Facing the German Foe | Page 3

said Harry, gravely. "But
I wouldn't want to see a war, just the same. It's a terrible thing."
"Oh, it wouldn't last long," said Dick, confidently. "We'd lick them in
no time at all. Don't you think so?"
"I don't know--I hope so. But you can't ever be sure."
"I wonder if they'd let us fight?"
"No, I don't think they would, Dick. There'd be plenty for the Boy
Scouts to do though, I believe."
"Would you stay over here if there was a war, Harry? Or would you go
home?"
"I think we'd have to stay over here, Dick. You see, my father is here
on business, not just for pleasure. His company sent him over here, and
it was understood he'd stay several years. I don't think the war could
make any difference."
"That's why you're here, then, is it? I used to wonder why you went to
school over here instead of in America."

"Yes. My father and mother didn't want me to be so far from them. So
they brought me along. I was awfully sorry at first, but now it doesn't
seem so bad."
"I should think not!" said Dick, indignantly. "I should think anyone
would be mighty glad of a chance to come to school over here instead
of in America! Why, you don't even play cricket over there, I've been
told!"
"No, but we play baseball," said Harry, his eyes shining. "I really think
I miss that more than anything else here in England. Cricket's all
right--if you can't play baseball. It's a good enough game."
"You can play," admitted Dick, rather grudgingly. "When you bowl,
you've got some queer way of making the ball seem to bend--"
"I put a curve on it, that's all!" said Harry, with a laugh. "If you'd ever
played baseball, you'd understand that easily enough. See? You hold
the ball like this--so that your fingers give it a spin as it leaves your
hand."
And he demonstrated for his English friend's benefit the way the ball is
held to produce an out-curve.
"Your bowlers here don't seem to do that--though they do make the ball
break after it hits the ground. But the way I manage it, you see, is to
throw a ball that doesn't hit the ground in front of the bat at all, but
curves in. If you don't hit at it, it will hit the stumps and bowl you out;
if you do hit, you're likely to send it straight up in the air, so that some
fielder can catch it."
"I see," said Dick. "Well, I suppose it's all right, but it doesn't seem
quite fair."
Harry laughed, but didn't try to explain the point further. He liked Dick
immensely; Dick was the first friend he had made in England, and the
best, so far. It was Dick who had tried to get him to join the Boy Scouts,
and who had been immensely surprised to find that Harry was already a

scout. Harry, indeed, had done two years of scouting in America; he
had been one of the first members of a troop in his home town, and had
won a number of merit badges. He was a first-class scout, and, had he
stayed with his troop, would certainly have become a patrol leader. So
he had had no trouble in getting admission to the patrol to which Dick
belonged.
It had been hard for Harry, when his father's business called him to
England, to give up all the friendships and associations of his boyhood.
It had been hard to leave school; to tear up, by the roots, all the things
that bound him to his home. But as a scout he had learned to be loyal
and obedient. His parents had talked things over with him very frankly.
They had understood just how hard it would be for him to go with them.
But his father had made him see how necessary it was.
"I want you to be near your mother and myself just now, especially,
Harry," he had said. "I want you to grow up where I can see you. And,
moreover, it won't hurt you a bit to know something about other
countries. You'll have a new idea of America when you have seen other
lands, and I believe you'll be a better American for it. You'll learn that
other countries have their virtues, and that we can learn some things
from them. But I believe you'll learn, too, to love America better than
ever. When we go home you'll be broader and better for your
experience."
And Harry was finding out that his father had been right. At first he had
to put up with a good deal. He found that the English boys he met in
school