"What do you have to do to be a Girl Scout?"
"Why, just want to join! I mean just want to be all that a scout must be and then put in your name. I wish you'd join Troop Six--it's the best and everyone just loves Captain Ricky--she's the scout captain."
"What do you have to want to want to be a scout?" asked Pat.
Sheila squared her shoulders. "This is what you have to want," and she repeated with dignity, for she was leader of her patrol and felt the responsibility of her position, "to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, to obey the scout law. There are lots of laws but they're the kind you just like to obey. Captain Ricky says the real meaning of scouting for girls like us is service to God and our country; that it helps each one of us to build strong characters that anyone can depend upon! And when girls are scouts why, we don't stop to think that one, maybe, is rich and another poor and one's black and one's white or one's a Jew and one's a--a Baptist--we're just all scouts and loyal! Oh, I love it!"
"Renée, let's be scouts!" cried Pat. "Let's tell Daddy we want to join Troop Six--it's the best in the city!"
Mr. Dog, his patience exhausted, had commenced to stir restlessly and lick his bandaged leg. The three girls exclaimed in dismay:
"We've forgotten the dog!"
"What shall we do with him?"
"I'd better take him home. I am sure my mother can set his leg and then we'll put it in a stronger splint," said Sheila.
Pat and Renée could not dispute Sheila's claim to the interesting patient.