KEEKIE JOE, SCOUT
The first one to awake in the morning was Keekie Joe. Going to school
on Monday was such an unusual thing with him that he had awakened at
five o'clock, and had not been able to go to sleep again. He had a
strange, nervous feeling as if he might be going to his own wedding.
The school would look strange on a Monday. Ordinarily after a week's
vacation he would have taken both Monday and Tuesday. But now, strange
to say, he wanted to go to school. He wanted to do what the rest of
them did. Oh, no, he was not a new boy all made over, he was just poor
little Keekie Joe, but he was going to do what the rest of them did
that day . . .
He now discovered, to his surprise, that the island was in the middle
of the river. It had, in fact, started drifting downstream on the
ebbing tide, and had caught again on Waring's reef, the scene of its
recent exploit. It would stick there for some hours now, at least, for
the tide was running out.
Keekie Joe looked all about him, then stole cautiously to the tent and
looked within. His friends were sleeping soundly. He withdrew from
the tent and looked about again. The island was about a mile farther
downstream than where it had been moored.
Looking down the river, Keekie Joe could see the boat-house, and the
gilt ball on top of the flagpole shone dazzling in the early sunlight.
The shores and river seemed fresh and new and clean, bathed in the
growing light of the new day.
For a minute it seemed to Keekie Joe as if he were a sentinel again,
"layin' keekie" while his friends slept. In the trees along shore the
birds were already chirping, a merry fish (that did not have to go to
school) flopped out of the water and went splashing into the dim
coolness again, from very excess of joy, as it seemed. Perhaps he had
just looked out to see what kind of a day it was going to be. In the
field on the farther shore from town stood several cows, like statues
of contentment.
Suddenly, Keekie Joe remembered that Pee-wee's palatial cruising boat
_Alligator_ had been drawn, not up on the shore of the island but up on
the shore nearby. Therefore, it was not at the island now. It was a
mile upstream, drawn up under a willow tree at the edge of the woods.
Keekie Joe scanned the shore as far as he could see, but he could not
discover any sign of it. However, he knew where it was.
He wondered how his friends and he would get to shore to go to school.
He knew they could swim, but they would get their clothes soaked and
could not go to school in such condition. Poor Keekie Joe! It never
occurred to him that some boys have two suits of clothes, and that his
dripping friends might go home and change their clothes before going to
school.
Keekie Joe knew (or at least thought) that this situation would become
serious when school time neared. He was anxious to know what time it
was. You see, Joe was not a regular full-fledged scout and he could
not tell time by the sun nor by forty-eleven other ingenious means
known to Scout Harris.
His whole standing capital now was a knowledge of how to swim, and a
dawning consciousness that scouting meant helping people and all that
sort of thing. Thanks to a long course of disobedience to his poor
mother, he had learned to swim like a water rat. He had had somewhat
the advantage of other boys in this respect for he had gone swimming
Mondays when they were in school.
But he could not determine even approximately what time it was and he
had no watch. He knew that it was early, but he also knew that a mile
was a long distance, especially against the tide.
Then it occurred to him that he might steal ever so cautiously into the
tent and carefully, _ever so carefully_, pull Townsend's watch out from
under his rough pillow and find out just what time it was. Keekie Joe
had heard some wonderful stories about stalking; from all accounts
rendered by Pee-wee that scout of scouts had hoodwinked every creature
in the animal kingdom, stealing up behind them unawares, and subjecting
every variety of bird to nervous prostration.
But Keekie Joe decided not to try his skill at this kind of stalking.
For one thing, he had never touched a gold watch before and the thought
of it awed him. And for another thing, if Townsend should awake and
catch him in the act he would think that his protégé was trying to
steal his watch . . .