“I know the Mariner’s Compass by heart,” called in Mabel Blake from the rear line.  “Brother Jack tested me, and he said I could sail an ocean liner with my knowledge,” she insisted proudly.

“We have our tests first, don’t we?” asked Grace.

“Yes, of course, that all happens outside in the private troop room, but I’ll bet the other girls listen at the keyhole!” put in Mildred.

“And last time a lot of boys on the back fence could see in the window,” Madaline reminded the anxious aspirants.

“Oh, there go all the other girls, let’s hurry,” urged Cleo, and when the candidates mounted the stairs over the post-office, they were but a small part of the noisy crowd that pounded its way on the narrow and rather uncertain steps.

All of the officers assisted in the examinations so that not more than a half hour was consumed in that detail, and when the girls filed into the drill room, their smiling faces announced the good news that all had passed.

Quickly at the given signal all the troops “fell in” and the regulation “horse shoe” was formed with Captain Clark and Lieutenant Lindsley in the gap, when the salute was given and the other formalities complied with and each candidate was conducted to the captain.  After answering the captain’s questions and saluting, each candidate received her staff, neckerchief and knot from the patrol leader, while the badge was pinned on the blouse of the solemn-faced girls by the captain herself.

All of this was conducted with a striking degree of seriousness, and as the exercises made Tenderfoots out of the newest candidates, our own little friends looked on, with united dignity, while they awaited their turn to receive degrees of the second and first class.

The tests for Tenderfoot were but simple, and consisted mainly of knots made and the knowledge of scout laws, with a few civic questions, so that the beginners shared no part of the anxiety experienced by Cleo, Grace and Madaline, and those of their higher grades.  The distinction of advancement is the privilege of wearing the badge on the left sleeve, second class below the elbow and first class above on the same arm, so that ceremonial occupied but a brief space of time.

No conversation was permitted during the Investure, but the presence of Rose, who sat in a corner looking on with wondering eyes, had not been unobserved by the scouts.  That she had come from Franklin with Lieutenant Cosgrove was sufficient credential for the privilege of being present during the ceremonial, but it was Grace who talked with her eyes to Cleo, directing her interpretative glances from the pretty little stranger, to the now duly installed second-class scout, her message being, “See that pretty strange girl over there?” and Cleo replying in turn with her glance, “Yes, isn’t she pretty?  Who is she?”