Ottumwa Tri Weekly Courier

The boys were in a state of excitement. For two weeks the idea of having a fire brigade of their very own had been the topic of conversation.

"I think it a good plan." said Mr. Scott, the headmaster, "if you can prove yourselves so promptly obedient that we needn't have one bit of fear, and your parents needn't have one bit of fear, as to your getting in danger."

Mr. Scott had made obedience a popular virtue. Until he came, the boys had thought obedience-well, an excellent thing for girls. and little boys under ten! They over ten might very well, they deemed, be allowed to decide for themselves what to do and what not to do: but, when they had recited the "Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Casabianca," had listened to stories of great generals and conquering kings, of judges who condemned king's sons. and so on. they began to see obedience as a manly and soldier-like quality, and to boast of possessing it!

"Just think." said Jim West, "of being in the boys' fire brigade. and having to go to a fire!"

"We'd have a uniform. too," cried Oliver King, "as good as the boy scouts!"

"We'll talk it over with a committee made up of your fathers," Mr. Scott concluded.

The committee meeting was held on the evening of the 21st of February The boys were to assemble in the yard of Mr. Scott's house at 10 on the morning of the next day. which was, of course. a holiday!

Promptly at the appointed time. with a military erectness of bearing. the boys were at the yard gate. Mr. Scott came out at once. The day was keenly cold, and he beckoned them inside.

"Come to the library. boys." he called out. "We'll talk round a fire."

Oliver King, who was all of 14, led the way as a matter of course. The rest, whose ages ranged from his proud seniority down to Jim West's nine years and eleven months, followed. The room was bright and cheery, lined with books and maps. They found seats, and Mr. Scott began.

"Your fathers." he said, "approve of the idea!"

There was a murmur of applause.

"The boys of the Fire Brigade," went on the headmaster, "will have a uniform. It will hang at their bedside. On Saturdays they will put it on and assemble here for drill. which the sergeant will give them. But, when there are fires

Oliver interrupted: "They'll go to them, sir. won't they? Day or night?"

Mr. Scott smiled.

"Well. the nights we'll leave to your waking and your parents: but, if a fire occurs out of school hours, you'll certainly go!"

Fred Winter spoke up eagerly

"Don't you think we ought to go in school hours. too. sir?'

"That must be left to your teachers." decided Mr. Scott. "I feel pretty sure however that if the Boys' Fire Brigade has done good work. the teachers will be for letting them go."

The boys looked satisfied.

'Your work." continued Mr. Scott "will be to take up your place, in single or double file as the space may allow, to stand there in silence under your own Captain," here every boy looked at Oliver, who tried to look modest. "and do nothing till he tells you what to do. The firemen proper will give their directions to him. These directions may be to run messages to the nearest telephone or to take a message back to headquarters: but your chief usefulness will be in keeping back, .with gentleness, boys and children not of the brigade, and in taking care of any women or children rescued from the building on fire, or perhaps of property-portable property.

New ways of usefulness will probably develop. We must have a band, of course," went on the young headmaster. with mounting enthusiasm, "and our own parades, some evenings. Now, I will enroll all boys over ten and under fourteen. We have another brigade for those over fourteen."

He began to call names and enter them in a new book. No one noticed Jim West, whose face had fallen sadly.

"Please, sir," he said suddenly "When may boys join?"

We shall have a recruiting week," replied Mr. Scott, "every three months,

He finished the name he was writing and called:

"Next!"

Jim thought hard! He would be ten years old on the 22d of March. He couldn't join until May the 22d! He would be out of all the fun for three months, and wouldn't be in the "first bunch" in any case. It was very hard and a shame!

Suddenly a thought flashed into his mind." Perhaps "flashed" is not the right word, for a flash is bright, and this thought was dark! He had come to this nice little town, with its excellent school, just after Christmas! No one knew when his birthday was, except the teacher who taught his room, and she happened to be away sick, with a substitute in her place. No one would think about his age. He was tall for it. If he said ten, he would not be doubted.

"Now. Jim West. age?" inquired Mr Scott. The last boy had been entered while Jim thought.

"T-ten." he stammered.

No one noticed his confusion. because it was evident he had been in a brown study when spoken to,

"Birthday?" said Mr. Scott, briskly.

Jim had not counted on this.

He could not invent anything. He said quickly--

"To-day, sir."

Mr. Scott laid down his pen and looked at Jim, not at all in doubt, but in congratulation.

"Jim," he said, "I envy you."

Everybody else envied him, too, "if I could have chosen my own birthday, I'd have been glad to choose George Washington's."

Jim had not thought what he was claiming.

"I never knew that before,"Jim," cried Fred Winter.

"How would you know?" Oliver came to Jim's assistance. "We're not girls! We don't have birthday parties and cakes and nonsense like that."

"Come, come," said Mr. Scott. "I don't call a cake nonsense, if you do! I think we'll have both a cake and a party tonight, for the boy born on Washington's birthday. Will you all come here at six o'clock, boys? Shake hands. Jim."

Jim stumbled forward, not knowing what to say or do.

Mr. Scott took his hand, and pointed up to a picture of the Father of his Country which hung over the mantel-piece. A wreath of fresh green leaves hung round it.

"I always put a wreath round his picture, on his birthday," said the young headmaster, "not only because he was a fearless soldier and a wise general; not only because he was a great statesman and a noble-minded man, and our first president. He was all that and more! He was the boy who didn't tell a lie when telling a lie was the way out of a difficulty. Three cheers for George Washington, and three more for his twin here."

Jim could not interrupt the cheers. They rang out three times! But, before they could begin his cheers, he turned round to them and held up his hand.

"Don't cheer me," he said, and they were the hardest words he had ever spoken. "I've told a lie, sir." he looked at Mr. Scott, "I won't be ten till the 22d of March."

There was a dead silence. It lasted some very uncomfortable seconds.

Then Mr. Scott again took Jim's hand and said,-

"Jim, what made you say that?"

" 'Cause," answered Jim, forgetting his language lessons, "I wanted to be in the first brigade."

Mr. Scott looked at the boy and up at the father of his country again.

"Boys," he said, "it's fine to be like our first president, and not tell a lie: but the next best thing is to be brave enough to own it and give up what it was going to win for us. I think we'll have the party, just for George Washington's sake; and I think,"-he laid his other hand on Jim's downcast head "that we'll stretch our rules one month and let Jim in. Let's vote on it."

"I guess." said Jim, after the party. "that I'll speak the straight truth after this. It's the meanest kind of a feeling I had when he was talking to me."

Oliver, to whom he was speaking. glanced up at George Washington's pictured face.

"You're right." he answered. "It must be fine to be like him and stop this side of the lie!"