Tom Slade Picks a Winner by Percy Keese Fitzhugh is about Wilfred Cowell and his attempt to become a scout. Despite being of a timid nature, Wilfred is determined to join the boy scouts. Excerpt: "The boy lay in a large, thickly upholstered Morris chair in the living room. His mother had lowered the back of this chair so that he could recline upon it, and she kneeled beside him holding his hand in one of hers while she gently bathed his forehead with the other. She watched his face intently, now and again averting her gaze to observe a young girl, her daughter, who had lifted aside the curtain in the front door and was gazing expectantly out into the quiet street. "Is that he?" Mrs. Cowell asked anxiously. "No, it's a grocery car," the girl answered. Her mother sighed in impatience and despair. "Hadn't you better 'phone again?" she asked."

Tom is a sixteen-year-old street tough, left to fend for himself by his worthless father, Bill Slade, after wealthy landowner John Temple evicts them. Tom scorns the Boy Scout movement, as does Temple and his effeminate son Wilfred. Because of his interest in Temple's daughter Mary, Tom gets a job and joins the Scouts after seeing that they are as strong and tough as he. On a camping trip, Tom sees his father and a gang of tramps attempt to rob Temple's home. The Scouts frightened them, and when they attempt another robbery, Slade is slightly wounded and Temple's servant is shot. Although the Scouts use a wireless to summon medical help, Temple remains steadfast in his oposition to them. After he and Wilfred get lost on a fishing trip, Mrs. Temple asks the Scouts to search for them. Temple meets Slade, and they fight until they both fall unconscious. After the Scouts rescue them, Temple relents in his opposition, Wilfred joins, and Slate decides to get a job.