with a bag of salt and sprinkled +the steps with it. Though he was in just as big a hurry as our friend +the wizard, the Safety First idea had got him, and he plainly had made +up his mind to begin right then and there. + +"'Well, I declare!' I said to myself. 'I've a notion to muster him into +the scouting service--but what would the King say to my enrolling a +pigmy?' Just as I was wondering about it, down he went again, flat on +his little back! + +"This time it was on the sidewalk in front of his house. Some careless +youngster had thrown a banana skin on the walk. Poor little pigmy, what +a bump he did get that time! But again he picked himself up, and this +time he didn't wait a moment--just poked the banana skin off into the +gutter where it could do no more harm. + +"Such persistence was too much for me! I told him the King wanted him +for the royal army of Safety Scouts, and that he was to have the honor +of being the first one enrolled. His eyes fairly popped out of his head +as he listened, and before you could say 'Jack Robinson,' he had +scampered off to help me raise an army--with one of these buttons in the +lapel of his leather jerkin." + +[Illustration: Universal Safety] + +Sure Pop pulled a sparkling button out of his pocket and laid it before +the twins. + +"There, that's the Safety Scouts' badge of honor, and no Scout can wear +one till he earns the right. The King himself designed it." + +"My! I wish--!" The twins remembered their manners and stopped short, +but Sure Pop understood. He threw back that wise little head and how he +did laugh! + +"You wish--eh? That's what they all say, the minute they lay eyes on +that button! You see, that's a magic button, so it's no wonder everybody +wants one. Friends, that button can _talk_!" + +Bob stared at the button as if he couldn't believe his ears. Betty, +taking Sure Pop at his word, grabbed the button and laid it to her ear. +She gave a squeal of delight. + +"It does! It does talk--doesn't it?" she cried. + +"Sure pop it does!" laughed the Safety Scout. "That's all it can say, +just four words at a time--but those four are enough to save thousands +of lives every year." + +"What four words?" yelled Bob, clapping the magic button to his ear. How +his jaw dropped when he heard--or seemed to hear--the magic button's +words, four words he will never, never forget, even if he lives to be a +hundred years old! + +"_Safety First_," whispered the magic button in his ear. "_Get Busy!_" + +Bob sprang to his feet, so startled that he nearly dropped the button. + +"Get busy?" he echoed. "Well, let's!" + +"And let's be quick about it," chimed in Betty. "I want to earn one of +those magic buttons myself." + +"Here too!" Bob whirled around to Sure Pop. "But we'll have to get the +soil ready first, won't we, just as the King told you? So the seed won't +be wasted, you know." + +"That's the first move, Bob. Waste is something no Scout can bear to +see. Waste of life, waste of health, waste of time, waste of food--even +waste of money seems a crime to a Safety Scout." + +Betty was thinking hard. "Then before we can plant the Safety First idea +in other people's minds, shan't we have to start it growing in our own, +Sure Pop?" + +"Sure pop, we shall! And now listen, friends. When I first came to +America, after years of Safety training among my own people, I took up +the task of planting the Safety First idea among the great American +mills and factories. Some day I'll tell you about those years of Safety +work among the mill hands, but just now what I want to explain is this: +when I had got the work well established among the mills, I thought at +first that my work in America was finished; but the more I thought it +over, the plainer it became that my most important work still lay before +me." + +"Your most important work," echoed Betty. "What do you mean, Sure +Pop--teaching Safety to the President of the United States?" + +"No, Betty. A far more important work than that--teaching Safety to +children. I saw that by making Safety Scouts out of the boys and girls, +I should be solving the whole problem of the years to come--for workmen, +Presidents, and all. So I drew a long breath and started in again, this +time in America's homes. + +"Now how do you suppose I came to choose your home to begin on? Just as +I was wondering which house to tackle first, I overheard Bob wishing he +had Uncle Jack's life of adventure--though the United States has more +real adventure to the square mile than all South America put together!" + +"You don't mean it? Why, this is a civilized country!" + +"You Americans think so, Bob. And you're trying to bring about +world-wide peace, because you feel that war is out of place in civilized +life. But what about the thousands you kill and the millions you wound +every year? More than you killed and wounded, remember, in the whole +Civil War. What about that? Does that sound so very civilized? + +"You want adventure. Good! You shall have it--early and often. And you +won't have to go to any other country to find it, either." + +"Well," said Bob, "here's hoping. What comes first?" + +"First, we must get our eyes and ears open. That's the first thing for +any Scout to learn, and he isn't good for much until he gets the habit +of noticing things. Scout-craft means reading signs in everything you +come across and acting on little silent hints that most folks wouldn't +notice. + +"Now, to begin with, here are three practical rules for you to bear in +mind--three things we found out in our first year of Borderland Safety +Scouting: First, a true Scout is always on the alert. Second, a Scout +always keeps cool. Third, a Scout does one thing at a time. Do you +suppose you can remember these three things?" + +"That's easy," said Betty. + +"Easy as anything," said Bob. "Keep wide awake, keep cool, and keep your +mind on one thing at a time. Three 'keeps'--anybody can remember them!" + +"Think so?" Sure Pop's voice sounded surprisingly far away. "All right, +we'll see!" And before the twins' very eyes he faded away into thin air! + + _A true Scout is always on the alert._--SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER FIVE + +THE MAGIC BUTTON'S WARNING + + +"He's gone!" Bob and Betty stared at each other. For a moment the whole +thing seemed like a dream, and they hated to think of waking up. + +"But it _was_ real!" Bob turned the magic button over and over in his +hand, glad to have something left to prove the reality of their new +friend, something they could still see and touch. + +"We can't wear that button, though," Betty reminded him. "We've got to +earn it first. What shall we do with it?" + +Bob stuck it into his deepest pocket. "I'll hang on to it till Sure Pop +comes back--if he does come back. Oh, hello, Joe!" + +Joe Schmidt, a wiry boy of Bob's own age, but fully half a head shorter, +turned around and gazed up at the Daltons' porch. + +"Why, hello, Bob! What are you doing?" + +"Nothing." Bob ran down the steps and began talking with Joe. In fact, +the two lads were so busy talking that they did not see George Gibson +till he purposely bumped into Joe's back with a sudden "Hey, there! Get +off the walk!" + +Joe bristled like a ruffled sparrow. "Let's see you throw me off!" When +George good-naturedly took him at his word, Joe clinched with him and +managed to get a half-Nelson hold on him. Joe always went at things in +dead earnest, anyway. Bob and Betty, laughing and shouting, hopped +gleefully around the swaying wrestlers, Bob yelling encouragement to +George, and Betty yelling just as hard for Joe. + +Suddenly--was it just Bob's imagination?--something seemed to give a +wiggle in his pocket--then a warning flop. It must be that magic button! + +Bob jumped, gave a snort of surprise, and jammed his hand into his +pocket. What had got into the button anyway? + +Then an idea flashed across his mind--perhaps the Safety button was +trying to warn him. To be sure, if the wrestlers went down hard on the +cement sidewalk, it might mean a broken skull! In his hurry to get them +off the walk and over on the grass, Bob lost his head. He made the +mistake of trying to do it by force; he caught hold of George's elbow, +and got a sharp dig in the pit of his stomach for his pains. + +"Hey, fellows--danger!" he yelled, when he could catch his breath. "Get +over on the grass--look out!" + +His warnings came too late. George, much the bigger of the two, got a +hip-lock on Joe, and, forgetting everything else in his struggle to "lay +him out," gave a sudden heave that sent Joe sprawling on his back. His +head struck the sidewalk with a thud. + +That was all. Joe lay like a lump of lead. + +"He's _dead_!" screamed Betty wildly. She threw herself at the gasping +George. "You--you've _killed_ him!" + +George, puffing and blowing from his struggle, held her at arm's length. +A big policeman suddenly came around the corner. "Here, what's all +this?" he asked sternly, bending over the fallen wrestler. + +"He struck on the back of his head," spoke up Bob. "They were +wrestling--just in fun, you know--and Joe struck his head on the +sidewalk. Is--is he dead?" + +"Small thanks to you young rascals if he isn't," growled the officer. +"Crazy Indians, wrestling on a cement walk! Where does he live?" + +He lifted the limp body in his arms and hurried to the Widow Schmidt's +modest little cottage with the green blinds and the neatly scrubbed +doorstep. George and Bob, feeling very sick, trailed sadly along after +him; they hated to think of the look that would come into the Widow +Schmidt's motherly face. Joe was all she had in the world. + +Betty, womanlike, was first to think of the doctor. Almost before the +policeman had reached Joe's side, she was running to the corner drug +store as fast as her feet would carry her. The druggist would know where +to reach a doctor with the least delay--she could telephone. + +It seemed ages before the fluttering lids opened and Joe's black eyes +looked out on the world again. "No bones broken," said the doctor at +last. "Half an inch farther to the right or left, though--" + +He stopped, but the twins understood. Silently they gripped Joe's hand +as it lay helpless on the bed, nodded to George, and the three tip-toed +out of the hushed little room. + +That night, before Bob and Betty went to bed, Sure Pop came back. He +found the twins sitting with their heads together, studying Bob's +_Handbook of Scout-Craft_ as if their lives depended on learning it by +heart in one evening. Bob still lacked a few months of being old enough +to join the Boy Scouts; he had long looked forward to his coming +birthday, but it had never meant so much to him as now. + +Sure Pop nodded and smiled as he saw the familiar handbook. "Good work!" +he said. "All true Scouts are brothers, you know. Well, how about the +'three keeps' of the Scout Law? Did you find them as easy as you +thought?" + +Bob and Betty grew very red. They did not know what to say. + +The Safety Scout saved them the trouble. "Joe's better tonight," he told +them, comfortingly. "I've just come from there, and the doctor says +he'll be up again in a day or so. What shall we do tomorrow, +friends--begin hunting for adventure and planting Safety First ideas?" + +Bob looked at Betty and swallowed hard at a lump in his throat. Somehow +this wise little Sure Pop knew everything that happened! + +"I think," said Bob, frankly, "we really planted one today!" + + _All true Scouts are brothers._ + --SURE POP + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER SIX + +THE LIVE WIRE + + +Sure Pop saw, the moment he laid eyes on Bob and Betty next morning, +that they had made up their minds to earn a magic button apiece that +day. + +"Where shall we go for today's adventure?" was the first question. + +The Safety Scout laughed. "We probably shan't have to go far. Once a +Scout's eyes are really open, so that danger signs other folks wouldn't +notice begin to mean something to him, why, adventure walks right up to +him. It walked right up to you two yesterday, but you didn't read the +signs till too late. Being a Scout, remember, means doing the right +thing at the right moment. Now let's start out and walk a few blocks, +and see what danger signals we come across that other folks are +overlooking." + +Just as they opened the gate, Mrs. Dalton came to the door. "Bob! Come +here a moment, please. I want you to take a note over to Mrs. Hoffman's +for me. Their telephone is out of order." + +She lowered her voice as she handed him the letter, and added, "Who is +that out there with Betty?" + +"Oh, that's one of the Scouts. We're going out for a little practice +scouting." + +Mrs. Dalton knew how eagerly Bob had been awaiting the day when he could +become a Boy Scout. She trusted the Scouts and was glad to have Bob and +Betty spend their vacation time in scouting. She little guessed that the +three friends were to start an order of Safety Scouts which even fathers +and mothers would join. + +Bob hurried back to Betty and Sure Pop. "Can you wait while I run over +to Mrs. Hoffman's with this? All right, I'll be back in no time!" + +Hurrying though he was, he looked both ways before he crossed the car +tracks, for already the habit of "thinking Safety" was growing on him. +He reached Mrs. Hoffman's in record time, delivered the note, and raced +back toward home. + +As he slowed down to catch his breath, he met a crowd of yelling +youngsters "playing Indians." Several of them wore Indian suits. One, +dressed as a cowboy, tried to rope him as he passed. This gave the +Indians an idea, and they came howling after Bob, waving their tomahawks +and promising to scalp him. Two yelping dogs joined in the chase. + +Bob grinned and broke into a long, easy run which soon shook the +redskins off his trail. But at a sudden delighted whoop from the enemy +he stopped and looked back. + +"Hi-yi!" yelled the biggest Indian. "Look at that telephone wire on the +ground! Come on, let's chop it off and use it to bind the palefaces to +the stake." + +Pellmell across the street swarmed the little fellows, each bound to get +there first. But Bob was too quick for them. Hatless, breathless, he +threw himself between the Indians and the swaying wire. "Get back!" he +roared. "That's no telephone wire--it's alive! Keep back, I say! You'll +be killed!" + +It was no easy thing to stand between the youngsters and the deadly +wire. They were laughing and yelling so hard, and the dogs were barking +so wildly, that at first Bob couldn't get the idea of danger into their +heads. He fairly had to knock two or three of them down to keep them +from hacking at the wire with their hatchets. Would they never +understand? "I won't forget this time, anyway!" muttered the boy, +gritting his teeth as he remembered the "three keeps" of the Scout Law. + +Up ran one of the dogs, capering around with sharp, ear-splitting barks, +and tried to get his teeth into Bob's ankle. When Bob tried to kick him +away, of course the Indians and cowboys yelled harder than ever. The dog +stumbled and fell across the electric wire--gave one wild yelp of +pain--and lay there kicking and struggling, unable to jerk himself +loose. Worst of all, he had landed in a puddle of water, so that the +electric current was pouring straight through his twitching body into +the wet earth. + +At last Bob managed to drive all the boys back out of harm's way, only +to see one of the cowboys rush for the dog with a cry that tore at Bob's +heartstrings. + +"It's Tige! Oh, Tige!--poor old Tige! Let me go! I've _got_ to save my +dog!" + +Bob had grabbed the little fellow and held him tight. "Too late, old +scout," he said, with tears in his own eyes as he saw the dog kicking +his last. "Tige's done for, I'm afraid. Keep back, there--that wire will +get you too!" For the boys were crowding nearer again. + +"Who has a telephone at home?" asked Bob. + +"We have," said one of the larger boys. + +"Then run home quick, call up the Electric Light Company, and have them +send their repair crew. Tell them a live wire has killed Tige and may +kill the boys if they don't hurry. Tell 'em it's at the corner of Broad +Street and Center Avenue. Run!" + +While he waited for the repair wagon, Bob managed to get the boys lined +up in all directions, where they could mount guard over the danger zone. +Then he stood guard with the rest, and they succeeded in keeping all +teams and passers-by from running into danger till the repair men came. + +It seemed a long while before the clatter of hoofs and the rumble of +heavy wheels told him the rescue party was coming at last. He jumped +with surprise when the repair wagon dashed around the corner and pulled +up beside the curb, for there beside the driver sat Sure Pop, the Safety +Scout! Puzzled by Bob's long stay and hearing the gong as the wagon +hurried up, he had decided to come along. + +Ten minutes later the live wire was back in place, the repair crew had +clattered off again, and a little band of mourning Indians and cowboys +had carried poor Tige's body over to his master's back yard, where they +buried him after a solemn funeral service. Only a dog--but the tears +they dropped on his little grave were very real and sincere, for he had +been a jolly playmate and a loyal friend. + +Bob was very sober as he walked home with Sure Pop. "Wish I could have +saved Tige, somehow!" + +The Safety Scout laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Bob, you did just +right. You remembered the 'three keeps' this time--you kept wide awake, +kept cool, and kept your mind on one thing at a time. No Scout could +have done more. If you had risked touching that wire, it would have cost +a good deal more than the life of a dog, I fear. It's important to know +what _not_ to do, sometimes. Robert Dalton, I'm proud of you! +Here--you've earned it this time, sure pop!" + +He reached down into his pocket, pulled out the Safety button, and +fastened it in Bob's coat lapel. The boy flushed with pride as he lifted +the magic button to his ear. And never had words thrilled him more than +those which greeted him now--for two of them were new words which his +own quick wits had earned: + +"_Safety First!