PEE-WEE HOLDS FORTH
It was a delightful ride to Kidder Lake in the daytime. There is no time
like the autumn--except the spring. And the spring is only good because
it is the beginning of the summer. Just the same as the winter is best
because the spring comes after it. As Roy Blakeley would have said, "You
can do that by algebra." But there is nothing, either before or after,
to make algebra good.
As Jim Burton's big Packard car sped along, the country looked bleak and
the fields wan with their yellow corn-stalks. Even the little shacks
where fresh fruit and vegetables had been displayed to motorists were
now boarded up. Their cheerless, deserted look contributed quite as much
as the changing foliage to the scene of coldness, desolation. The sad
look which Nature assumes when school opens. The wind blew and the
leaves fell and the West Ketchem scouts fell too, for Scout Harris, who
was also blowing.
"That's what you call a proincidence, how I don't have to go to school
yet, the same as you don't on account of yours burning down. Gee whiz, I
like camp-fires, but I like school fires better."
"And you'll show us how to make a camp-fire?"
"Sure I will; I'll show you how they do at Temple Camp. Is there anybody
living on that island?"
"No one but us, and we'll have to be going home soon," said Charlie
Norris.
"I like desert islands best," Pee-wee said; "they remind you of dessert.
Sometimes I spell it that way. Don't you care, we have a month yet. Did
you ever eat floating island? It has gobs of icing floating around in
it. We have that Sunday nights at Temple Camp. When I said dessert it
made me think of it. Sometimes islands disappear."
"I bet the ones in that dessert do all right," laughed Nick Vernon.
"You said it!" Pee-wee vociferated with great emphasis. "I'll show you
how to make tracking cakes, too, only you can't eat them."
"No?"
"No-o-o, they're for chipmunks and birds to step on so you can save
their footprints. Gee whiz, did you think you could eat them?"
"We didn't know," said Fido Norris.
"Gee, there are lots of things _I_ don't know too," said Pee-wee
generously. "But anyway I fixed it so a scout could stay at Temple Camp
an extra week."
"Bully for you. A good turn?"
"You said it. I gave him a whole pail of berries I picked and he got
sick and couldn't go home."
"Some fixer."
"I've fixed lots of things."
"Maybe you can give us all berries the day before our temporary school
opens," said Fido Norton.
"Don't you worry," said Pee-wee reassuringly; "maybe the men who are
getting it ready will go on a strike; maybe there'll be measles or
whooping cough or something. I've had those."
"You're not missing much, hey?"
"You said it. I've been lost in the woods too. Roy Blakeley says I get
lost at C when I sing. He's crazy, that feller is. He started the Silver
Foxes. There's a feller in that patrol can move his ears without
touching them. I should worry as long as I can move my mouth. I'll show
you how to flop a fried egg in the pan only you have to look it doesn't
come down on your head. You can scramble eggs but you can't unscramble
them. Once one came down on my head. I took a bee-line hike, too."
"With a fried egg on your head?"
"No-o-o. I'll show you how to make a thing to get olives out of the
bottom of a bottle too; it's better than a hatpin, but a hatpin is good
to catch pollywogs with. There's a Pollywog Patrol that comes to Temple
Camp. Gee, I never knew that silver cup was in the car with me all the
time."
"Well, we expect you to walk away with that," said Scoutmaster Ned. "You
rode away with it once. So now we expect you to walk away with it."
"It's won already," said Charlie Norris. "Nick's the one."
"Gee whiz, I wish I had seen that signal," said Pee-wee, "but anyway I
have to admit it was a stunt sending it. Gee, I guess you'll get the cup
all right."
It was characteristic of Pee-wee that his thoughts did not recur to his
lonely adversary at Piper's Crossroads. His thoughts were always of the
moment and aroused by the present company. He was just as ready to shout
for others as he was to shout for himself, and that is saying a great
deal. It was immaterial to him who he shouted for so long as he could
shout.
Nick Vernon was the nearest and likeliest, so he was all for Nick's
stunt. And he was not in the least curious about the things said by that
lonely boy with wide eyes who had stopped the car. He was thinking of
other things now.