THE LOOKOUT SEES A SAIL
"_Good night_," said Pee-wee; "I don't blame it for going away from
him. Can he take it back? It's an island now and it's part of
Bridgeboro. He can't take it on account of international law; that's
what _I_ think. How did it happen?"
"It's a very short story," said his new friend; "it's only about a mile
and a half long--from North Bridgeboro down to here. We were camping
in Wallace's grove and a little way down the river we saw a kind of a
little spot of land with a tree on it. There were lots of apple trees
all around there near the shore. We didn't know that orchard belonged
to old Trimmer."
"He thinks he owns the whole river," said Pee-wee.
"That little spot of land stuck out sort of like a balcony on account
of it being near the bend of the river; the river coming around the
bend sort of scooped a place out underneath it; it was all
under-mined----"
"I know what happened! I know what happened!" Pee-wee shouted. "I
know the place, it was nice and shady underneath it and you could go
under it in a canoe; lots of times I did."
"Well, you never will any more," said Roly Poly.
"Go on, tell me! Go on, tell me!" Pee-wee encouraged excitedly.
"There was a pole sticking out of the water right near there,"
Pee-wee's new friend continued, "and we thought it meant there was good
fishing there. So I said I'd go and see if I could catch a couple of
eels and sunfish or something. While I was out at the edge of that
little knob of land or whatever you want to call it, all of a sudden I
could feel something giving way under me and the first thing I knew the
whole business was in the water.
"Oh, you should have heard those fellows laugh as I went sailing down
the river. That was about ten o'clock this morning and the tide was
running down strong. This little old island flopped around and went
every which way but it stayed right side up anyway and do you think I'd
desert the ship? By the time we flopped downstream this far the tide
was so low that our little old roots dragged the bottom and we stopped
for keeps. So here we are till the tide comes in anyway. I don't know
whether we'll float in deep water or not, or whether we'll capsize in
deep water or not and I don't know anything about international law,
but a life on the ocean wave for _me_."
"I know all about international law," Pee-wee shouted. "Real estate is
in a certain place, isn't it? If a man owns real estate it's bounded
by something, isn't it? Well, then, if it isn't bounded by those
things any more how can it belong to that same man? If a man owns land
in a certain place and it stops being in that place, whose is it?"
"Search me," said Roly Poly.
"Besides I've got an inspiration; do you know what those are?" Pee-wee
vociferated.
"Have you got it with you?"
"_Sure_ I've got it with me! Don't I always have them with me?"
Roly Poly seemed amused.
"There are two kinds of scouts, aren't there?" Pee-wee asked
vociferously. "Regular scouts and sea scouts. Sea scouts are supposed
to live on the water and regular scouts are supposed to live under the
trees, like. So we can do both and we'll be combination scouts. We'll
be the Combination Scouts of America, hey? Will you?"
"I'll be anything as long as it's Saturday; I'm not particular," said
Roly Poly.
"Because my father knows a man that's a lawyer and he'll stick up for
us," Pee-wee continued excitedly. "Because old Trimmer hasn't got any
deed that says he owns an island, has he? All right, this is an island
in Bridgeboro. You can't deny that, can you? Let's hear you deny
that. All right, then, if he comes and tries to get this island, he'll
be trespassing, won't he? And so we'll start the Combination Scouts of
America and we'll call ourselves the--the--the----"
"The Sardine Patrol," suggested Roly.
"We'll call ourselves the Crab-apple Patrol," said Pee-wee, "because
apples are on land and crabs are in the water. Will you?"
"I see a sail on the horizon," said Roly.
"If it's old Trimmer let me handle him," said Pee-wee.
"It's the rest of the patrol," said Roly. "Do you see those two canoes
coming around the bend? We'll have a meeting of the general staff and
decide what to do."
"Whatever we do, we'll do something, hey?" said Pee-wee.
"More than that," said Roly.
"Anyway, we'll start a patrol or something, hey?"
"Oh, we'll start something, leave it to us," said Roly Poly.