_" whispered the button, clear and sweet as a far-away +bugle call. "_Good Work!_" + + _Safety first--not part of the time, but all the + time._--SURE POP + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVEN + +BETTY EVENS THE SCORE + + +All through supper time Betty schemed and plotted. + +"I certainly am proud of the way Bob won his," she said to herself. "But +I've never been behind Bob _yet_, and that magic button's going to be +twins before tomorrow night, _somehow_!" + +The hot summer sun woke her early next morning, and she hurried +downstairs to be through breakfast before Sure Pop came for the day's +adventures. + +"Where do we go today?" she asked Sure Pop an hour later, dancing up and +down and looking wistfully at Bob's new Safety button. + +"Sorry, friends," said the Safety Scout, "but I can't be with you +today. I'm due for a little outside scouting duty--something you twins +aren't quite ready for yet." + +"Oh, say!" Bob's face fell. "What are we going to _do_ then, all day +alone?" + +"Do?" laughed the merry Colonel, waving them goodby. "Why, you'll be out +scouring the neighborhood for new adventures, I fancy. And as for Betty, +if I'm any mind reader, she has something up her sleeve sure enough!" + +Sure Pop was right, as usual. Bob fussed around the yard awhile, managed +to open a box of crockery out on the back steps for Mother, and soon +rambled off to see what new adventures he could find in the name of +Safety First. + +Betty spent most of the morning in the kitchen, helping Mother. As soon +as Bob was off again after lunch, she began to roam about the yard, +eyeing everything like a hawk. Soon Mother saw her picking up the boards +Bob had pried loose from the box and scowling at the ugly nails that +stuck up where little feet might so easily be stabbed by their rusty +points. These she carefully bent down with a big stone. + +"That's one on Bob, anyway," said Betty to herself, and went on looking +around the yard. + +Her eye roved upward to the bright geraniums on the sill of Mother's +window upstairs. "Mother," she called, "have you ever read _Ben Hur_?" + +"Why, yes, Betty--a long time ago. Why?" + +"Don't you remember how that loose tile from Ben Hur's roof--the one he +tried to snatch back as he saw it fall--struck the Roman soldier on the +head, and how Ben Hur went to prison for it? Well, what about those +flower pots up there?" + +"Why, Betty!" cried her mother, more puzzled than ever. "Ben Hur--flower +pots--what is the dear child talking about?" + +Betty laughed. "I read in the paper last night that one of the big +hotels has put up signs in every room, and they say: + + =PATRONS--ATTENTION= + + =Please do not place articles of any kind ON + WINDOW SILL (bottles and chinaware most + dangerous). They may fall or be blown into the + street, causing serious if not fatal accidents.= + +"That's because a flower pot fell from an upper window on a woman's +head. Baby's sand pile is right below your window, and one of the flower +pots might fall while she was out there playing. A sudden draft could do +it, or a door slammed hard. Do you mind if I fasten them on with wire so +they can't fall? Then I'll do it right now before anything happens!" + +She had just finished the job to her satisfaction, and was looking about +for something else, when Mother called softly: "Betty, if you'll keep a +lookout and let me know if anybody comes, or if Baby wakes up, I'll take +a nap." + +Betty was pleased. Here was a fine chance to play housekeeper. Mother +left a soup bone simmering over one burner of the gas stove, and a steam +pudding bubbling away over another, and went upstairs for her nap. + +Betty tiptoed to the little sewing-room, next to the kitchen, and looked +in. Baby was sleeping. Then she softly shut the kitchen door and sat +down in the dining-room to read. Suddenly a shower came up, and out she +ran to close the windows in the kitchen and the sewing-room, where the +rain was pouring in. + +She had hardly begun reading again when she heard Bob clatter up the +back steps, tear through the kitchen in search of his raincoat, and +hurry out again. The wind was blowing hard and swept through the open +kitchen, banging the dustpan against the wall like a fire alarm gong. + +Betty read on. Presently she looked at the clock and sprang to her feet. +"Why, how long Baby is sleeping today! 'Most three hours and never a +peep. I wonder--" + +A faint whiff of gas from the kitchen made her turn pale with dread. +Then it flashed into her mind what must have happened--that sudden gust +of wind had blown out the gas! As she ran to the kitchen, she realized +that she had caught the same faint smell several times before. "Oh!" she +sobbed, "what if Baby--" + +Mother, sound asleep upstairs, was roused by a crash from the kitchen, a +shriek from Betty, and the sound of a shattered window-pane; for Betty, +finding that the outside door stuck fast, had hurled a frying-pan +through the window. Then she ran to the sewing-room as the life-giving +breeze poured in through the broken pane. + +Startled, bewildered, still only half awake, Mother stumbled to the +kitchen and found Betty, with the unconscious baby in her arms, groping +her way toward the dining-room. Snatching them both up and rushing +toward the open air, Mother landed in a heap on the front porch, Betty +and the baby on top of her. And then--oh, glorious sound!--came a feeble +little cry from Baby, and they knew she was safe after all! There Father +and Bob found them a few minutes later, laughing and crying and hugging +each other by turns. Betty's quick wits had saved the day. + +Mother was telling the whole story that evening, not forgetting the +rusty nails and the flower pots--two risks which neither Father nor +Mother had ever thought of before--when a sturdy little figure in a +Safety Scout uniform paused at the door and listened with a shrewd +twinkle in his eye. + +It was Sure Pop, who had looked in to say good night to the twins. He +caught Betty's eye, beckoned her into the hall--and when she came back +to the supper table, Bob's sharp eye caught the gleam of a Safety First +button over _her_ heart, too. + +Betty had evened the score! + + _Safety scouting begins at home._ + --SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHT + +LITTLE SCHNEIDER'S FIRE ALARM + + +Ever since the twins had earned their Safety First buttons, they had +been looking forward to the Fourth of July, and on the eve of the Fourth +came an adventure far more exciting than any they had expected. + +The lights were out in Bob's and Betty's rooms, and Bob had just dropped +off to sleep when the clang of the fire bell brought him out of bed in a +hurry. + +As his feet struck the floor, his ear caught the rattle of gravel on the +window. The room was half lighted by a ruddy glow, and looking out he +saw Sure Pop standing below his window. + +"Come on to the fire!" the Safety Scout called up to him. "Perhaps we +can do somebody a good turn. Bring Betty along, if your mother doesn't +mind." + +Bob got dressed first and hurried in to help Betty. Her teeth were +chattering with excitement, and she could hardly button her clothes. +"Where is the fire, Bob?" + +"I don't know exactly--a mile or two north of here, I think. Come +on--Mother says you may go, if you'll stick close to me." + +The two clattered down the back stairs and joined Sure Pop. + +"Bother that shoe string, anyhow!" panted Bob as they scampered off to +the fire. + +"Better stop and tie it up," advised the Safety Scout. "It'll trip you +the first thing you know." + +Bob thought otherwise. A couple of blocks farther on, however, he +stepped on the dragging string, caught his toe on a loose board in the +sidewalk, and sprawled headlong. But Bob was game. Up he jumped, gave +Sure Pop the Scout salute, and said, with a grin, "Sir, I stand +corrected." Then he tied the shoe string by the light of a street lamp, +winked at Betty, and the three ran on. + +The fire was farther away than it looked, and not till they had reached +the hilltop did the size of the blaze fully show itself. "Goodness!" +cried Betty. "The German church is gone, and Turner Hall will be next. +And look at all those little houses in a row--they won't last long at +that rate!" Then she stopped and coughed, for the air was full of smoke +and soot, both from the burning buildings and from the fire engines. + +Everywhere was noise and confusion. Half-dressed men and women stumbled +over the fire hose as they hurried along with their arms full of +household articles, trying to save everything they could. + +A frightened sob fell on Betty's ears. She turned to see a chubby little +baby boy, toddling along barefooted in his nightie, the tears rolling +down his fat cheeks. "Mama!" he sobbed. "I want my Mama!" + +"Oh, poor little thing!" cried Betty. "He's lost!" She caught the scared +little fellow up in her arms and wrapped him snugly in the folds of her +loose cloak. "Don't cry, honey. Betty'll find Mama for you!" And she +cuddled and petted him till he stopped crying and lay still in her arms, +peering out at the spreading flames with wondering eyes. + +"I'm going to find his mother for him," said Betty. "He's scared half to +death!" + +But Sure Pop caught her arm as she started away. "Wait, she'll find +him." + +Sure enough, before long a young woman came running wildly from house to +house calling out, "Karlchen! My little Karlchen! Where are you?" + +The little fellow popped his head out from under Betty's cloak with a +squeal of delight. "Mama!" he cried in his soft baby voice. +"Mama!"--just that one happy word, over and over, as his mother pressed +him to her breast. + +The look on her face was thanks enough for Betty. Somehow the fire did +not seem so dreadful to her after that. + +"How'd it start?" Bob asked a fireman who was binding up a split in the +bulging canvas hose. + +"Fellow dropped a lighted match in a coat closet--house next to the +church," puffed the fireman, who was breathing as if he had run a mile. +He gave the hose a parting kick and hurried to join his comrades down +the street, where the flames were fiercest. + +"The same old story," said Sure Pop, soberly. "Hold on! What's that?" + +Bob and Betty looked up at the little old-fashioned window in the +cottage across the street. A small black-and-tan dog was standing on his +hind legs inside the room, pawing and scratching at the window pane. + +Sure Pop put two fingers to his lips and gave a piercing whistle. The +dog answered him, barking wildly and running back into the smoke-filled +room, then to the window again, as if trying to call their attention to +something or somebody in the room with him. + +"There's somebody in there!" cried Bob. "Come on, Sure Pop--wait here +for us, Betty!" + +As they ran, the two splashed into a pool of water in a hollow of the +sidewalk. Sure Pop dipped his handkerchief in this and tied it over his +nose and mouth. Bob did the same. Then the smoke of the burning cottage +swallowed them up. + +Remembering the dangers of a draft, Sure Pop carefully closed the door +after them, and stopped Bob from kicking a hole in the window at the +head of the stairs. They knew which room it was--the farthest window +from the front door--and flung themselves against the door so hard that +it burst open and they fell headlong into the room. The little +black-and-tan dog, barking more wildly than ever, had heard them coming +and was dragging with all his might at something on the bed. + +Bob and Sure Pop, half choked with smoke, ran to the bedside. There lay +a little girl only five or six years old. Yes, she was breathing! + +Just then the hungry flames burst in through the flimsy closet door and +came licking along the ceiling. Bob's eyes smarted and burned, and his +lungs felt as if they would burst. He remembered his Boy Scout studies +in First Aid, though, and threw himself beside Sure Pop on the floor, +where the smoke was not so thick. Together they dragged the little girl +to the window. + +Bob put his lips close to Sure Pop's ear. "Shall we jump?" + +Sure Pop shook his head. "Too risky. We'll try the stairs." + +With the little girl held close between them, their bodies shielding her +from the flames, the two groped and stumbled down the short flight of +stairs, fairly falling through the whirlwind of flame that swirled +upward from the first floor. Scorched, singed, with their clothing afire +in places, they fought their way back to the street--safe! + +Betty ran forward with a glad cry and flung her arms around her twin. +"Bob! Oh, Bob, I thought you were _gone_!" + +Just then they heard a shout as a frightened little family group came +running up, and a roughly dressed laborer snatched the little girl and +kissed her till her eyes opened and she smiled. + +"Good Schneider! Nice Schneider!" said her small brother, patting the +dog, who was wagging his tail almost off for joy. + +"Nice little Schneider--he took--care--of--me!" exclaimed the little +girl between kisses. And the father gathered up the little dog in his +arms and kissed him, too! + +As the tired Safety Scouts opened the front gate half an hour later, the +boom of a cannon roared out, somewhere on the other side of town, and +the twelve o'clock bells and whistles joined in an echoing chorus. + +Sure Pop raised his hand with a tired smile. "Midnight!" he cried. +"Hurrah for the glorious Fourth!" + + _Don't let a careless match cost a dozen homes._ + --SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER NINE + +"CHANCE CARTER'S WAY" + + +BOOM! It was the distant roar of some Fourth of July cannon which had +escaped the watchful eye of the police. + +Bob Dalton stirred uneasily and flopped over in bed. The morning sun was +shining straight into his eyes. + +By the time the twins were dressed and downstairs, Sure Pop was waiting +for them in the back yard. He, too, had slept late after the excitement +of the fire. + +"I had hoped for a holiday today," he said, "but I can see there's going +to be plenty of scouting for me to do, even on a 'sane Fourth,' so I'm +off on my rounds. How are you two going to spend the day?" + +"Going over to where the fire was, as soon as we've had our breakfast," +said Bob. "Looks from here as if Turner Hall's still smoking." + +Betty was fingering the Safety Button in Sure Pop's lapel. "What are you +doing, Betty?" asked the Safety Scout, with a twinkle. + +"Turning your button right side up," Betty told him. + +The merry little Colonel laughed and explained: "I have to wear it wrong +side up each day till I've done my One Day's Boost for Safety." + +"Oh," said Bob. "Same as the Boy Scouts wear their neckties outside +their vests till they've done the day's good turn to somebody?" + +Sure Pop nodded. "That one little rule is the biggest thing in the whole +Scout Law," he said. "The Scout who lives up to that test--doing a good +turn to somebody every day, quietly and without boasting--will be +classed alongside the greatest Scouts the world has ever known. Bring me +your _Handbook of Scout-Craft_ a moment, please, Bob. Listen to this +from page 7, now: + + * * * * * + +"'Another way to remind himself is to wear his Scout badge reversed +until he has done his good turn. The good turn may not be a very big +thing--help an old lady across the street; remove a banana skin from the +pavement so that people may not fall; remove from streets or roads +broken glass, dangerous to automobile or bicycle tires'--to say +nothing," added Sure Pop, "of the danger to barefooted boys and girls, +or to folks with thin shoes! Don't you see, Bob and Betty, how every one +of those good turns happens to be a good turn for Safety as well? I