Franklin K. Mathiews, Chief Scout Librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, assembled this 1919 collection by noting which grown-up stories made him think, "What a bully story for boys to read!" The result is a deliberately varied mix: school tales, sea adventures, Westerns, detective stories, and—most prominently—humorous pieces. Mathiews explicitly bets that readers will have "no regrets" about the abundance of comedy.

The excerpts reveal a recurring pattern: characters face moments where truth-telling or lying carries heavy emotional weight. In Hermann Hagedorn's "The Lie," a boy named Dick Harrington wrestles with his own honesty after a classmate confesses, "I lied. And it took all the stuffin's out of me." The story dwells on internal conflict rather than action, suggesting the anthology values moral tension as much as outdoor exploits.

A Deliberate Mix of Genres

The table of contents spans eighteen stories, grouped by Mathiews into categories: boy scout tales, school stories, sea and "wild west" stories, detective and mystery stories, and humorous stories. The editor notes that humor dominates the selection. Authors include well-known figures like O. Henry ("The Ransom of Red Chief"), Mark Twain ("The Jumping Frog"), Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Red-Headed League"), and Robert Louis Stevenson ("Story of the Bandbox"), alongside lesser-known contributors such as Edward Beecher Bronson and Stephen Chalmers. The range suggests an effort to expose readers to different narrative styles and settings within a single volume.

Moral Weight in Quiet Moments

In the excerpt from Hagedorn's "The Lie," the emotional climax occurs not during a chase or fight but in a whispered conversation in a dark dormitory. Dick Harrington, who told the truth in class, is visited by "Colonel" Burton, who lied. Burton describes his lie as a "habit" and "the line of least resistance," and admits he thought he had "the lie-devil under" after two years of honesty. The scene hinges on whispered dialogue and internal turmoil: Dick "literally saw stars" upon learning Burton lied. The story prioritizes psychological realism over plot, a choice that may surprise readers expecting nonstop action.

Voice and Setting Details

Mathiews's introduction uses colloquial language ("bully story") and directly addresses the reader ("How about it, boys?"), establishing a friendly, informal tone. The excerpts also show attention to sensory details: the sound of "a rumpus in the Black Belt of Hainesburg" drifts through the night, and Dick climbs "three flights after 'creams'" before bed. These small touches ground the stories in specific, recognizable environments—a school, a dormitory, a town with named neighborhoods. The frontispiece caption notes that a butcher sees "the kindly motive under the exaggerated bluffness" in a character's face, hinting at the anthology's interest in hidden virtues.

Readers approaching this collection should expect a broader range of tones than the title might suggest. While scout-themed stories appear, the volume leans heavily on humor and moral introspection. Pay attention to how different authors handle similar themes—honesty, courage, embarrassment—across varied settings. The stories reward close reading of dialogue and internal monologue, where the real conflicts often unfold.