Skinny McCord

"Skinny McCord" by Percy Keese Fitzhugh is a juvenile adventure novel written in the early 20th century. Set at Temple Camp, it follows shy, sensitive scout Skinny McCord whose fierce loyalty to his runaway half-brother, Danny, collides with the ideals and disciplines of scouting. As Danny schemes to hide in plain sight by impersonating a delayed camper, Skinny’s sudden bursts of courage thrust him into camp-wide attention and difficult choices. The opening of the novel shows Skinny losing his compass and being good-naturedly teased around the campfire, then slipping back alone to search—just as a furtive newcomer arrives at the road above camp. That boy is Danny, Skinny’s half-brother, freshly escaped from a reform school, who finds a letter about a camper named Danville Bently delaying his arrival and decides to use the identity to shelter at Temple Camp. Terrified yet loyal, Skinny sneaks his new scout suit and Handbook to Danny, then, to raise money to help him flee, pulls off two daring feats in one night and morning: “lifting” a rival patrol’s white pennant and swimming across Black Lake to win the Hiawatha prize canoe. His plan to sell the canoe to a rich, disgruntled scout, Helmer Clarkson, fails, and Skinny endures chilly treatment from his own patrol while Danny brazenly registers and blends in as a new arrival. The stage is set for a tense clash between loyalty, honesty, and identity within the bustling life of Temple Camp.

Skinny McCord, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #76477.