told +you a few days ago that all true Scouts are brothers; aren't we all +working toward the same end, after all?" + +Bob and Betty saw the point. They turned their Safety buttons upside +down as Sure Pop waved them goodby, resolving to get them right side up +at the very first chance that offered. + +They found their father on the front porch reading the paper, taking +solid comfort in the fact that Bruce's Mills were closed for the day. "I +want you to help me with a little work out in the yard," he said, "as +soon as you've had your breakfast." So it was almost one o'clock before +Bob and Betty set out for the scene of last night's fire. Just across +the river they met Chance Carter and George Gibson, bound in the same +direction. + +The German church still raised its steepled head toward the sky, but its +roof had fallen in, and Turner Hall was a mass of blackened ruins. Parts +of the walls were still standing, swaying as if ready to topple over any +moment. Off in one corner the blackened timbers and jumbled bits of +furniture were stubbornly smoldering. + +The four stood and looked. "Just think!" said Betty softly. "All that +from just one little careless match! Guess _that_ man won't light a +match in a coat closet again." + +"Pshaw!" scoffed Chance Carter. "That wouldn't happen once in a thousand +times." + +"How many matches do you suppose are scratched in the United States +every second?" asked Bob, shortly. + +"Oh, a couple of hundred, I suppose." + +"Ten thousand, Chance, _every second_. And every match is a possible +fire. Sure Pop told me last night that one third of the fire losses are +due to carelessness in handling matches. And the fires in this country +cost us over a million dollars every day--twice that, counting the cost +of fire departments." + +"Whew!" Even reckless Chance looked impressed. + +"When you get into the Boy Scouts," Bob reminded him, "you'll find out +what _they_ think about fooling with fire. A real Scout never leaves his +camp fire till he's dead sure it's out. Even after there's no fire left +that he can see, he pours water on it and all around it to guard against +its rekindling. A Scout who isn't careful about such things is looked +down on by the others as not of much account." + +"Well, I don't care; there's such a thing as being too careful. I wish +we had the old-fashioned Fourth of July back again. This sane Fourth +business is too tame for me!" Chance strolled off to the far corner of +the smoking ruins and began climbing around in the half-filled basement. + +George winked at Betty. "Can't teach _him_ anything," he chuckled. "He +was born careless and he'll die careless, I guess. Look at him, +now--poking around where those loose bricks may cave in on him any +minute. We can't say anything, though, or he'll get mad. Chance Carter +always has to have his own way." + +"It's a wonder the police aren't guarding this place," said Bob, +anxiously. "Guess they've got their hands full elsewhere." He scowled as +he watched his reckless friend jumping from one charred timber to +another, never noticing how the crumbling walls tottered with each jump. + +"Whether he likes it or not," he said finally, "I'm going to get him out +of there. It's too risky. Hey, Chance! Look out--that wall's coming +over!" His voice rose in a startled shout. + +"Aw, I guess not--" Chance got no further. The overhanging wall, swaying +on its wobbly base and loosened by his sudden backward jump, toppled +over on him in a shower of bricks and mortar. "Chance Carter's way" had +come to grief again! + +"Too late--again!" muttered Bob, grimly, diving into the cloud of dust +that hung over the spot where Chance had disappeared. For a picture had +flashed into his mind--the memory of how he had failed to warn the +wrestlers in time only a few days before, the picture of Joe's terrified +face as his head crashed on the cement sidewalk. Why hadn't he warned +Chance in time? + +A groan from the wreckage told where the boy lay half buried under the +fallen wall. "Got me that time!" he muttered, through his set teeth. +"Guess my leg's broken." + +A shadow fell on the two and Bob looked up to see George's white face +gazing down at him. "What can I do, Bob?" + +"Have Betty run for a doctor, or telephone. Chance is badly hurt. Help +me lift this rubbish from on top of him." The boys worked fast but +carefully, lifting one brick at a time, till Chance was free. To their +dismay he could not move. + +"It's this leg." He touched his left, just below the knee. "I felt +something break when the wall hit me. Perhaps the other's broken, too--I +don't know." + +Very carefully Bob ripped the clothing from the injured leg. Then he put +one hand gently on the spot Chance touched, and the other hand just +below it, and lifted the leg slightly. There was enough movement at the +broken point so that there could be no doubt. The other leg proved to be +badly bruised, but not broken. + +Bob carefully moved the broken leg back into the same position as the +right one and piled his coat and George's around it so it would stay in +shape. He brought the suffering boy some water in his hat, and the three +waited for the doctor. + +"He said he'd come right away," reported Betty, hurrying back from the +telephone. "But, Bob, it isn't safe to stay down there--no telling when +that other chunk of the wall may fall on all three of you. Shall I try +to push it over from the inside?" + +"Goodness, no, Betty! Keep as far away from it as you can. Well, we'll +have to get him out of here, some way. You run back to that first store, +please, and get half a dozen good strong strips of cloth about a foot +wide and two or three feet long--anything that will do to tie his leg up +to the splints. George, you bring over a few of those pieces of flooring +that are not too badly charred to use for splints. There!" + +He laid a long piece of flooring along Chance's left side, from below +his foot clear to his armpit, and chose a shorter board for the inside +splint. He arranged the two coats so that they would pad the broken leg +where the boards came up against it, and tied the splints firmly, but +not tightly, in place. Then Bob slowly gathered his groaning friend in +his arms. + +"Sorry to hurt you, old fellow, but we've got to get you out of here. +You take his legs, George,--gently, now. So! We can climb out along that +cave-in on the street side if we take it easy. Up we go!" + + _Better be safe than sorry._ + --SURE POP + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER TEN + +THE TWINS MEET BRUCE + + +Chance Carter, lying helpless on the stone steps of Turner Hall, was +wondering if the doctor would ever come. Bob and George did their best +to ease his pain, while Betty gazed anxiously down the street. + +"Why doesn't that doctor come?" + +"Surely he knows where we are, Betty?" + +"Yes, I told him Turner Hall, and he said, 'Why, Turner Hall burned down +last night, little girl.' And I told him I knew it, and that we were +waiting right beside what was left of it." + +"Hm-m-m! Something must have happened to him then; he could have walked +it in less time than this. If he doesn't come pretty soon, we'd better +call up the police department and have them send the ambulance. We can't +wait here much longer." + +While they waited, an idea popped into Bob's head. + +"Look here," he said, "somebody else is likely enough to get hurt here, +just the way Chance did. I believe we'd better put up a sign. I'll get +some paper from that store." + +So Bob hurried around to the store and got some wrapping paper and nails +and borrowed a pencil and hammer. He worked fast, the shopkeeper looking +curiously over his shoulder while he lettered this sign: + + + DANGER! + + These walls may fall on you any moment. One leg + already broken here today. Keep out. + + SAFETY FIRST! + + + +Bob had just finished the lettering when a big automobile came purring +along in front of the ruined building. The chauffeur was in uniform. The +big man inside looked almost lost among the cushions, so roomy was the +machine. At a word from him, the car slowed down, and he scanned the +ruins sharply. Bob knew him in a moment for Bruce, the great mill owner, +one of the richest men in the city. + +"Hello, what's this? What's this?" Bruce stood up in the car when the +little group on the steps caught his eye. In a twinkling he was out of +the automobile and bending over the groaning boy, while Bob and George +and Betty told him what had happened. + +"Tut, tut!" snapped the great man whose mills gave work to thousands of +men, the twins' father among them. "This won't do at all! If the doctor +won't come to him, we must get him to the doctor." Pushing aside the +chauffeur, he lifted Chance into the car and on to the deep, comfortable +cushions as easily as if he had been a child of two instead of a lad of +twelve and big for his age. + +"Now, jump in, the rest of you," he said, "and we'll take him over to +Doctor MacArthur's." + +Betty climbed in and George followed. The chauffeur took his seat and +looked around at Bob, waiting. "What's the matter now?" asked Bruce, +impatiently, as Bob lingered on the step. + +"It's those walls," answered the boy. "I hate to leave them in that +shape--somebody else will be getting hurt just as Chance did. I'd better +put up the sign. You folks go on, please, and I'll follow on foot." + +The mill owner shook his head. "Put up your sign and come along. We'll +wait." + +Bruce looked sharply at Bob's sign as the boy nailed it up in place, but +said nothing. Bob climbed into the waiting automobile, and the big +machine rolled smoothly, silently to the doctor's office. + +Doctor MacArthur, surgeon's case in hand, came out. He was a little gray +man--gray-haired, dressed in a gray suit, with keen gray eyes that +seemed to take in everything at once. + +"Who put those splints on?" He jerked out the words like a pistol shot. + +"I did," said Bob, reddening; for the doctor's tone made him feel that +he must have bungled his work. + +Swiftly the doctor bared the leg and laid a deft finger on the exact +spot of the break. "Simple fracture," was his verdict. "Bone badly +splintered, though--would have come through the skin in short order if +you hadn't got the splints on when you did. Where does he live?" + +He took George's seat and George climbed over beside the chauffeur. On +the way to Chance's house, he insisted on knowing how Bob had learned to +give First Aid to the injured. + +"So you're a Boy Scout, eh?" Another keen glance from those sharp gray +eyes. + +"N-no, sir--but I'm going to be." + +"Eh? How's that?" + +"He isn't quite old enough yet," explained George. "You have to be +twelve or over to join the Boy Scouts. I'm one--but Bob knows a heap +more about it already than I do," he added frankly. + +"Ha! Well, I'll have to change my opinion of the Boy Scouts, young man. +I always took it for granted they were a sort of feeder to our regular +army--playing soldier, you know. But if this is the kind of work they +turn out, I don't know but I'll join myself." + +George got out when they reached Chance's house, and helped the doctor +carry the injured lad up the steps. "You needn't wait for me," he told +the twins, "I'm going to stay a while." + +"Come in and see me some time," Doctor MacArthur called back to Bob. "I +want you to tell me more about your First Aid work! See you later, Mr. +Bruce." + +"Home, Jennings," said Bruce. "And be quick about it--I'm late." + +Bob leaned back against the cushions and studied the grim, square-jawed +face of the great man whom everybody was so anxious to please. So this +was the way he looked at close range, this self-made, stubborn man of +millions who always managed to bend every other man in his line of +business to his own iron will! As he looked, Bob felt it was no wonder +they all feared him--feared and followed. + +For Bruce was the man who, more than all the others put together, was +responsible for keeping Safety First work out of the mills in his line +of business. Hundreds of men were killed and thousands injured every +year in the great string of mills of which Bruce's was the head. Over +and over it had been pointed out to him that the same Safety First work +which had saved thousands of lives in other lines would save them in his +line as well. But he was stubborn, iron-willed. + +"You're wasting your time," was all he would say. "No theories or +new-fangled notions in _my_ mills." + +Because Bruce said this, all the other mills hung back, too. There were +reasons. They knew Bruce. + +All this Bob knew from talks he had had with his father about the risks +of working in Bruce's mills. He understood it better, now that he was +face to face with Bruce himself. + +All too soon, to the twins' way of thinking, the automobile drew up in +front of Bruce's big stone house. The mill owner wasted no words. +Jumping out, he waved his hand to the three, said to Jennings, "Take +them wherever they want to go," and hurried up the walk. + +The eager face pressed against the big bay window disappeared, the front +door flew open, and a sweet little fair-haired girl threw herself into +Bruce's outstretched arms. "Daddy! What made you so late? Here I've been +waiting and waiting--" + +"Bonnie!" That was all the twins heard as the big automobile bore them +away toward home. But the way he said it, and the way he caught his +little daughter to his big, broad chest, told Bob and Betty all they +needed to know about the soft spot in the millionaire's heart. + +What did his great house and his mills and all his money amount to, +after all? He would gladly have thrown them all aside rather than have +the slightest harm come to his Bonnie; for her mother had died when +Bonnie was only a baby, and the little girl was all Bruce had left in +the world. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER ELEVEN + +"JUST FOR FUN" + + +The twins missed Chance Carter during the next few weeks. The boy had +been a regular nuisance in some ways, for he was always getting into +scrapes; but he was a clever lad and had a way of making up games that +nobody else seemed able to think of. + +"It does seem lonesome without Chance," Bob told Sure Pop when the +broken leg had kept their friend tied up indoors for a week or more. +"And yet we don't get into half as much trouble when he isn't round." + +Sure Pop looked wise. "Perhaps it's because Chance hasn't learned that +he must play according to the rules," he said. "The fellow who is +always taking chances isn't playing up to the rules of the game." + +"Anyhow," said Betty, "Chance has had his lesson now. By the time he's +able to run around again, he will be ready to quit taking chances." + +Sure Pop changed the subject, though a shrewd twinkle seemed to say that +it would take more than one lesson to teach Chance how to play life's +game according to the rules. "How'd you like to take a trip with me +today?" + +"Fine!" exclaimed Bob and Betty. "Where?" + +"To a kind of moving picture show," answered Colonel Sure Pop. "Let's +start right away, then. And be sure you wear your Safety First buttons." + +The twins couldn't help smiling at the idea of going anywhere without +their magic buttons. They boarded the crowded street car with Sure Pop +and stood beside the motorman all the way to the railroad yards. It +seemed as if somebody tried to get run over every block or two, and the +way people crossed the crowded streets in the middle of blocks was +enough to turn a motorman's hair gray. + +"How'd you like to be the motorman, Bob?" + +"Well, I tell _you_, Sure Pop, I don't believe it's as much fun as it +looks from the outside. If fellows like Chance and George would ride +beside the motorman for just one day, seeing what he has to see right +along, they'd be Safety workers forever after. Look at that, now! Those +chaps have no business to cross in the middle of the block." + +"Nobody has," agreed Sure Pop, with a keen glance at Bob. The boy +flushed as he remembered what he himself had been doing when he first +felt the warning touch of the Safety Scout's hand. + +He and Betty noticed, too, how carefully Sure Pop looked all around him +before leaving the car, and they did likewise. Two short blocks more and +they were in sight of the railroad roundhouse. The Safety Scout stuck +his head inside the great doorway and peered around at the smoking +engines that impatiently awaited their turn. "There she is!" he +exclaimed. "There's old Seven-Double-Seven!" And he waved his hand at +the engineer up in the cab. + +The three climbed into the engine cab, where the fireman stood waiting +with his eye on the steam gauge. From the way the engineer shook hands +with Sure Pop, the twins decided they must be old friends. + +"Got my orders?" asked the engineer. He ripped open the envelope Sure +Pop handed him, glanced at the message, nodded to the fireman, and +gently pulled open the throttle. The big, powerful