AN INVITATION
That was the comedy sketch and Pee-wee was so puffed up over his screen
success that he could hardly work the machine. I guess he felt as if he
were a regular Douglas Fairbanks.
"Did you hear what those girls were saying?" he whispered to me behind
the screen. "Did you hear what the one with the red sweater was saying?
About a scout being so resourceful? Did you hear her?"
"Oh, you've got the town eating out of your hand," I told him; "you're a
regular Mary Picklefoot. You're such a swell cook you ought to cook for
Cook's Tours."
"Did you hear what one of them said about how I rolled the rolling pin?"
he whispered.
"She said you were the finest roller she ever saw," I said, in an
undertone; "shh, you've got them going. There's no use trying to stand
up against the Boy Scouts of America."
"Didn't I tell them scouts have to be resourceful?" he whispered "Did
they notice how I flopped it?"
"They said you were the floppiest flopper they ever saw," I told him.
"Go ahead and give them some deep stuff."
So then we reeled off some pictures of good stunts at Temple Camp. One
showed scouts doing fancy diving from the springboard, and there were a
couple showing the races on the lake. The people seemed to like them a
lot. Some of the pictures had Pee-wee in them and then there was a lot
of applause. There was one showing the forest fire near camp; it was the
best of all and everybody said so.
After the show, when the people were going, they all said it was fine
and asked us a lot of questions about Temple Camp and scouting. Pee-wee
got down off the car and stood around with his sleeves still rolled up
and his jacket off, and everybody talked to him. Believe me, he was a
walking advertisement for the scouts. I heard him telling one man that
scouts had to have plenty of initials.
The man said, "What?"
"Initials," Pee-wee told him; "it means starting to do things of your
own accord, see?"
The man laughed and he said, "Oh, you mean _initiative_." He said
Pee-wee was worth ten cents not counting the movie show.
After most everyone else had gone, the girls all crowded around Pee-wee
before they went back to their canoes. Oh, you should have seen that
kid! The girl in the red sweater said, "My name is Grace Bentley and my
friends want me to tell you what a perfectly _lovely_ time we've had.
And we think it's just _wonderful_ how boy scouts are so, you know, what
you may call it----"
"Sure," Pee-wee said; "resourceful, that's what you mean."
She said, "But you must remember that the Camp-fire Girls are new and
we'll catch up to you yet."
"Oh, sure," Pee-wee said; "you'll catch up with us. All you have to do
is try. First I couldn't learn scout pace. Gee, don't get discouraged.
If you want to do a thing just make up your mind that you'll do it. And
if you can't do it, do it anyway."
Gee, the rest of us just stood there trying to keep from screaming,
while Pee-wee stood in the center of that crowd of girls, looking about
as big as a toadstool, and giving them a scout lecture.
"All you have to do is try," he said; "did you notice where I was diving
from the springboard?"
"Oh, I thought it was just _dandy_," a girl said.
"That was nothing," Pee-wee told her; "it looks hard, but that's
nothing. There's no such word as fail; that's a what d'ye call it, a
maxwell."
"You mean a Ford," Connie said.
"He means a Pierce-Arrow," Westy shouted.
"He means a maxim, don't you?" the girl named Grace said. "And I think
it's a perfectly _splendid_ maxim."
"That's nothing," Pee-wee piped up; "I know a lot of maxims. I've got a
collection of them."
"He catches them in the woods," I said.
"Don't you get discouraged," Pee-wee shouted.
"No, we won't," Grace said; "and don't you mind them, either. They're
just teasing you. And we want to ask you if you'll do us a favor--a good
turn. Will you?"
"_Sure_ I will," he said, very manly; "what is it?"
"We want you to _promise_ to come over to _Camp Smile Awhile_ to-morrow
and cook dinner for us. And we want to ask all the rest of you boys to
come, too. We're just a lot of _greenhorns_ about cooking; isn't it
_shameful_ to have to admit it? But we've got everything over there,
food and utensils, and you can make us up a _feast_ and we'll spend the
afternoon visiting. Say you will. Will you?"
_G--o--o--d night!_ I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my feet. _Oh,
boy_, you should have seen Pee-wee's face. You just ought to have seen
it.