THE FALL OF SCOUT HARRIS
Now this is the way we started. We went through Cabin Lane (that’s part
of Temple Camp) and passed Commissary Shack and turned into the first
path to the left and that’s West Trail, and it goes around the lake
through the woods.
Pee-wee said, “Now it shows how crazy you all are because this trail
will bring us right back to where we started, and if we start again
we’ll only do the same thing over again, and we might just as well try
to get somewhere on a merry-go-round.”
“That’s a very good idea,” I told him; “a merry-go-round hike, I never
thought of that.”
“What’s the use just going around and around the lake all the time?” he
shouted. “Do you call that a hike?”
“When we get back we can say we’ve been around a lot,” Brent said.
“And what are we going to do when we get back?” the kid yelled.
“Oh, we’re just going to keep on going till we find a path to the left,”
Warde said.
“If there isn’t a path to the left the first time there won’t be one the
second time, will there?” our young hero screamed.
“If you don’t succeed at first try, try again,” Hervey said. He looked
awful funny marching ahead through the woods with the rest of us after
him. He looked very serious like, just as if we were really going
somewhere. Brent followed along right after him, very sober, with his
spectacles half-way down his nose, the way he always wears them. He’s
long and lanky and always very sober, that fellow is. I mean he acts
sober. He said:
“This is just as good as a trip around the world only it’s shorter. When
you start around the world you don’t get anywhere; you just come back to
the place where you started. That’s because the world is round. If a
thing’s round and you start around it you can’t have any destination.
That’s logic.”
“Absolutely, positively,” Warde said. “The equator is all right but it
doesn’t get you anywhere. This is a round trip, we’re encircling the
lake.”
“How many times are we going to encircle it?” the kid fairly screeched.
“You call that logic? Do you think I’m going to keep hiking round and
round and round and round the lake all day with nothing to eat? And
anyway if there was a path to the left it would run into the lake only
there isn’t any.”
“Well, probably it doesn’t run into the lake then,” Brent said.
“What are you worrying about? We can’t get lost,” Warde said to him.
“How is it going to end, that’s what _I_ want to know?” the kid shouted.
“It isn’t going to end,” I said; “it’s perpetual motion.”
Gee whiz, I had to laugh at him. He was trudging along with a scowl on
his face, and he looked kind of disgusted with all of us. The funny part
of him is that he always goes with us, and yet he keeps kicking all the
time.
“I suppose you’re going to write this up like the other crazy hikes we
took,” he said. “Everything you do you write a story about it.”
I said, “Sure, I remind myself of the Woolworth Building, I have so many
stories. Keep to the left.” He was just going to turn into a path to the
right, but I hauled him back.
We just kept on going along the path around the lake; it was awful funny
because we knew it wouldn’t get us anywhere. The kid was wild. Pretty
soon we came to the outlet of the lake (you can see it on the map), and
Hervey jumped across it, then Brent took one of those long steps of his,
very solemn, and Warde and I followed.
I don’t know how Sandwich got across, but he was waiting for us on the
other side. He acted as if he knew we were all crazy and liked it. Our
young hero tried to take a long step across and, kerflop, down he went
into the water. One good thing, it wasn’t very deep.
“Going down,” Warde said.
“If we’re going to keep going around and around this lake till we’re
all—till we’re all walking skeletons,” Pee-wee shouted, “I’m going to
put a board across that outlet.”
“Come on, keep moving,” Hervey said; “make it snappy.”
“What do you mean, snappy?” the kid screamed. “Do you think I’m going to
keep on getting wet every time just because the rest of you are
lunatics?” He looked awful funny coming along after us sputtering and
shouting, with his scout suit all wet.
“United we stand, divided we sprawl,” I told him. “Hervey’s leading; if
he doesn’t use a board the rest of us can’t.”
“Sprawl is the word,” said Brent.
“We’re not responsible for the length of your legs,” I told the kid. “If
you want to be a quitter and drop out when we get around to camp, all
right. We’re on a left-handed hike and our hike flower is the daffodil
and our slogan is _Keep going to the left_ and if we don’t get anywhere
we’re not to blame; geography is to blame, and I never had any use for
geography anyway.”
“We’ll get dizzy and go staggering into the lake, that’s what we’ll do,”
the kid yelled.
“All right,” I said, “drop in or drop out, we don’t care which you do,
only keep still. Can’t you see we’re busy hiking?”