engine answered his +touch like a race horse. With a warning clang of the bell, they slipped +down the shining track, through the crowded yards, and toward the city +limits. + +"Bob, what are you looking for?" asked Sure Pop. + +Bob went on looking in all the corners of the cab as if greatly puzzled. +"Looking for the moving picture machine," he said with a grin. "I +thought I heard you promise us a moving picture show." + +"You just wait. Be ready to rub your magic buttons when I say the word, +both of you, and you'll see some moving pictures you'll never +forget--pictures of what _might_ happen to boys and girls like +yourselves. The pity of it is, it does happen, every day of the year." + +Sure Pop paused to call their attention to some little blurry patches of +blue scattered along the track. "Wild flowers," he said. "Pretty things, +aren't they? If we weren't going so fast, we'd stop and get some." + +The engineer scowled. "Pretty? They don't look pretty to me any more. +Look there, now!" + +The brakes jarred as he spoke, and the shriek of the whistle scattered a +group ahead. Several young couples, going home from town by way of the +railroad track, had stopped to gather wild flowers. One couple were +walking hand in hand over the railroad bridge, deaf at first to whistle +and bell and everything else. Suddenly they heard, looked up, and turned +first one way and then another, uncertain whether to jump off the bridge +or stand their ground. + +"Is it any wonder that I don't like the flower season?" grunted the +engineer in disgust. "It's the worst time of all, seems to me. Now you'd +think those young fellows and girls were old enough and would have sense +enough to keep off the railroad's right of way, wouldn't you? But look +at 'em!" + +He mopped his forehead and glared ahead at the frightened couple, +holding the panting engine at a standstill till they could scramble off +the bridge. + +"They act as if we had nothing to do but just watch out for 'em," he +went on, getting under way again. "They got off scot-free this time, but +imagine what old Seven-Double-Seven would have done to 'em if this had +been my regular run! Forty miles an hour on schedule--and where would +they be now? + +"It's the same old story, day after day--boys riding bicycles down the +tracks, when the road's ten times smoother and a million times as safe! +Boys playing on the turntables and getting crippled for life, one by +one! + +"They'll run like mad to get across the track ahead of a fast train--and +then stand and watch it go through! I ought to know--I did it myself +when I was a boy, but little I knew then of the way it wrecks an +engineer's nerves! + +"They flip the cars and try to imitate the brakemen without the least +idea of how many thousands of brakemen have lost their lives just that +way. They crawl under cars, instead of waiting or going around. Why, +Colonel, the railroads kill thousands and thousands of people every +year--you know the figures--dozens every day, week in and week out. And +somebody's badly hurt on the railroads every three minutes or less--_and +a third of them are boys and girls and little children_! That's what I +can't stand--the little folks getting hurt and getting killed, when just +a bit of common sense would save them! Oh, if their fathers and mothers +had any idea--" + +The big engineer choked up for a moment. "Even on the trains," he +added, "when they're safe inside the cars, they get hurt. I'm not the +only one that worries on my run--ask the conductor. He'll tell you how +they run up and down the aisle, till a sudden jar of the brakes throws +'em against a seat iron or into the other passengers. They get out into +the vestibules, which is against the rules, and when the train takes a +sudden curve they get smashed up." + +Three minutes later he slowed down for the twins to watch the fast mail +thunder past. It was near a village crossing, and a little group of boys +stood waiting. As No. 777 came to a stop, the twins saw that most of the +boys had stones in their hands. + +On came the fast mail, tearing past the little village as if it were not +even on the map. The mail cars--the smoker--the long rows of glass +windows, a head beside each-- + +Smash! The flying splinters of glass told of one stone that had found +its mark. The boys ran like scared cats around the corner into a lumber +yard. + +"Little cowards!" The fireman glared angrily after them. "They may have +killed somebody on that train--_they_ don't know!" + +"Rub your buttons!" whispered Sure Pop, whose eyes were still fixed on +the fast mail, now disappearing in a cloud of smoke and dust. + +Bob and Betty rubbed. At their first touch of the magic buttons the +disappearing train took on a queer, unreal look, like a film at the +"movies." + +They seemed to be inside one of the cars. They seemed to be watching a +sweet-faced old lady--somebody's grandmother--snowy haired, kind, +gentle, not used to traveling, as even the twins could see. She kept +looking first at the time-table and then at an old key-winding silver +watch she wore on a quaint little chain around her neck. + +Her lips were moving, smiling. "Only two stops more," she seemed to be +saying, "and then I shall see little Jim." She took a kodak picture out +of her handbag and looked at it long and lovingly. She glanced out of +the window and saw a group of boys standing by the village crossing "to +watch the fast mail go through." She liked boys. She smiled at them--she +did not see the stones in their hands. + +Smash! The other passengers sprang to their feet as one of the stones, +thrown at random, shivered the car window into bits and struck the kind +old face, full between the eyes. A quick, startled cry--a pitiful +fumbling of kind old hands before shattered spectacles and eyes suddenly +blinded--and the moving picture seemed to fade away. The twins were left +with the sickening fear that perhaps little Jim's grandmother might +never see him after all. + +"Oh! oh!" gasped Betty, rubbing her eyes. "How terrible!" Bob caught +Sure Pop by the arm. + +"Did we imagine it, Sure Pop--or was it true?" + +"Too true," said Sure Pop, sadly. "It happens almost every day +somewhere--where boys throw stones at the cars 'just for fun'!" + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER TWELVE + +GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS + + +"And just to think," said Bob, as the three sat on the home steps +talking over their exciting trip on old No. 777, "just to think of how +many boys and girls are killed on the railroad tracks every day!" + +"Every day," echoed the little Safety Scout, "and all over the world. Go +into any village graveyard along any railroad, and you'll find the grave +of some boy or girl who has been killed trespassing on the railroad +tracks. No way to save them, I'm afraid, till folks wake up to the fact +that it's not so much the tramps who are being killed this way--it's the +children!" + +"It's just awful," said Betty, puckering up her brow in a thoughtful +scowl. "I think we ought to do something about it." + +"What, for instance?" Sure Pop was watching her sharply. + +"Well, something to put a stop to it. Surely we could find _some_ way of +teaching the boys and girls how to play safely; and then when they grew +up they'd be in the habit of _thinking_ Safety. Then they'd teach +_their_ boys and girls--and all this awful killing and crippling, or +most of it, would be ended." + +"The trouble is," said Bob, "in going at the thing in too much of a +hit-or-miss style. We could do some good by talking to the few boys and +girls we could reach, but not enough. Why can't we organize?" + +Sure Pop's eager face lighted up, overjoyed at the turn Bob's thoughts +were taking. "You can," he said quietly. + +"Why, sure!" went on Bob, getting more and more excited as the idea took +hold. "Let's get busy and organize an army of Safety Scouts right here. +We've already got the biggest thing in the Safety Scout Law at +work--don't you see?--our 'One Boost for Safety' every day. We can get +some more Safety Scout buttons made, and as fast as a boy earns his--" + +"--Or a girl earns hers!"--interrupted Betty, so seriously that Bob +couldn't help smiling. + +"Yes, of course--girls too--why, as fast as boys and girls earn the +right to wear Safety Scout buttons, we can form them into patrols. It +wouldn't be long before we could have several troops hard at it. I tell +you, Sure Pop, if we go at it that way we can do big things for Safety +just as sure as you're a foot high!" + +Sure Pop gave Betty a droll little wink. "It's a go, then," he said +cheerfully. "Well, where are you going to begin?" + +Bob looked up at him with a sudden idea shining in his eyes. "Why not +begin by organizing in patrols and then in troops, just about like the +Boy Scouts? First, we can get a few of our friends interested, and let +each one of them get eleven others interested--that will make a patrol +of twelve, commanded by the one who got them together." + +"Spoken like a Scout and a gentleman!" cried the little Colonel, giving +him a sounding thump on the shoulder. "Go on, Bob--what next?" + +"Well, just as fast as we get four new patrols, we can form them into a +troop, with a Scout Master for their leader." + +"Good," said Sure Pop. "It will take some lively work to pick your Scout +Masters and get them trained in time, but the difference in their +efficiency will be worth your while." + +"I suppose," said Betty, "we'll have to choose only boys and girls who +have good records for Safety?" + +Bob looked doubtful. "What do you think about that, Sure Pop?" + +"I think it would be a mistake, Bob. You'll find too few who have even +learned to think Safety. A better plan will be to take in those who seem +most in earnest over the idea, especially those who have been taught a +hard lesson through accidents which care would have avoided." + +"Go on, please. Tell us more--how would you work out the details?" + +"Bob, I would--but I believe I've told you enough. You and Betty go +ahead in your own way and work out the details yourselves. Let me see +you get your Safety Scouts together, if you really do mean business, and +I'll show you about the work that's already been done among the factory +hands and mill-workers of America. + +"Let me tell you this much, though: you'll find, when you get your +Safety Scouts of America organized, that the good work will go ahead by +leaps and bounds. All this talk about 'efficiency' is really part of the +same movement, though very few realize it; it's nothing more or less +than cutting out guess work and waste--and what else, after all, is our +Safety work?" + +"That's so. It really is all working in the same direction, isn't it?" +agreed Bob. "Chance Carter's oldest brother is studying to be an +efficiency engineer--perhaps he can give us some ideas." + +"Then--you really do mean to get busy and organize the Safety Scouts of +America?" + +"Mean it!" Bob and Betty fairly shouted the words in their eagerness to +get to work. And as Sure Pop said good night to them, there was a joyous +light in his eye which showed his plan was working out just as he had +thought it would. + +He smiled a satisfied smile as the door closed on the excited Dalton +twins. "And now," said Colonel Sure Pop to himself, "_now_, we're +getting down to business!" + + _Enlist now! We fight to save life, not + to take it._ + --SURE POP + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER THIRTEEN + +DALTON PATROL + + +The next few weeks were busy ones for Bob and Betty Dalton. The plan was +a big one--the Safety Scouts of America. Growing out of an idea planted +by Colonel Sure Pop, it sprouted and grew surprisingly fast. Already the +news was spreading like wildfire among the boys and girls all over the +city. + +Joe Schmidt was out again, his head as good as ever. George Gibson, +always brim full of energy and enthusiasm, had set his heart on becoming +a Safety Scout Master and heading a troop of his own. Even Chance +Carter, hobbling about on crutches, had caught the fever of Safety +Scouting and was making all sorts of plans as to what he would do when +his broken leg got well. + +Chance really had changed, somehow. The twins supposed it was all due to +his accident, but the real reason was Colonel Sure Pop. Chance seemed +almost magnetized by the little Colonel and never lost a chance to be +near him. + +"Honestly now, Colonel," he owned up to Sure Pop one day, "I'd read so +many stories about reckless heroes and all that, I got in the habit of +thinking I had to be reckless. Story books seem to make out that it's a +brave thing to risk your life--and wasn't that exactly what Bob did when +he found that live wire?" + +Sure Pop laid an understanding hand on Chance's shoulder. + +"Listen, Chance! You've caught only half the point, that's your main +trouble. It _is_ a manly thing to take a risk--_when it's necessary_. +When somebody's life is in danger, it's the manliest thing on earth to +take a risk for the sake of saving it. That's why Bob's act in +patrolling the live wire earned him a Safety Scout button--the lives of +those smaller boys were in danger, to say nothing of anybody else who +might blunder across the wire just then--that's where the difference +comes in." + +"That's so. I never thought of it in just that way." + +"I know you haven't. When you stop to think it over, you see it's a +fellow's plain duty to take a chance when it's necessary, but it's +downright foolish to do it on a dare. One thing about Bob's live-wire +adventure I don't believe even he realizes," added Sure Pop. "It was +that hurry-up patrol of small boys that he threw out around the live +wire which really gave him the idea of how to organize the Safety Scouts +of America. I knew the idea would strike him and Betty sooner or later." + +Chance looked admiringly at the little Colonel. What a wise Scout he +was, sure enough, as keen and clever at reading signs of the trail as +any Indian fighter that ever stepped in deerskin! + +The boy looked longingly after the Safety Scout Patrol, which was just +starting off on an "observation hike," as Bob called it. Part of the +training Bob had laid out for his men was an hour's brisk walk, after +which each Safety Scout wrote out a list of the unsafe things he had +noticed while "on the trail." + +"There's one thing that stumps me, though," said Chance. "How did Bob +_know_ that was a live wire?" + +"He didn't. He simply had sense enough to treat _all_ fallen wires as if +they _were_ alive. See? Better safe than sorry. Just the same in turning +on an electric light: it _may_ not harm you to touch an iron bedstead +with one hand while you turn the light on with the other--but it's +taking a chance. Same's the fellow who turns an electric bulb on or off +while standing in a bathtub: he _may_ go on with his bath in safety--and +then again he may drop lifeless in the water. + +"It's a good deal like the gun that isn't loaded, Chauncey. There _was_ +a lad, you know, who found a gun was dangerous without lock, stock, or +barrel--his father whipped him with the ramrod! A real Scout knows how +to take care of himself--and of others. And that's especially true of +Safety Scouts." + +"Well, Colonel," said Chance, reaching for his crutches and rising +painfully to his feet, "I'm _for_ it! Perhaps if I make good, the +fellows will quit calling me Chance and call me either Chauncey or +Carter, I don't care which--but Chance makes me sick!" + +"Here's _to_ you, Carter!" said Sure Pop, with a hearty handshake. Again +came that smile of satisfaction as he watched the boy hobble off on a +slow "observation hike" of his own. In Carter's mind, too, the big idea +was taking root. + +Ten days later, Colonel Sure Pop was reviewing Dalton Patrol. + +"Safety Scouts," he said, saluting the even ranks drawn up before him, +"your Colonel is proud of the work you're doing. These 'observation +hikes,' as your Scout Master calls them, show better than anything else +how much more alert you are to danger signs than you were a month ago. + +"Now, I've been sizing up these risks as covered by your patrol reports. +They seem to be of three kinds--home, street, and railroad risks. + +"Nobody can study these reports without seeing that our work is plainly +cut out for us for the next few months. Charity and every other good +work begin at home--though they end there only with the weak-minded! So +our work in Safety patrolling will naturally begin in our homes and with +ourselves, and will begin with the risks which these reports show to be +most common. Let me read you a few of the common risks reported by the +Scouts of this patrol: + + Matches: left on floor where they may be stepped + on; or where mice may nibble them; or next the + stovepipe or chimney; or thrown down before the + last spark is out. + + Celluloid things: brushes and combs handled near + the gas jet, where they may burst into flame. + + Kerosene: poured on the fire to make it burn faster + (three bad cases of burns reported from this cause + alone). + + Gasoline: left near a flame, or anywhere except + clear outside the house. + + Gas: lighting oven of gas stove without first + opening oven door; leaving gas jet burning near + window, where breeze may blow curtains across (five + fires started that way during last month). + + Electric wires: loose wires crossing, which often + cause fires. + + Bathers: venturing too far out in deep water. In + nearly every case, it is the rescuer who drowns. + Never take a chance that may cost another's life. + + Safety pins: left open within baby's reach. You all + know what happened to Mrs. Fuller's baby girl two + weeks ago, all through an open safety pin. + + Hot water and grease: left standing where children + may get into them. + + Dogs: left unmuzzled and running loose. + +"These are only a few of the common dangers shown in your scouting +reports. So far, our work has been hunting out these risks and listing +them. From now on, we'll fall to with a will and set them right as fast +as we can, in our own homes first and next among our neighbors. + +"Just one word of caution before we take up this new patrol duty. Let's +be careful how we go about setting these things right. Remember, we can +catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, so let's not give people +the idea we are criticizing them--just suggesting. + +"For instance: if a Safety Scout sees a mop and a pail of scalding water +on Mrs. Muldoon's back steps and one of her babies in danger of pitching +into it headfirst, he'd better not walk up and begin to scold about it. +Mrs. Muldoon may have done that for years without scalding any one yet. +More likely than not she'd just order you off the place--and go right on +as before. But if, instead, a Scout steps up and begins playing with +the baby, he can first get baby out of harm's way and _then_ watch his +chance to say, 'Baby seems to have his eyes on that pail of hot water, +Mrs. Muldoon. Two babies over on the west side were scalded to death +last week; did you hear about it?' Chances are Mrs. Muldoon will be +around warning all her neighbors before you've been gone ten minutes. +Get the idea?