Tom Slade in the North Woods by Percy Keese Fitzhugh

At Tom's request I asked Brent Gaylong to go with me and I'm glad I did, for I think he supplied just what was needed in our camp family. Perhaps you know him. He lives with his people here in town and is a very intimate friend of Tom's. People, speaking likingly of Brent, say there is something funny about him. I think I know what it is. He is long and lanky, and wears old-fashioned spectacles and is physically lazy. Hence he always seems funny against the background of strenuous outdoor life; in camp he seems particularly amusing. He is sometimes excruciatingly funny by contrast with Tom's untiring energy and enterprise. He will do anything you want him to do with a whimsical air of resignation. He will climb mountains, hunt for treasure, or trail an animal with an absurdly serious air. The funny thing about Brent is that, owing to Tom, his lot is cast in the theatre of adventure, while he looks for all the world like an old-fashioned schoolmaster. He must be twenty-two or three by now. He's good company.

"You'll go, won't you? " I asked, alluding to Tom's message. "Come and bring your knitting; that's what he told me to tell you. I'm going to drive up as far as Harkness and Tom will meet us there with his flivver."