BETTER THAN GOLD
Gee it was awful funny; Dub didn’t get a chance to have his way at all.
He didn’t know what was happening to him till it was all over. I guess
he thought he was being kidnapped. He just kept looking after the train.
Poor Dub, I was half laughing and half crying on account of him.
“I didn’t break my promise, Dub,” Will said. “You ask Roy. I said we
wouldn’t tell anybody at camp. I could tell my father, couldn’t I?”
“It’s as clear as mud,” I said.
“Well then, you’ve got to go on keeping your promise,” Dub said. “If I
go back to camp, you won’t tell anybody about your taking the boat or
how I went in after you? Hurry up and answer,” he said, “because here
comes Pee-wee and Sandy.”
Mr. Dawson said, “Well, breaking rules is bad business. But breaking
promises is bad business too. We can talk about that later. The main
thing now is how are we going to get to camp? Dub is going to stay all
summer if I have enough money left after that telegram. So there’s the
principal matter settled. He ought to be able to win his Eagle badge in
that time. As for the Gold Medal for saving Will’s life----”
“_Shhh!_” I said. “Here’s Pee-wee. Nobody knows but just Will and Dub
and I.”
“And Mabel and Mrs. D.,” Mr. Dawson said. “The only girls that know how
to keep a secret. How about that?”
So that’s how it happened that Dub Smedley stayed at Temple Camp all
summer and didn’t get the Gold Medal. But he got to be an Eagle Scout
that summer. I guess the good turn that Will Dawson did him made up for
Will taking the boat. Mr. Dawson was awful funny, he said we ought to
tell about that. But he said we ought to keep our promise to Dub. So as
long as we couldn’t do both we kept our promise to Dub. I guess it
didn’t almost kill Mr. Dawson to pay for that telegram because he gave a
check to Temple Camp so Dub could stay till the end of the season, and
besides, he bought a scout suit for him.
When Pee-wee and Sandy saw that Dub hadn’t gone on the train, they
wanted to know why. A couple of fine Scouts they were--_not_--missing
the train themselves like that. On account of drinking sodas! Pee-wee,
he even had to wipe his mouth off so Mrs. Dawson could kiss him.
I said, “The reason Dub didn’t go was because you two flat tires weren’t
here to see him off. He wouldn’t go without saying good-bye to you and
now he’s got to stay all summer.”
“Will you tell me the no fooling reason,” Pee-wee shouted.
I said, “The no fooling reason is the evil of drink, how you go after
sodas just when the train is going to come and Dub is so polite he
wouldn’t go without saying good-by to you. He’s not like me, I’d be glad
to say good-by to you any time. Will you please go and find out how soon
the next bus goes up to Leeds? All our fine plans for Dub going home are
spoiled by ice cream sodas and they’ll be the cause of your downfall
yet.”
“Are you going to talk some sense!” Pee-wee shouted. “What was the
honest and truly reason?”
“Why should I talk sense just to please you,” I said. “Gee whiz, I
wouldn’t talk sense to please anybody--I’ll leave it to Will.”
Oh boy, you should have seen the way Mr. and Mrs. Dawson laughed. Mabel
looked at Dub awful nice and friendly, kind of, and she said, “Aren’t
they perfectly idiotic, Dub?”
“They’ve been doing just like that for the last two weeks,” Dub said,
kind of bashful like.
“If you don’t like it, you can go my way and I’ll go yours,” I told him.
We should worry.
THE END