--honey instead of vinegar." + +"Honey works better down in South America, anyhow!" said a deep voice, +and a tall, handsome man stepped forward, saluted, and shook hands +cordially with Colonel Sure Pop. He was brown as a berry from the +tropical sun and he carried his left arm in a sling. + +"Uncle--Uncle Jack!" The Dalton twins forgot that the troop was on +review, forgot Mrs. Muldoon's babies, forgot everything and everybody +but Uncle Jack. What a surprise! And he knew Sure Pop, too! + +"Sure pop, I do!" laughed the explorer, kissing Betty warmly before the +whole admiring troop. "Here, look out for that lame arm, you rascals! +Our surgeon told me it would be well in a month, but he was too +optimistic, for once!" For Bob and Betty were fairly swarming over their +favorite uncle, home at last from the jungle. + +"Nellie," said Uncle Jack to Mrs. Dalton that night, when the Safety +Scouts were off to bed at last, "those twins of yours are making +history--do you realize that?" + +"Well," said his sister, "they have their faults, like all the rest, +but they're pretty fine youngsters at that. But, oh, Jack, they're +growing up so fast!" + +"They are, sure enough, like weeds; but their harvest isn't going to be +any weed crop, now mark my words. I heard most of what was said at their +patrol review this afternoon before anybody saw me; and on my word, +Nell, those youngsters have started something bigger than they have any +idea of, something that no power on earth is going to be able to stop. +After all, I'm just as pleased that the old chief's spear thrust sent me +home in time to see the Safety Scouts of America in the making!" + + _A real Scout knows how to take care of himself--and + of others._--SURE POP + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER FOURTEEN + +SIX TIMELY TIPS + + +Sure Pop and Uncle Jack were sprawled out side by side on the green +river bank, talking over old times. Bob and Betty were hanging on every +word. + +"My first few months of Safety work among American factories and mills," +Sure Pop was saying, "was largely planting. I planted the Safety First +idea and gave it time to grow. I began with the steel mills; then I +turned to the railroads, then to the wood-working shops, and so on." + +Uncle Jack gazed thoughtfully at the sparkling river. "Well," he said +at last to Sure Pop, "what results and how?" + +"How?" repeated the little Colonel. "First, by putting the idea, Safety +First, into the mind of every workman we met. Second, by whispering in +his ear new ways of cutting out accidents--_after_ the Safety First idea +had had a chance to sink in. Results? Three fourths of the deaths and +injuries in the steel mills were cut out entirely in six years' time; in +the railroads, the number of accidents was cut squarely in two in three +years' time; in other kinds of work--all except one--big reductions all +along the line." + +"Great!" There was no mistaking the admiration in Uncle Jack's voice. +"What about the one exception--what line was that?" + +"It's a certain class of mills that is practically controlled by one +man, a very able man, but exceedingly self-willed and stubborn. He owns +a chain of mills from coast to coast, and the rest of the manufacturers +in his line follow his lead in everything. He has fought the Safety +First idea from the start--calls it 'one of these new-fangled +notions'--will have nothing at all to do with it--and he has held back +the Safety movement in his whole line of work." + +"Hm-m-m! Hard nut to crack, eh? What's the old codger's name?" + +"Bruce. He's done more to handicap Safety work than any other man in +the country--and I do believe he's proud of it," said Sure Pop, grimly. + +"Bruce--isn't that the man your father works for, Bob?" + +Bob nodded. "He has a heart, though"--and he told them how the mill +owner had come to Chance Carter's aid, and how like a different man he +had seemed when little Bonnie threw her happy arms around him. + +"Queer mixture, isn't he?" said Uncle Jack. + +"Yes, he is. But don't you suppose our patrol could do something to +change his mind?" + +Uncle Jack waved the idea aside. "Forget it, Bob, forget it! Don't lose +sight of what the Colonel told you Scouts yesterday about the right way +to go at things. Well, the right way to go at Bruce is to leave him +alone for a while. If he's as prejudiced as all that, interfering would +only make him worse. He'll come around by and by, won't he, Colonel?" + +"All in good time," said Sure Pop. "Your work is cut out for you, Bob, +as I told you yesterday. Get the Safety First idea well rooted in the +homes, and then we'll begin on the streets, and get folks in the habit +of thinking Safety every time they cross the street." + +Uncle Jack yawned and stretched himself. + +"Can you spare these twins of ours for the day, Colonel? I've a frolic +of my own I want to borrow them for, if I may." + +"Sure pop! Go ahead, sir." + +Uncle Jack stepped across the street to a telephone, and the first thing +Bob and Betty knew, a big red automobile drew up beside them. "Jump in, +folks--look out for my arm, please. Now--we're off! Goodby, Colonel." + +"My, but isn't this glorious!" Betty nestled closer to her uncle as they +sped along toward the shopping district. "Is this your car, Uncle Jack?" + +"For today it is," laughed her uncle. "Today we'll just make believe I +own the mint. Careful there, driver!" + +Forgetful of his lame arm, he jumped to his feet and waved his hand in +warning. They had been running smoothly along the car tracks, and +another automobile had cut in ahead of them from around the corner. A +tow-headed lad of about Bob's age, who was stealing a ride on it, +holding himself on by main strength as the automobile jounced along over +the crossing, had just made up his mind he would ride no farther and was +getting ready to jump. Down he came, kerflop, in the street, stubbing +his toe as he tried to catch his balance. + +Uncle Jack's chauffeur, warned by his shout, gave the steering wheel a +quick turn--and cleared the boy by a hand's breadth! Uncle Jack sank +back on the cushions, his eyes flashing. + +"Reckless young rascal! Trying to make murderers of us, is he? What are +you Safety Scouts going to do about the boys' hitching on like that, +Bob?" + +Bob pulled a notebook out of his pocket. "Here's how Sure Pop has +summed up our patrol reports on street accidents. He calls it-- + + SIX TIMELY TIPS ON STREET SAFETY + + Tip 1: Make the street car stop before you step on + or off--the car can wait. But step lively! + + Tip 2: Face forward in getting off. Hold the grip + iron with your left hand--it's a friend in need. + Left foot to the step, right foot to the ground, + eyes front! + + Tip 3: Before leaving the car, look both ways for + automobiles, wagons, and motor cycles. + + Tip 4: In passing behind a car, first peek around + to see what's coming. When carrying an umbrella, + peek around that, too. + + Tip 5: Before you hitch on or steal rides on + street cars, automobiles, or wagons, better make + your will. + + Tip 6: Keep wide awake in getting on and off cars + and in crossing streets. Walk fast, _but don't + run_. Use all the sense you have; you're likely to + need it and to need it quick! + +"Those six tips are not guess work either, Uncle Jack. They're boiled +down from weeks of street scouting by every boy and girl in our +patrol." + +"Those are good, sensible tips," said his uncle. "What use are you going +to make of them?" + +"Well, by the time vacation's over, we will have a special School Safety +Patrol drilled and ready to get down to business on this particular work +among the youngsters--to get them out of the habit of hitching on, and +that sort of thing. Our idea is to begin with the smaller school +children; there have been a good many bad accidents to them, you see, +going to and from school. Most of them have to cross the tracks; it's +altogether too easy for them to get confused and run down by a street +car or engine or auto." + +"That's right, Bob. How are you going to stop it?" + +"Why, each Scout in the School Patrol takes charge of the school +children in his block for one month. It's his job to get them together +at a convenient corner in the morning, then herd them across the tracks +and through the crowded streets to school; to do the same thing on their +way home; and to keep an eye on their games during recess, reporting any +risky condition to their teachers. We've planned it so this team work +will not only keep the youngsters from being run over and all that, but +will also be training them to take care of themselves and keep out of +danger just like any Safety Scout. How does the idea strike you?" + +"Fine! It's a good, practical plan! Makes me wish I were a boy again +myself. Hello, here we are--out we go!" + +"Why, where are we?" + +"I'll soon show you." Uncle Jack led the way to the elevator and they +shot up, up, clear to the roof. + +"Hungry?" he asked, as a white-clad waiter showed them to a table. He +enjoyed the surprise of Bob and Betty; they had never had luncheon +downtown before. Mr. Dalton's hard-earned wages left no room for such +celebrations as this. And a roof garden--! No wonder it seemed very +strange and very grand to the Dalton twins. + +They must have spent a good half-hour ordering that meal: it was fun to +study the big bill of fare and pick out delicious things which they +"never had at home." Uncle Jack seemed to find it just as much fun as +they did, and he understood pretty well how they felt as they ate and +ate, while they gazed out on the roofs of the city spread out below +them. It wasn't so _very_ many years, you see, since he had been a +youngster himself! + + _Plant the Safety First idea and watch it grow._ + --SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER FIFTEEN + +TWIN UNIFORMS + + +"How nice and cool it is up here!" + +Betty, looking very grown-up and quite as if she were used to taking +luncheon in a roof garden every day, smiled contentedly at Uncle Jack +over her glass of lemonade. + +"Cool as a cucumber," said her uncle. "Hard to realize how sweltering +hot it is down there in the street, isn't it? Betty, what's _your_ +Safety work going to be when school begins?" + +Betty glanced at Bob; she had not yet told even him about her plan. +"First, I suppose, I'll serve my month on the School Safety Patrol; and +then--then, I'm going to talk to my teacher about starting Safety Games +in the lower grades." + +"Safety Games!" Bob's tone showed his surprise. + +"Yes, Bob. Funny sounding idea, isn't it? But I've thought out a lot of +games that the kindergarten children can play, games that will be brand +new to them, and lots of fun, and at the same time will get them into +the habit of thinking Safety and looking out for themselves on the +street." + +"Tell us one," demanded Bob. + +"Well," said Betty, "one of them I call 'Little Safety Scout.' We can +begin by asking the little folks in one grade what things they ought to +keep in mind when crossing a busy street. The one that gives the best +answer is made 'Little Safety Scout.' One of the biggest boys plays he's +the crossing policeman, other children play street cars, others make +believe they're automobiles, and so on. The rest are just people trying +to get across the street, and they have trouble trying to understand +what the policeman's whistle signals mean, and some get run over, and +some are saved by the 'Little Safety Scout,' and others show the right +way to get on and off a car, and all that." + +"Well, Betty Dalton," cried Uncle Jack, "you're a regular little witch! +Why, that's a dandy plan. The first thing you know, you'll have the +little folks able to take care of themselves on the streets better than +the grown-ups do!" + +"Fine!" chimed in Bob. "And we can give them Sure Pop buttons, too!" + +"That's right, we can," said Betty. "We can give buttons to the children +who pass an easy little Safety First examination after we've played the +Safety Games a few weeks. And perhaps we might make some Safety posters +to hang on the schoolroom walls; just big posters in colored crayons, +with a picture of Sure Pop and one of his Safety mottoes below it in big +letters,--like, 'Folks that have no wings must use their +wits,'--something that would make the children remember the point of the +story longer. Don't you think that would help along?" + +Thus the three friends went on planning, till the jolly head waiter +asked them for the ninth time if they wouldn't have something more, and +Uncle Jack looked at his watch with a start of surprise. + +"Four o'clock! Whew! We must get out of this. We have lots to do yet +before we go home, and I told the chauffeur to be back here at five. +Let's stop in the cold-storage room below." + +"Is that what makes the roof so cool?" asked Betty, as they looked +around on the floor below. + +"Ha, ha! Not a bad idea--perhaps it does have something to do with it. +No, this is where the store keeps its furs during the summer months. +Moths can't stand the cold, you know. Come on, we'll go on down now." + +The elevator car was nearly full of people from the roof garden. Betty +started to step in, hesitated, then turned back. Uncle Jack motioned her +and Bob in, stepped in after them, and carefully turned so that he faced +the elevator door. + +"That was a risky thing you did just then," he whispered to Betty. +"Three quarters of all the elevator accidents are due to stepping in or +out in the wrong way. Never do the thing halfway, you know. Always wait +till the elevator man stops the car at the floor level and throws the +door wide open." + +Next to them in the elevator stood two boys--cash boys in the store--who +were fooling and scuffling so close to the door that the elevator man +cautioned them twice as the car dropped swiftly downward. Finally one of +them brought his heel down on the other's foot so hard that the other +jumped backward, forgetting everything else for the pain. Forward went +his head--bang went his face against the iron grating of the door they +were just passing. + +The elevator stopped with a jerk. They carried the boy out and sent for +the store doctor. Bob and Betty never had to be reminded, in all the +years to come, to look sharp when riding in elevators. The memory of +that bruised and battered face was warning enough. + +"It's a dangerous machine," said Uncle Jack as they left the store. "A +fellow who will scuffle in an elevator is foolish enough for almost +anything. Here's our next stop," and he showed them into a shop with a +big sign over the double door: + + UNIFORMS--READY MADE OR TO ORDER + +"Uncle Jack must