Chapter XXII: Tom Runs the Show

"William Conway, Anson Jenks, and George Winters, for Star Scout badge, and Merritt Roth and Edward Collins for bronze life saving medals. These scouts will please step forward."

Amid great applause they made their way to the platform and one by one returned, greeted with cheers.

"Gaynor Morrison of Edgemere Troop, Connecticut, is awarded the Gold Cross for saving life at imminent hazard of his own. Congratulations to him but more to his troop. Scout Morrison will please come forward."

That was the moment of pride for Edgemere Troop, Connecticut. Gaynor Morrison, tall and muscular, stood before Mr. Temple and listened to such plaudits as one seldom hears in his own honor. He went down overjoyed and blushing scarlet.

"And now," said Mr. Temple, "the last award is properly not an organization award at all. It is the Temple Camp medal for order and cleanliness in and about troop cabins. It is awarded to Willis Norton of the Second Oakdale, New Jersey, Troop. And that, I think, concludes this pleasant task of distributing honors. I think you will all be glad to know that one who is a stranger to no honor wishes himself to say a few words to you now. Whatever Tom Slade may have to say goes with me----"

He could not say more. Cries of "Bully old Tom!" "Hurrah for Tomasso!" "What's the matter with old Hickory Nut?" "Oh, you, Tom Slade," "Spooch, spooch!" "Hear, hear!" arose from every corner of the assemblage and the cries were drowned in a very tempest of applause.

_Tom Slade on Mystery Trail. Page_ 124]

He never looked more stolid, nor his face more expressionless than when he arose from his chair. He was neither embarrassed nor elated. If he was at all swayed by the sudden tribute, it was as an oak tree might be swayed in a summer breeze. He knew what he wanted to say and he was going to say it. He waited, he _had_ to wait, for at least five minutes, till Temple Camp had had its say.

Then he said, slowly, deliberately, with a kind of mixture of clumsiness and assurance which was characteristic of him.

"Maybe I haven't got any right to speak. I'm not on the staff, and
as you might say, I'm through being a scout----"

"Never, Tomasso!" said a voice.

"But I saw something that none of you saw and I know something that
none of you know about--except Mr. Temple, that I told it to, and
the trustees.

"Since I been assistant to Uncle Jeb--that's two years--I saw the
Eagle award given out twice----"

"You won it yourself, Tomasso!"

"I saw it given to a scout from Virginia and one from New York. You
always hear a lot of talk about the Eagle award here in camp. Lots
of scouts start out big and don't get away with it. I guess
everybody knows it isn't easy. If you're an Eagle Scout you're
everything else. You got to be.

"I've seen scouts get it. But in the last couple of days I saw one
chuck it in the dirt and trample on it. That's because when a fellow
gets so far that he's really an Eagle Scout, he doesn't care so
much about it. A fellow's got to be a scout to win the Eagle badge.
And if he's enough of a scout for that, he's enough of a scout to
give it up if there's any reason. What does _he_ care? If he's scout
enough to be an Eagle Scout, and gives it up, he doesn't even bother
to tell anybody. Being willing to give it up is part of winning it,
as you might say.

"Maybe you people didn't know who you were cheering when you cheered
Alfred McCord. But I'll tell you who you were cheering. You were
cheering the only Eagle Scout in Temple Camp. And he doesn't care
any more about the Eagle badge than he does about what every little
tin scout in his own troop thinks of him, either. And I'm standing
here to tell you that. I saw that scout give up one badge and win
another at the same time. I saw him lose the stalking badge and win
the animal first aid badge all inside of an hour. He thought he lost
out by giving up his tracks to Alfred McCord, when he might have
scared the life out of the little fellow and chased him back to
camp.

"But all the time he had an extra badge and he didn't know it.
That's because he doesn't bother about the handbook and because he
wins badges so fast he can't keep track of them. He's an Eagle Scout
and he doesn't know it. He threw one badge away and caught another
and he's coming up here now to stand still for two minutes if he can
and listen to the paper that Mr. Temple is going to read to him.
Come ahead up, Hervey Willetts, or I'll come down there and pull you
out of that tree and drag you up by the collar!"