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Read Ebook: The Boy Scouts of Lakeville High by Quirk Leslie W Kirkpatrick William Arber Brown Illustrator
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 1843 lines and 71174 words, and 37 pagesI THE NEW BOY 1 II TRACK TROUBLE 14 V NOBODY 40 VI BEFORE THE WIND 49 X HALLOWE'EN 100 XX BUSTED! 212 JUST AS HE REACHED A POINT A FOOT OR TWO SHORT OF BUNNY, HE TRIPPED SUDDENLY AND FELL PAGE 27 TO HIS LEFT, BEARING DOWN UPON HIM, WAS A GREAT MONSTER OF IRON AND STEEL " 135 ABOVE THE CLATTER-CLATTER OF THE HAND CAR, A VOICE SHOUTED FROM BELOW " 207 THE BOY SCOUTS OF LAKEVILLE HIGH THE BLACK EAGLE PATROL BUNNY PAYTON PATROL LEADER BI JONES ASSISTANT PATROL LEADER NAP MEEKER NO. 3 SPECS MCGREW NO. 4 S. S. ZANE NO. 5 ROUNDY MAGOON NO. 6 JUMP HENDERSON NO. 7 . . . . NO. 8 THE BOY SCOUTS OF LAKEVILLE HIGH THE NEW BOY "Help!" As though snipped off short by one of its own whirling blades, the lawn mower in the next yard stilled abruptly. Almost on the echo, a mop of red hair popped above the garden fence. From her perch on the turning-pole, which jutted out of the big butternut tree in the Sefton back lawn, Molly Sefton watched the brick-red thatch and the serious face beneath it. She wondered whether the boy were fifteen years old or sixteen, and whether these new neighbors who had moved in only the day before would prove as "nice" as she had found the rest of the little village of Lakeville. Then a sharp twist of pain made her forget everything except her right foot. "Please help me loose," she called. "I was climbing up to get my kitten, and my foot slipped in here. Now I can't get it out." "Pull your foot straight up." She made the effort and winced. "It's too tight." The red-headed boy frowned. "You're wearing thick, outdoor shoes," he said. "If I just unlace this one, you can wiggle your foot out as easy as pie." While she remained standing on the bar, balancing herself by the tree, the boy straddled the pole and began switching the shoe lace out of the stops. "It was my kitten I wanted to get," she said slowly. "That's how it happened. And he's up there yet." "How did it get up there?" "The Claxton's dog pretty nearly scared it to death; it started climbing and was afraid to stop." "I see," nodded the boy. "Well, you jerk your foot out of that shoe, and we'll get the kitten easy enough. Are you all ready? Now!" Molly made the effort to free herself. "I can't!" "It's just as easy as falling--if you'll only try." "It's not easy." She was beginning to lose her temper. "I'm stuck just as fast as I ever was. You haven't done a bit of good." Before she finished the sentence, she was ashamed of her words, for a hurt look overspread the face beneath the red hair. "Are you sure you can't yank it free?" "I know I can't." Very deliberately, he bent down and pulled from his own right foot the white tennis slipper. "I'm sorry I can't get you loose, but I know how to get your kitten down." "What are you going to do?" Without answering, he drew back his slipper in a position to hurl it at the helpless kitten. He measured the distance with his eye, poising the shoe for the most accurate throw possible. "What--what are you going to do?" She was very close to screaming. "Hold tight. That kitten might come down right on your head." "I'll count three slowly, and if your foot isn't out by that time--" "You--you mustn't do such a thing! You shan't!" Molly gasped her indignation, meanwhile clinging to the tree with both hands. "Just the same, I'm going to. Get your arm out of the way." He pulled back his tennis slipper to aim at the kitten. "One!-- Two!-- Thr--" A little half-scream interrupted him, and behold! Molly's stockinged foot rested beside its booted mate as she lunged forward to prevent the outrage upon the little black and white kitten. Strangely enough, the red-headed boy was merely grinning good-naturedly. "I knew you could," he said. "I knew, if you really wanted to--" For a little moment, Molly stared sternly at him, before she bit her lower lip with an expression that was somewhere between vexation and relief. "Why, I--I don't believe you meant to throw your slipper at all," she reproved him. With a little broader grin, he nodded his head frankly. "Of course, I didn't. I wouldn't throw anything at your kitten any more than I'd throw anything at ours, and we've got an awfully funny little fellow. All I wanted to do was to get your foot loose." Molly smiled in spite of herself. "Now, if you'll get down on the ground, so I can shinny up the tree a bit, I'll catch the kitten, and then I'll get that shoe of yours." With her stockinged foot cushioned on the soft grass, Molly watched the boy struggle up the tree and clumsily but gently rescue the kitten from its roost. Afterwards, when the animal lay safely in Molly's arms, he pried loose the shoe from its wedged nook and dropped a bit heavily, to the ground. "It was splendid of you!" Molly began, and then stopped, horror-struck. "But look at your clothes!" Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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