be going to have a new uniform," whispered Betty to her +twin as the tailor came up with his tape over his shoulders. But it was +not around their uncle that the tape measure went, it was around Bob! + +"Yes, the regulation khaki," Uncle Jack was saying. "Cut and finish it +just like this one," and he handed the tailor a photograph of Sure Pop. + +"Your turn next, Betty," said Uncle Jack, and to Betty's great delight +and the tailor's surprise, _she_ was measured for a special Safety Scout +uniform too! + +Uncle Jack did not stop there. He bought the twins Safety Scout hats of +fine, light felt, made for hard service, and he was on the point of +buying them leather puttees or leggings, but Bob stopped him. + +"Canvas leggings are plenty good enough," he said. "The fellows couldn't +afford leather, most of them, and we want them all to match." + +"Canvas it is, then," nodded his uncle, and went on making up the +outfits. Betty sighed happily as they followed him into another store. +It all seemed too good to be true! The first thing she knew, they were +sitting at a glass-topped table. + +Uncle Jack mopped his steaming forehead again. "That tailor shop beats +the jungle all hollow for heat!" he exclaimed. "What kind of ice cream +do you want, Scouts?" + +Betty thought it was time to object. "Oh, Uncle Jack, we've had enough! +You've done too much for us already!" All the same, she enjoyed the ice +cream just as much as the others did, and when Uncle Jack tucked a box +of chocolates under her arm, her cup of joy was full. + +"What are you thinking about, Betty?" asked Uncle Jack as the big red +automobile bore them merrily homeward; for Betty had not said a word for +blocks and blocks. + +She patted Uncle Jack's arm--the well one--with a grateful smile. "I was +thinking what a perfectly, perfectly _lovely_ day we've had! And +wishing," she murmured, wistfully, "that Mother had been along too." + +"Now that part's all taken care of," said Uncle Jack. "Your mother's +going out for a spin with me tonight after Baby's asleep; she couldn't +leave today, she said. She and I will have a good long ride down the +river front in the moonlight. Be sure you get a good sleep tonight, now, +you two; I want you to be in good trim for a little exploring party I'm +planning for tomorrow." + +"We'll be up bright and early, ready for anything," Bob told him. "Whew! +but this has been a whirlwind of a day! Glad you're going to take Mother +out--that's the only way she'd get a cool breeze tonight, all right!" + +"But it can't be as nice as the roof garden, even then!" cried his happy +twin, as she lifted out her big box of candy and skipped up the front +steps two at a time. + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER SIXTEEN + +WHERE SAFETY WAS A STRANGER + + +True to their word, Bob and Betty were up bright and early, ready for +Uncle Jack's exploring trip. + +"We're going to visit one of the big wood-working mills," he explained +as they left the house after breakfast. "I'm curious to see the result +of Colonel Sure Pop's Safety patrolling, and it seems to me that will be +about as interesting a shop as we can begin on. It will be fun to see +what they're doing to make it safer for the men--perhaps we can get some +ideas for your outside patrols, Bob." + +The twins looked around them sharply as they went into the mill by way +of its lumber yard. "I don't see anything here that looks dangerous," +was Bob's first remark. "Hold on, though--what about those piles of +lumber? Don't you think they're piled too high to be safe?" + +"I can tell you this much," said Uncle Jack, who had been reading up on +the year's long list of accidents. "The danger of being hit by falling +or flying objects in mills and factories is the biggest risk in the +whole country today." + +He walked around to the laborers who were piling lumber and began +talking with the foreman. The twins stepped nearer so that they could +hear what he was saying. + +"They're getting that pile rather high," said Uncle Jack, as if he had +only just noticed it. "It's beginning to look a bit wobbly on its pins. +Isn't there danger of its toppling over and hurting somebody?" + +"Oh, I don't know," was the foreman's answer. "We do have a few men +smashed up that way, off and on; it's all in the day's work, though." + +Hardly were the words out of his mouth when a heavily loaded wagon in +passing beside the lumber piles swayed and came squarely up against the +one the men were working on. With a crash and a clatter the whole thing +went over. One man jumped clear of the wreck, another slid down with the +lumber, bruised but not much hurt--and two disappeared under the huge +mass of falling boards. + +The three Safety Scouts stood watching the ambulance, fifteen minutes +later, as it carried off the two men to the hospital, one with a broken +arm and a gash over one eye, the other hurt inside so badly that he died +that night. Both of them had boys and girls of their own--families +whose living depended on their daily wages at the mill! + +"Hard luck for their folks," said Uncle Jack, as the ambulance rumbled +away. "The Colonel told me yesterday his men had done a lot of +successful Safety scouting among the wood-working mills. I can't +understand it. By the way, Bob, that ambulance reminds me: what drill +are you giving your Safety Scouts on how to call the fire department, +and the police and the ambulance and so on?" + +"We've got that well covered in our Saturday reports, Uncle Jack. Once a +week each Scout adds to his report the telephone number of the police +and the fire department--it's usually a number that's easy to remember, +like 'Main 0' for fire and 'Main 13' for police--as well as the street +address of the nearest station." + +"Bob, how did they happen to choose those numbers?" wondered Betty. + +Her brother grinned. "I suppose because after a bad fire there's nothing +left, and because it's unlucky to fall into the hands of the police!" +and he cleverly ducked the box Betty aimed at his ear. + +Uncle Jack's twinkle didn't last long, though. He was too much puzzled +over the carelessness he was noticing in this mill, carelessness where +he had expected to find up-to-date Safety methods. He poked with his +foot at a board with several ugly nails sticking up in it and jammed +them carefully down into the ground. + +"That's the fourth bad case of upturned nails I've found here already," +he said quietly. "There's no end of broken bottles and such trash under +foot, and just look at that overloaded truck, will you? One sharp curve +in the track and that load will spill all over the place. Why, these +chaps don't realize the first thing about Safety, Bob." + +They moved on into the engine room. One of the engineer's helpers, a boy +who looked hardly older than Bob, stood beside a swiftly moving belt, +pouring something on it out of a tin can. His sleeve was dangling, and +every time the belt lacing whirled past, it flipped the sleeve like a +clutching finger trying to jerk his arm into the cruel wheel. + +Uncle Jack walked over for a word with the engineer, a fat, jolly +looking man who seemed well satisfied with life. "Do your helpers often +put belt dressing on while the belt is running?" he asked. + +The jolly engineer was plainly surprised. "Why, they never do it any +other time!" he exclaimed. "Why do you ask?" + +"Only," said the explorer, dryly, "because there are several hundred men +killed in just that way every year--and most of them have families. +Don't you put guards around any of your belts in this mill, either?" + +Again that puzzled look in the engineer's eyes. "No, not here," he +answered slowly. "There was some talk about putting them on, but nothing +came of it. It wouldn't be a bad idea, either; every now and then some +poor fellow loses a hand or an arm. Last spring a new man from out in +the yards was walking through here, and the wind blew his sleeve too +near the belt. It yanked him clear in between the belt and +pulley--smashed him up so he didn't live more'n a couple of hours. That +certainly was hard luck." + +"Luck!" snorted Uncle Jack, when the three were out of hearing. "A +moving belt is almost as dangerous as a can of gunpowder! Yet these men +call it luck when it takes off an arm or snuffs out a life. It's +disgusting." + +All through the plant they found the same state of affairs--careless +men, unguarded machinery, guesswork everywhere. In the machine shop they +found men and boys cleaning machines that were running at top speed. Any +one could see how easily the rags and soft cotton waste they were using +could catch in the moving parts and draw a hand or an arm into the +flying wheels. + +"I noticed in the accident reports of one single state," Uncle Jack told +Betty, "that more than five hundred people were hurt in that very way, +by cleaning machines that were moving. Half of them lost fingers and +many lost their hands or arms. No sensible workman, these days, treats +his machine as anything but downright dangerous as long as it's +running." + +The buzz saws fascinated the twins. They felt as if they could stand all +day long and listen to the drone of the saw as it ate its way into the +clean white boards, snarling like an angry dog when its teeth struck a +knot in the wood. There were a good many of these saws in the big, long +room; now and then they would get to singing together like a music class +at school and then they would drop out of tune again. + +"Not a saw guard in the place," shouted Bob in Uncle Jack's ear, for the +saws drowned out his ordinary tone. + +But Uncle Jack's keen eyes had already caught sight of some metal guards +hung up on the wall here and there. "They've got them," he corrected, +"but they are not making any use of them." He stepped up to one of the +saws and spoke to the man who was running it. "Why don't you keep the +guard on your saw?" + +"Aw, those things are a nuisance," said the man. "Yes, we're supposed to +keep 'em on, but they'd be in the way--we couldn't get the work out so +fast with them." + +"That's queer," said Uncle Jack. "In a good many mills like this they've +found that a man using a good saw guard turns out more work than +ever--because he's so much more free in using his hands, I suppose." + +The man grunted, but did not answer. On their way to the door, the +Safety Scouts spied, clear back in one corner, a man who really did have +his saw guard in use. "And a rattling lot of work he's turning out, +too," said Bob, after the three had watched him a while from a distance. +The neat metal guard came clear down over the murderous saw teeth, so +that no matter how much his fingers happened to be in the way, they were +safe. + +"Let's ask him why he uses his saw guard when the others won't," said +Uncle Jack. He stepped nearer the silent workman and then--he saw the +reason. Turning to Bob and Betty, he tapped his left hand with his right +and jerked his head toward the man beside the saw. The twins walked +around to where they could get a look at the workman's left hand. Then +they understood. There was nothing left of the fingers but the stub of +one, and the thumb! + +"Easy enough to see why that one man was using his saw guard, eh?" said +Uncle Jack to Sure Pop that night. + +"Nothing easier," said the little Colonel. "A burnt child dreads the +fire, you know. Not much Safety First idea noticeable in that mill, was +there?" + +"Colonel, that's just what I don't understand. I thought you said +yesterday your Safety Scouts had done good work among the wood-working +mills, but if that's a sample--" + +"It isn't," was the quiet answer. "Do you happen to know who's the +biggest stockholder in that mill?" + +Uncle Jack stared. "Surely not--not Bruce?" + +"You've guessed it." + +Uncle Jack gave a long, low whistle of surprise. "But I had no idea he +owned wood-working mills too." + +"This is the only one. It's out of his line, I'll admit--but it goes to +show his bitter prejudice against the Safety First movement, doesn't it? +He'll come around by and by, never fear. All in good time, my friend, +all in good time." + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN + +GIVING THE OTHER FELLOW A SQUARE DEAL + + +The Dalton twins had something on their minds. Mother felt it. Uncle +Jack felt it. Every now and then they forgot to go on eating their +breakfast; and when a Dalton went that far, as their uncle remarked, +things were getting very bad indeed. + +Betty sat and fidgeted. Bob looked as if he would like to pop one +question at his uncle, but he managed to hold it in. Finally Betty slid +down from her chair, went boldly around to Uncle Jack, and whispered +something in his ear. How he threw back his handsome head and laughed! + +"Betty, you're a regular mind reader! Why, we're going down to try them +on this very morning, and I was just going to tell you to get ready, +but you were too quick for me!" + +Two hours later Betty, looking very spruce in her new Safety Scout +uniform, was dancing up and down before the mirrors while Bob's blouse +was having the buttons set over a bit. + +"That boy," said the tailor, looking at him with bulging eyes, "has +grown smaller since this uniform was measured!" + +"If you'd seen the luncheon he tucked away, just before we came over +that day to be measured," laughed Uncle Jack, "you'd only wonder that +those buttons won't have to be set back at least a foot! Now, where are +the trousers?" + +"They are up in the shop. Wait, I'll get them. What? You'd like to come +along? Up this way, then." + +On the second floor they found themselves in a big room that looked like +a forest of sewing machines, humming and clicking so fast that at first +the twins were fairly bewildered. Girls who, it seemed, could hardly be +older than Betty were bending over their machines, sewing away as if for +dear life. Most of them did not even look up from their work as the +visitors came through. + +"The young man's trousers are in this next room," said the tailor, +leading the way to a heavy iron door which separated the two rooms on +that floor. + +"What's the idea of this iron door?" asked Uncle Jack. "To keep a fire +from spreading from one department into the other?" + +"Exactly so. That big, thick fire wall goes straight through the +building from top to bottom--cuts it in two. Suppose a fire breaks out +here on the piecework side: the foreman just opens this fire door and +shoos the boys and girls right through, like a lot of chickens. Then he +shuts the fire door tight, and they are safe. That big fire we had here +four years ago taught us something. So when the owner rebuilt it for us, +he built it right." + +The big room on the other side of the fire wall was crowded almost as +full of workers as the first one. The main difference was that there +were more boys and men, and that more sewing was being done by hand. +Bob's khaki trousers were quickly found and tried on--a perfect fit. + +"We'll give Bob a Patrol Leader's arm badge--two white bars of braid +below his left shoulder," said Uncle Jack. "Betty will get one bar for +the present, I understand. There are some badges yet to come, Colonel +Sure Pop says." + +Bob and Betty looked at each other, too pleased to talk. + +The four were walking downstairs for a look at the other floors of the +big tailor shop when the noon whistle blew. R-r-rip--slam--bang! A +torrent of rattle-brained boys came tearing pell mell down the stairs +like a waterfall over a dam. Most of them came pelting down three steps +at a jump, but on one of the landings somebody stumbled, and the yelling +boys piled up in a squirming, kicking heap. + +"Hey! WAIT!" No one would ever have suspected the mild-mannered tailor +of having such a foghorn of a voice! The rush from the upper floors +slowed up at once, and Uncle Jack and Bob helped the fallen lads pick +themselves up. But the boy at the bottom, a little fellow with a thin, +pinched face that looked as if he had never had half enough to eat, nor +even enough fresh air, lay there moaning softly. + +Bob knew that queer, unnatural angle of the boy's right arm, which lay +awkwardly stretched out beside him, as if it had never quite matched his +left. The arm was broken. + +"Here, here!" roared the tailor, gently picking the little fellow up and +carrying him to the elevator. "Will you crazy fellows never learn? Only +last week, somebody hollered 'Fire!' just to see the other fellows jump +up and run, and broke that poor little Levinski's collar bone! And now +look at this!" + +"The old fellow's right on that score," was Uncle Jack's remark as the +twins followed him to the street car, each hugging tight a big +pasteboard box with a brand new Safety Scout uniform inside it. "Those +lads meant no particular harm, but that certainly was about as far from +a square deal as one fellow can give another. These 'practical jokers' +who will yell 'Fire!' or run over a boy smaller than themselves--well, +if