The Boy Scout and Other Stories for Boys

Front matter

Reading edition

“But how,” he demanded, “how do I get ashore?”

THE BOY SCOUT

AND OTHER STORIES FOR BOYS

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

1917

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, as a friend and fellow author has written of him, was “youth incarnate,” and there is probably nothing that he wrote of which a boy would not some day come to feel the appeal. But there are certain of his stories that go with especial directness to a boy’s heart and sympathies and make for him quite unforgettable literature. A few of these were made some years ago into a volume, “Stories for Boys,” and found a large and enthusiastic special public in addition to Davis’s general readers; and the present collection from stories more recently published is issued with the same motive. This book takes its title from “The Boy Scout,” the first of its tales; and it includes “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “Blood Will Tell,” the immortal “Gallegher,” and “The Bar Sinister,” Davis’s famous dog story. It is a fresh volume added to what Augustus Thomas calls “safe stuff to give to a young fellow who likes to take off his hat and dilate his nostrils and feel the wind in his face.”

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Boy Scout 3

The Boy Who Cried Wolf 42

Gallegher 82

Blood Will Tell 158

The Bar Sinister 212

ILLUSTRATIONS

“But how,” he demanded, “how do I get ashore?” Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Jimmie dropped the valise, forced his cramped fingers into straight lines, and saluted 8

“For God’s sake,” Hade begged, “let me go” 128

“Why, it’s Gallegher,” said the night editor 156

In front of David’s nose he shook a fist as large as a catcher’s glove 184

She dug the shapeless hat into David’s shoulder 210

“He’s a coward! I’ve done with him” 230

For a long time he kneels in the sawdust 282