TWO IS A COMPANY—THREE IS BAD LUCK
Pee-wee and Pepsy were not agreed about allowing this third person to
buy into their enterprise. Pepsy was suspicious because she could not
understand it. But Pee-wee, quick to forget dislikes and trifling
injuries, was strong for the new partner.
“He’s all right,” he told her, “and scouts are supposed to be kind and
help people and maybe he wants to reform and we ought to help him get
into business.”
“He’s a smarty and I _hate_ him and three is bad luck,” was all that
Pepsy could say. Then she broke down crying, “Miss Bellison hates him,
too,” she sobbed, “and—and if people sit three in a seat in a wagon one
of them dies inside of a year. Now you go and spoil it all by having
three.”
“You get three jawbreakers for a cent,” Pee-wee said. “Lots of times I
bought them three for a cent, and I bought peanut bars three for a cent
too, and I never died inside of a year, you can ask anybody.”
“I don’t care, I want to have it all alone with you,” she sobbed.
“If we count Wiggle in that will make four,” Pee-wee said, “and none of
us will die. If the customers die that doesn’t count, does it?”
Pepsy did not hear this rather ominous prediction about those who would
eat the waffles and the taffy. Her hate and her tears were her only
arguments, but they won the day.
“He’s got a Ford,” Pee-wee said in scornful final plea, “and he can put
up money enough for us to buy lots of sundries and pretty soon we’ll
have money enough to start other refreshment places and he can be the
one to ride around—he’ll be kind of field manager. It shows how much
girls know about business,” he added disgustedly. “I bet you don’t even
know what capital means.”
“It means what you begin a sentence with,” Pepsy sobbed.
“You don’t want it to be a success,” he charged scornfully.
“You’re a _mean thing_ to say that,” she sobbed, “and I do—I do—I _do_
want it to be a success—and—and—even if it isn’t we’ll have lots of fun
if it’s just us two. Because anyway we can _make believe_, and that’s
fun.”
“What do you mean, _make believe_?” Pee-wee demanded. “Aren’t we going
to make enough to buy the tents? That shows how much you know about
scouts. If scouts make up their minds to do things they _do_ them—and
they don’t make believe. I’ll give in to you about that feller but you
have to say we’re not going to just make believe and play store, because
that’s the way girls do. You have to say you’re in earnest and cross
your heart and say we’ll make a lot of money—_sure_.”
Pepsy just sobbed. Her staunch little heart (when she would listen to
it) told her how forlorn was the hope of “really and truly” success
along that by-road through the wilderness. But the imagination which
could be terrified by the rattle of that planking on the old bridge was
quite equal to finding satisfaction in “playing store” and in seeing
customers where there were none. Pee-wee believed that anything could be
done by power of will. She could find the utmost joy in _pretending_.
No, not the utmost joy, for the utmost joy would be to buy the tents....
“You have to say we’re not pretending like girls do,” he insisted
relentlessly as she buried her head in her poor little thin arm and
sobbed more and more. “You have to say it. Do you cross your heart? Is
it going to be a success? Are we going to make lots of money—sure? You
have to say we’re not just fooling like girls. Do you say it? You’re not
just playing?”
“N—no.”
“Cross your heart.”
Her freckly hands went crossways on her heaving breast.
“It’s business just like—like Mr. Drowser’s store. Is it?”
She nodded her head.
“Say
If I cross my heart and don’t mean what I say,
I hope to drop dead the very same day.
Say that?”
So she sobbed out those terrible words. “And you promise not to let him
come in?” she added, provisionally.
He promised and then suddenly she raised her head with a kind of jerk,
as if possessed by a sudden, new spirit of determination. Her eyes were
streaming. She looked straight into his face. There was fire enough in
her eyes to dry the tears.
“If—if you wish a thing—you—you get—you get it,” she gulped. “Because I
wished and wished to go away from that—that place—and now I made up my
mind that we’re going to—going to—make a lot of money for—for _you_—I
just did—”
She did not say _how_ they were going to do it....