a Boy Scout had no more sense than that, he'd be drummed out of the +service!" + +Once on the way home, when the car stopped at the corner, he pointed up +to a fire escape on a big flat building. "There's your flower-pot risk +over again, Betty. Even worse, for this time they're on the fire escape +steps where folks would fall over head first in case of fire. And see +that girl leaning against that rickety old porch railing on the third +floor! Certainly there's plenty in sight for a Safety Scout to do!" + +That afternoon they visited a large machine shop across the river. To +their great delight, Bob and Betty were allowed to wear their new Safety +Scout uniforms, leggings and all. They stood very straight as they +waited for their companion to get a permit at the Company's office. + +"Those new uniforms are going to be about as good an 'ad' for Safety +First as anything we could have," remarked Uncle Jack, leading the way +into the big machine shop. He had caught the admiring glances that had +followed them from the older people and the longing looks that the boys +and girls had sent after them all the way over. + +"We haven't done our 'Day's Boost for Safety' yet, though," said Betty. +"I don't know but we ought to do our good turn every morning before we +start out on any trip--I just hate not to get my button right side up +till so late in the day!" + +"Those girls have pretty neat looking uniforms of their own, haven't +they?" said Bob, a little later, as they gazed down a long row of punch +presses which were pouring out shining streams of aluminum pin trays. +"What do they wear them for--just to look pretty?" + +"You wouldn't have thought so," laughed the forewoman, "if you could +have seen how they fought the first caps and aprons we tried to get them +to wear. They _were_ homely things, even if they were life savers. So we +kept at it till we got something so trim and pretty that the girls would +rather wear it than not." + +"Life savers?" repeated Betty. "How could caps and aprons save lives? +Oh--by not catching in the machinery?" + +"Just so. It's easy for a girl's hair to be blown into the machines, or +for a braid to swing against a whirling shaft, you see. Oh yes, we had +several girls killed that way, before we tried this uniform. They used +to wear dresses with baggy sleeves,--ragged ones, sometimes. Rings and +bracelets are bad, too; and even these aprons, you'll notice, are +buttoned back so they can't fly out against the wheels. Yes, the girls +all like the idea now. The caps keep their hair from getting dusty or +mussed up. Besides, we find it saves a good many girls' feelings, too, +having them all dressed so much alike." + +The same good sense was shown in the other departments, in the working +clothes worn by the men and boys. + +"You won't find a man in this room with a necktie on," the foreman told +them. "These are the biggest punch presses in our whole shop. A while +ago one of the men got his necktie caught between the cogwheels and he +was drawn into the machine head first. That was the end of that sort of +thing in _this_ shop! + +"Now, as you'll see, long sleeves and ragged or baggy overalls are +things of the past. If a man does wear a long sleeve, he keeps it rolled +up where it can't catch and cost him a hand or an arm. + +"Watch the men and boys, and you'll see how careful they are not to look +around while their machines are running. Before they start their +machines, you'll find them looking all around to see there's nobody near +who might get caught in the wheels or belt. These workmen are just as +anxious to give the other fellow a square deal as anybody could be, once +they catch the Safety First idea. It took some of them a long while to +learn never to fool with the other fellow's machine--that's always +dangerous, you know, just like a machine that's out of order. Our +pressmen wouldn't think of starting up a machine which was out of order, +or which they didn't understand--they'd report it to me at once." + +"What has been the result of all this Safety training--has it got the +men to 'thinking Safety,' so you don't have so many accidents?" asked +Uncle Jack. + +The foreman's face glowed with pride. "Why, it's got so now, sir, that +even the youngsters are too wise to scuffle or play jokes on each other +here in the shop. They've come to see how easy it is to fall against +dangerous machinery or down a shaft or stairway. And as for throwing +things at each other, the way they used to during the noon hour--nothing +doing any more in that line. + +"Would you believe it, we haven't had a bad accident in this shop since +a year ago last July. That was when one of the boys on a punch press got +the die clogged and tried to dig it out with his fingers instead of +using a hook. That's about the last set of fingers this shop has lost; +yes, sir. Before that, there was hardly a week went by but we had +several hands crippled, and often somebody killed. Oh, this Safety First +work is wonderful,--it's making things a lot safer for the working man!" + +Uncle Jack told the kindly foreman what the twins were doing in Safety +patrol work. Bob and Betty could see how proud the man was of the +splendid Safety showing his shop was making. "And it's a fine pair of +Scout uniforms you and the little lady have," he called after them. +"More power to you both--and to the Safety Scouts of America!" + +"You seem very much interested in everything in these shops, Bob," said +his uncle, who could hardly drag him away. + +"You'd better believe I am!" cried the boy, warmly. "As soon as I get +through school, I'm going to get a job in one of these factories +and--well, I'm trying to make up my mind which shop it shall be!" + + _One thing you always owe the other fellow--a + square deal._--SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN + +AN ADVENTURE IN SAFETY + + +Betty told Sure Pop what Bob had said about getting a job in one of the +big mills by and by, and the little Colonel remembered it a few weeks +later when he was showing several of the Safety Scouts through the steel +mills. + +"Do you think it will be one of these mills you'll pick out for your +first job?" + +"Well, I don't know, now. It's a pretty big, lonesome sort of place for +a fellow like me, Sure Pop, and there don't seem to be so many fellows +of my own age here as in some of the other factories." + +Betty and Joe and Chance followed Bob's eyes around the big steel mill +yards. They knew how he felt. It was a lonesome looking place till you +got used to it, in spite of the thousands of men who swarmed around +them. The queer, raw smell of the reddish iron ore added to the feeling, +too. + +Away down in the big ore boats along the docks, gangs of big, brawny +workmen strained and sweated, filling the iron buckets that traveled up +the wire cables to the ore dumps. Others were trucking the ore to the +furnaces, while a swarm of little switch engines panted and puffed back +and forth over the network of steel rails. + +The steel works covered many acres of ground, and, shut off as they were +by high fences, seemed almost like another world. The roar of the +furnaces and the din of steel on steel made Betty and the boys feel +rather confused at first. "I should think all these men just over from +the old country would get mixed up, so many of them not understanding a +single word of English," said Betty to their guide. + +"Yes, we have to be mighty careful," said the man, who was one of the +Safety men who gave all his time to making the steel mills safer for the +thousands of workmen. "We print this little book of Safety Rules in all +the different languages, so that each new man can study it and find out +how to do his day's work without getting into danger." + +"Wow! what's that?" Joe's black eyes opened very wide as he pointed to a +great ball of fire that rose from one of the furnace stacks, floated a +little way like a balloon, and then burst into a sheet of flame. + +"Just the gas from the blast furnace--regular Fourth of July fireworks, +isn't it? I remember how queer those gas bubbles used to look to me when +I first came to work here." + +He waited while his visitors stared for a few minutes at the fiery +clouds, then led the way to the blast furnaces. They went through two or +three big buildings, all of them fairly alive with hurrying, sweating +laborers. But in spite of the seeming confusion all around them, Bob +noticed how carefully the aisles and passageways were kept free and +clear of anything the hurrying men might stumble over. + +"We simply have to do it," explained the steel man. "Before we woke up +to the importance of never leaving anything in the way where it might be +stumbled over, we had more broken arms and legs every month than you +could shake a stick at. Now it's different; it's as much as a man's job +is worth to leave anything lying in the passageways for his fellow +workmen to stumble and fall over." + +"I saw some white lines painted on the floor of that last room we came +through, the one where all those castings were stacked up in rows," said +Chance. "Was that what they were for? Great scheme, isn't it? And as +simple as falling off a log!" + +"Simple? Sure--most of these things are simple enough, once you think of +them," agreed their guide. "It took perhaps an hour of one man's time +and a gallon or two of white paint to paint those dead-lines along the +sides--and many's the man who has been saved weeks in the hospital by +those same white lines." + +The five friends followed him into the foundry department. Hardly had +they stepped through the doorway, when the clang of a big gong overhead +scattered a group of laborers who were piling heavy castings on flat +cars. + +Five pairs of eyes looked up as the five Safety Scouts turned to see +where the gong was. Away up above them on a track that went from one end +of the long room to the other, they saw something like an oddly shaped +freight engine running along with a heavy wire cable dangling toward the +floor. The big, strong cable was carrying a load of several tons of +steel castings as easily as a boy carries in an armful of wood. "And +with a whole lot less fuss and bother!" said Betty, with a sly look at +Brother Bob. + +"When a man hears that gong overhead," said the guide, "he knows what it +means even before he looks up. That's what is called a traveling crane. +It runs back and forth on those overhead tracks, wherever the crane +driver wants to pick up or drop his load. He kicks that gong with his +heel, just like the motorman on the street car, and it gives warning to +the workmen below just as plainly as if it yelled out, 'Look out, below! +Here comes a load that might spill on your heads!'" + +"Sounds exactly like a street-car gong," said Betty. + +The steel man smiled. "It ought to--it was made for use on a street car. +Watch sharp when the crane comes back this way and you'll see the gong +fastened right up under the cab floor. See? We tried whistles for a +while, and automobile horns, too; but this plain, everyday street-car +gong beats 'em all. A man doesn't have to understand English to know +what _that_ sound means!" + +"It must have made a good deal of difference in the number of +accidents," said Sure Pop, "with so many men working underneath those +cranes right along." + +"Did it? Well, I should say so! That's another little thing that's as +simple as A B C, but it saves lives and broken bones just the same. +Sometimes I think we get to thinking too much about the big things, +Colonel, and not enough about these little, everyday ideas that spell +Safety to all these thousands of men who look to us for a square deal." + +Sure Pop reached up to say something in Bob's ear as they went on to the +chipping yard, where long rows of men were trimming down the rough steel +castings with chisels driven by compressed-air hammers. + +"Did you ever see anything like it, Bob, the way this 'square deal' and +'fair play' idea gets into their systems, once they wake up to the +possibilities of Safety First?" + +"It certainly does," said Bob. "I thought of that, too. It's what that +tailor told the boys in the clothing factory, the day we got our +uniforms, and it's just what the foreman in that machine shop told us, +too." + +"Yes, sir," said Sure Pop, "the spirit of fair play means everything to +a fellow who's any good at all--it's the very life of the Boy Scout law, +you know." + +Joe was looking hard at the chippers. + +"Every one of those men wear glasses! Isn't that queer!" + +"It's all the difference between a blind man and a wage earner," was the +way the steel man looked at it. "When those steel chips fly into a man's +eyes it's all over but the sick money." He turned to little Sure Pop +again. "There it is again, Colonel--another of the simplest ideas a man +could imagine--just putting goggles on our chippers and emery wheel +workers--but it has saved hundreds and hundreds of eyes, and every eye +or pair of eyes means some man's living--and the living of a family." + +"Splendid idea," nodded the little Colonel--just as if he, the Spirit of +Safety, had not thought it all out years before, and put it into the +minds of men! "Do you ever have any trouble getting the men to wear +them?" + +"Plenty! Most of the men treated it as a joke at first. Then, gradually, +they began to notice that the men who wore theirs on their _hats_ (the +rule is that they must wear goggles while at this work or lose their +jobs), those were the men who lost their eyes. Several of the first men +to be blinded after the new rule was posted were those very ones, the +chaps that had made the most fun of the goggles. Then the others began +to wake up. + +"Over in my office, I've several hundred pairs of goggles that have had +one or both lenses smashed by flying bits of steel--and every pair has +saved an eye, in some cases both eyes. Seems sort of worth while, eh, +Colonel?" + +It was an enthusiastic group of Safety Scouts that passed out through +the big steel mill gates and started home in the mellow September +twilight. "Oh, I think it's wonderful," cried Betty, as they talked over +what they had seen, "perfectly wonderful, Sure Pop, that such little +things can save so many lives!" + +"But I don't see why you call a trip like this 'an adventure,'" broke in +Chance, who had never been along on any of the twins' Safety Scouting +trips before. "We didn't see an accident or an explosion or anything!" + +Colonel Sure Pop gave Chance one of his wise smiles. "That's the best +part of the whole trip, as you'll see when you've been at it as long as +I have. The most delightful adventure a lover of fair play can possibly +have to look back on, my boy, is one just like what we've had today--a +real, live adventure in Safety!" + + _The spirit of fair play is the very life of the + Scout Law._--SURE POP + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +ADVENTURE NUMBER NINETEEN + +ONE DAY'S BOOST FOR SAFETY + + +October had come and gone in busy school days and even busier Safety +Scouting trips, all but the last day. For it was the morning of +Hallowe'en,--and the Dalton twins' birthday. + +"Twelve years old, eh?" said Father, at the breakfast table. "Well, +well, how time flies, Nell! Stand up here, you Safety Scouts, and let's +have a look at you. I declare, no one would suspect Bob of being a day +under fifteen, would he, Jack?" + +"I'd hate to have him haul off and hit me with that fist of his!" +laughed Uncle Jack. "How are you going to celebrate the day, Scouts?" + +"As if any one need ask!" smiled Mother. "Today's the day Bob takes his +entering test and joins the Boy Scouts, and Betty joins the Camp Fire +Girls. Just think--big enough for that! Good thing it's Saturday, +Betty." + +"What are you going to do--start out to capture all the honor medals?" + +"Well, I hope to get a few, by and by," admitted Bob, modestly, but with +a determined gleam in his eye. "I'll be just a tenderfoot to start with, +you know. But I'm hoping it won't be so terribly long before I can +qualify as a first-class Scout." + +"Hm-m-m!" muttered their uncle, winking at Mr. Dalton over the twins' +heads. For he realized what Bob and Betty did not, that the practical, +everyday Safety scouting the twins had done had already gone far toward +qualifying them, not only for Boy Scout and Camp Fire Girl honors, but +for practical Safety work all the rest of their lives. There is no age +limit in the Safety Scouts of America. + +They were wearing their handsome new uniforms when Chance Carter came +over to get some scouting tips from Bob. Chance was going around without +his crutches now, for the broken leg seemed to be as strong and well as +ever. + +Chance had his heart set on a Safety Scout uniform like Bob's. "Dad says +he'll get me one as soon as I do something to earn it," he told the +twins. "I'm going to put in all day today scouting for something that +will