PEE-WEE FIXES IT
The concerted assault which the scouts made upon their parents for
permission to proceed with their plan ended in a compromise. Late that
same afternoon Mr. Ellsworth, scoutmaster of the troop, drove up to the
old camp in his auto and looked over the situation. He talked with
Blythe also and was evidently not unfavorably impressed, for he returned
to Bridgeboro quite converted to the enterprise.
"He's a queer kind of a duck," he said to Mr. Blakeley, referring to
Blythe. "I think he's out of luck and rather discouraged. He doesn't say
much. I think he took this job in desperation not knowing exactly how he
was going to go ahead with it. He expects to get three hundred dollars
for what he's undertaken. He means to divide evenly, he said, but of
course that will leave him with only twelve dollars, if the whole troop
goes up. He doesn't seem to have any grasp of things at all.
"I proposed to him that he keep one hundred dollars for himself and give
the boys the other two hundred. This fellow has lost his grip and I
doubt if he'll do much work, but of course it's his job. It's as much to
help him as anything else that I'd like to see the troop go up there. It
ought to be fun camping in the ramshackle old place; I'd rather like it
myself."
"This Blythe, he doesn't belong around these parts, does he?" Mr.
Blakeley asked.
"No, I believe not, but I think he's all right. I size him up for a
disheartened member of the big army of unemployed who stumbled on this
opportunity. He has a look in his eyes that goes to my heart. He needs
to be out-of-doors, that's sure. If the troop doesn't give him a hand
he'll have to pass it up. The boys want a little money and here's a good
chance to earn it and do a good turn at the same time."
"You liked him, eh?" Mr. Blakeley asked.
"Yes, on the whole I did. He's an odd case and I can't altogether make
him out, but I liked him. I don't think he's very well, for one thing."
"Well I guess it's a good chance for the boys," Mr. Blakeley said.
That, indeed, was the consensus of opinion of the men higher up and
there was another demonstration of the remarkable power which the scouts
had over their parents.
"We know how to manage them all right," said Pee-wee to Roy. "I told
your father I'd see that you got back all safe; I told him to leave it
to me."
Pee-wee's responsibilities, according to his own account, were many and
various. He promised Doc Carson's mother that he would personally see to
it that Doc wore his sweater at night. He gave his word to Mr. Hollister
that Warde would not over-eat--Pee-wee was an authority on that subject.
He distributed his promises and undertook obligation with a generosity
that only a boy scout can show. He advised Mrs. Benton, Dorry's mother,
not to worry, that her son should be the subject of his especial care.
He magnanimously volunteered to be responsible for the safety of the
whole troop. And he announced that Mr. Ellsworth's judgment was the same
as his own precisely.
With such assurances the troops' parents could not do otherwise than
surrender unconditionally, and Pee-wee of the Ravens was the hero, the
George Washington, of the expedition.
At all events he carried his little hatchet with him, and it pulled on
his belt so that he had to be continually hoisting it up and tightening
his belt so that before the expeditionary forces had gone far he looked
not unlike a bolster tied in the middle.