earn me that uniform--and I want you two to think up some stunt +that will win it, _sure_!" + +The twins were eager to get ready for their entrance tests, but it +seemed only fair to give their friend his chance, too. So they sat and +thought hard, while the golden minutes flew past. + +"I can't seem to think of anything worth while today," said Betty. "Why +not hunt for a live wire and report it, the way Bob did?" + +"Not much use on a day like this," objected Bob. "That was the morning +after the big windstorm, when wires were down all over town. I'll tell +you what you might do, Chance: you might patrol the roads on the edge of +town. You may run across a broken culvert, or a shaky bridge, or +something." + +"And you might patrol the river bank and watch for a chance to fish +somebody out of the river," added Betty. "There are lots of children +playing down by the river every Saturday, you know." + +"Now," said Bob, when to their great relief Chance Carter had hurried +off to begin his day's scouting for Safety, "now, we've got to hustle, +or we'll be late for those examinations. Come along, Betty." + +"Wait till I turn my Safety button upside down," was his sister's +answer. "It seems a shame to go to the Boy Scout and Camp Fire Girls +tests with our Safety buttons wrong side up, doesn't it? I feel almost +like waiting till we've managed to do our 'One Day's Boost for Safety,' +Bob. Don't you suppose we'd better, after all?" + +"Oh, now, Betty, come _on_! If we can't do any better, we can count our +patrolling hints to Chance as our work for Safety this time--certainly +that took enough longer than our day's boost usually does!" + +Though Betty scoffed at the idea of their talk with Chance being work +for Safety, Bob had spoken more truly than they knew. + +All forenoon long Chance Carter patrolled the different roads leading +into town. By noon he was so hot and tired that he plodded on till he +came to Red Bridge, as the boys all called the old bridge that spanned +the river where it crossed Bruce's Road, the short cut to Bruce's Mills. +Here he managed to find a shady spot on the grassy river bank and sat +down to eat the lunch he had brought along. + +"What luck!" he grumbled to himself. "Everything's so dis-_gust_-ing-ly +safe!" The way he bit off the syllables showed how tired and +disappointed he was. + +He threw the crumbs from his luncheon into the water, hoping the fish +would rise for them; but even the fish were not at all accommodating, +this sunny Hallowe'en. For a while he amused himself by shying stones at +the weather-beaten DANGER sign which was Bruce's only reply to the City +Council's action condemning Red Bridge as unsafe. The bridge was really +on Bruce's land, and nobody knew it better than the great mill owner +himself. So, while the public wondered why the city did not build a +newer and stronger bridge, Bruce had stubbornly insisted to the road +commissioner, "Oh, that bridge'll hold a while longer," and was putting +off spending the money for a new bridge just as long as he could. + +Meanwhile the farmers from that part of the country had kept on using +the shaky bridge as a short cut to town by way of Bruce's Mills. One of +them was driving up to the bridge now. Lying on his elbow by the river's +edge, Chance idly watched the old bridge quiver and quake as the light +horse and buggy dragged lazily across. + +Suddenly something went kerflop into the water, like a big fish jumping. +Chance sat bolt upright, staring at the dark shadows under the bridge. +There it was again! And this time he saw it was no fish, but a second +brick which had rotted away from the bridge supports underneath the +farther end. + +"Phew!" whistled Chance to himself, now fully aroused. "If a light rig +like that shakes the bricks loose, the old thing must be rottener than +it looks! What would a loaded wagon do, I wonder?" + +He carefully climbed up under the bridge to see just how bad it really +was, and then climbed out again in a hurry. The whole middle support had +crumbled away. Red Bridge was barely hanging on the weakened brickwork +at the far end, ready to plunge into the river with the next heavy load +that came along! + +Bruce, in the meanwhile, was getting impatient. He sat at his desk in +the little office, signing papers as fast as he could shove his pen +across the pages. He glanced again at his watch and gave his call button +a savage punch with his big, blunt forefinger. A buzzer snarled in the +outer office, and a nervous looking secretary jumped for the private +office as suddenly as if the buzzer had stung him. + +"Why isn't that car here?" snapped the great man. + +"I--I don't understand it, sir. It should have been here half an hour +ago. Jennings is always so punctual," stammered the clerk. + +"Humph! Call up the house and see if they've gone back for any reason. +Bonnie told me she'd call for me with the car at five o'clock." + +The clerk hurried to the telephone, while Bruce paced his office. "If +that chauffeur has let anything happen to Bonnie, I'll--" + +If Bruce had not cared more for his little golden-haired daughter than +for anything else in the world, he never would have thought such a +thing, much less said it; for he had had Jennings for years, and knew +him for the safest, steadiest of drivers. But he scowled when the clerk +hurried back to report that Jennings, with Bonnie in the biggest +automobile, had left for the office almost an hour before. + +Throwing his light coat over his arm, the big mill owner slammed down +his rolltop desk and dashed out to the sidewalk, straining his eyes for +a glimpse of the big automobile and Bonnie's flying curls. As he stood +waiting on the curb, fuming at the delay, suddenly he heard a voice that +sent his heart up into his throat. + +"Daddy! Oh, Daddy, here we are!" The big automobile swept swiftly up to +him--from the opposite direction! + +"My Bonnie!" The big man snatched the dimpled, smiling girl into his +strong arms and held her there. + +In the excitement of the moment, Jennings interrupted his employer as +the mill owner started to question him sternly as to the cause of the +delay. Bonnie, too, broke in with her version of the story, and together +they told him how a punctured tire had held them up fifteen minutes just +as they were leaving the house in plenty of time. + +They told him how, to avoid being late at the office, Jennings had taken +the old short cut across to the mills, by the way of Red Bridge, only to +be halted by a lad of fourteen who waved a red handkerchief at them and +barred the way across the bridge in spite of the chauffeur's argument +and threats. + +They told him how a heavy lumber wagon, in which three farm hands were +rattling home from the city, had come bouncing along to the other side +of the river and how the men had howled down the boy's wild warnings and +entreaties as they bowled on to Red Bridge as fast as their horses could +go. + +Bruce's stern face went white as his little daughter, shuddering at the +awful memory of it, told how the bridge had gone crashing down into the +river--men, horses, and all; how the boy who had tried so hard to warn +them had almost given his own life trying to drag the drunken farm hands +from the swift-running current; how two of the men had never come up +again; and how the third, towed to shore by the half-drowned boy a +quarter mile below, had been laid face down on the river bank as soon as +the boy could catch his own breath long enough to get the water out of +the man's lungs and start him to breathing again. + +Still clasping Bonnie tightly to him, her father got into the +automobile. "Home, Jennings. Why, what makes these cushions so wet?" + +"Oh," said Bonnie, "that's where that nice boy sat while we were taking +the almost drowned man to the doctor's. Then we took the nice boy +home--he was so wet and shivery." + +"Take us there first, Jennings, then home." + +The big car whirled swiftly back to Chance Carter's house. Bruce found +Chance with his hair still wet, but triumphant. He was telling his +father exactly how he wanted his new Safety Scout uniform made, patch +pockets and all! + +From him Bruce got the whole story, clear down to the scouting hints +from Bob and Betty that had started him off that morning. The mill owner +took Mr. Carter aside and made him promise to send the bill for that +uniform to Bruce's Mills. "Where do this other boy and the girl live?" +he asked, as he and Bonnie got back into the machine. "All right, +Jennings, we'll stop there next." + +"I think, sir," suggested Jennings, "that must be the same boy and girl +we took home from Turner Hall last Fourth--the boy who put the splint on +this other lad's broken leg, sir. It's the same house, anyway." + +Sure enough, when they drew up at the curb, there were Bob and Betty in +their Safety Scout uniforms, just going in to their birthday supper. +They were going to have a big double cake, with lots of frosting and +with twenty-four green candles on it--green for Safety, Betty +explained--and they were so excited over having passed their +examinations with such high marks, that it was some time before the big +man could make them understand what he was getting at. + +"What I want to know," persisted Bruce, "is how you ever came to put +that Carter boy up to such a stunt as that. What difference did it make +to _you_?" + +"Why," Betty told him, "we simply had to help him get a start for his +uniform and his Safety First button. But we couldn't do much because we +didn't have time. You see this is our birthday, and we had to go for our +examinations." Before Bruce left they had given him _their_ whole story, +too, and a good deal more than they had intended telling him, forgetting +what Colonel Sure Pop had told Uncle Jack about the way Bruce had been +holding back the Safety First work from Maine to California. + +Bruce said little as he listened to their story, but he did some quick +thinking. So this was the sort of thing he had fought so long and so +stubbornly--this "Boost for Safety" talk which he had called +"new-fangled theory," but to which he owed the life of his own little +girl! + +As they talked, two Scouts came into the front hall to remind the twins +that their birthday supper was waiting, but Bruce was too interested to +see them. Quick at reading signs, as all good Scouts are, Colonel Sure +Pop and Uncle Jack watched and listened for a moment, then smilingly +went back to the supper table. + +"You were right, Colonel, as usual," said Uncle Jack, heartily. "Bruce +is coming around. He'll be the biggest Safety Booster in the whole +United States before morning!" + +"Sure pop!" exulted the dapper little Colonel. "I'll have to wire my +King about this day's work!" + + * * * * * + +It was long after Bonnie's bedtime, and the nurse waiting in the hallway +was beginning to wonder if her little mistress was never coming +upstairs. On the avenue outside, in the soft, mellow Hallowe'en breeze, +jack o' lanterns and soot bags were still being paraded up and down, +horns blowing, rattles clattering. Two street urchins, bolder than the +rest, crept up to the great iron gate in front of the Bruce mansion and +vainly struggled to lift it off its hinges. Still the mill owner sat +before the fire, Bonnie on his knee. He could not bear to let her go +tonight, even to bed. + +In the flames dancing on the hearth, the big man was seeing +visions--visions of the Safety First work that would be started tomorrow +morning in every mill in the whole Bruce chain. "I'll telegraph every +manager to get busy on Safety work at once if he wants to hold his job," +he thought to himself. "I won't lose another day!" For after hearing +from the Dalton twins and from Chance Carter the way _their_ spare time +was spent, his own work in the world seemed suddenly very small and +mean. Here he--Bruce the rich, Bruce the powerful, with the safety of +thousands of lives in the hollow of his hand--had been holding back the +great work which these striplings had been steadily, patiently--yes, and +successfully--building up! + +"I'll send those three youngsters each a copy of my telegram in the +morning," he muttered, looking more eager and enthusiastic than he had +looked for many a day. "I'll write across the bottom of each telegram, +'_The Safety Scouts of America did this!_' And the wonderful part of it +is," he added, "that it's only what any boy and girl could do, every day +of their lives. I wonder why somebody didn't start this Safety Scout +idea long, long ago!" + + * * * * * + +Over in the Dalton cottage, only a few blocks away, Bob and Betty were +going upstairs to bed. + +"Many, many happy returns of the day!" whispered Betty to her brother as +she kissed him good night. + +"Same to you, and many of 'em! But our 'One Day's Boost for Safety' +didn't amount to much today, did it, Betty?" For Bob and Betty had yet +to hear of Chance Carter's adventures, and Bruce had given them no hint. + +"No, it didn't--not unless what we told Chance gave him a start toward a +Safety Scout uniform," said Betty, sleepily. "Never mind, though, Bob," +she added. "We'll try to do better tomorrow, if we didn't get much done +today." + + * * * * * + +But over in the big stone house on the avenue, the silent man with the +little golden-haired girl in his arms thought differently of their day's +work. + +[Illustration] + + + + +HOW CAN YOU TELL A GOOD SCOUT? + +_In school_ + + + _He keeps to the right on walks, in halls, going + up and down stairs._ + + _He goes up and down stairs one step at a time._ + + _He looks where he runs._ + + _He doesn't jostle in a crowd._ + + _He doesn't bully the little fellows._ + + _He sees that the little chaps have a fair chance + on the playground and that they don't get hurt._ + + +_Out of school_ + + _He does not walk on railroad bridges or tracks._ + + _He does not walk around lowered gates or crawl + under them._ + + _He does not jump off moving trains, cars, or + engines._ + + _He does not crawl over, under, or between cars._ + + _He does not loiter around railroad stations or + cars or play on or around turn tables._ + + _He does not cross tracks without remembering to + stop, look, and listen._ + + _He looks where he goes and keeps to the right._ + + _He crosses at regular crossings, not in the + middle of the block._ + + _He looks out for automobiles turning corners._ + + _He looks and listens for danger signals and heeds + them._ + + _He plays safe, as much for the other fellow's + sake as his own._ + + + + +THE BEST OF GIFTS--A BOOK + + +For the many occasions when a present is to be given, there is nothing +of more permanent value than an interesting book. It may also be an +inexpensive gift. Read the following selected list of World Book Company +books which make acceptable gifts, and note the range of prices. All +these books are well suited for gifts. They are interesting; the +pictures are the work of excellent illustrators; the type is large and +plain; the paper is good; the printing is clear; the binding is both +strong and attractive. + + +FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN + + CHADWICK-FREEMAN: Chain Stories and Playlets. 1. + The Cat that was Lonesome. 2. The Woman and Her + Pig. 3. The Mouse that Lost her Tail. Each, 18 + cents. + + CHANCELLOR: Easy Road to Reading. 1. A Book of + Animals. 2. A Book of Children. 3. A Book of Fun + and Fancy. 4. A Book of Letters and Numbers. Each, + 18 cents. + + THOMPSON-COOPER: Making Faces with Pencil and + Brush. Book I. Book II. Each, 18 cents. + + +FOR BOYS AND GIRLS + + BAILEY: Sure Pop and the Safety Scouts. 42 cents. + + BURKS: Barbara's Philippine Journey. 72 cents. + + BROWN: Nature and Industry Readers. 1. Stories of + Woods and Fields. 2. Stories of Childhood and + Nature. 3. When the World was Young. Each, 48 + cents. + + CURTIS: Indian Days of the Long Ago. Gift edition, + $1.20. + + CURTIS: In the Land of the Head-Hunters. Gift + edition, $1.20. + + MCGOVNEY: Stories of Long Ago in the Philippines. + 48 cents. + + SIMS-HARRY: Dramatic Myths and Legends. Book One: + Norse Legends. Book Two: Greek and Roman Legends. + Each, 30 cents. + +A post card to the publishers will bring you more detailed information +with regard to any or all of these books. The books will be sent +postpaid at the prices given above. It is requested that payment in +stamps, by registered letter, or by money order accompany all orders. + + * * * * * + + WORLD BOOK COMPANY + YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Both "tiptoe" and "tip-toe" were used in this text. +This text also uses "Pellmell" and "pell mell." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SURE POP AND THE SAFETY SCOUTS*** + + +******* This file should be named 29260.txt or 29260.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/2/6/29260 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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