(I BET YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS)
So that’s just how it was that we went off on the Adirondack automobile
tour with Harry Donnelle, in his big seven passenger Cadillac, and some
of this story is going to be all about that trip. I bet you’ll like it,
because we pretty nearly got killed and had a lot of other adventures.
The best part of it is where Pee-wee was dashed to pieces from a cliff;
he says that’s the principal thing in the story. Believe _me_, we had
some fun that night.
We didn’t tell the rest of the troop anything about those newspaper
articles or about our going in what-do-you-call-it—quest of—buried
treasure, because we knew they’d only laugh at us. If we found anything,
that would be time enough to tell them, that’s what Harry said.
Now maybe you don’t know anything about the Adirondack tour, but anyway,
it’s all planned out on a map for motorists. The way you go is up the
Hudson to Albany and then you hit out west and go up through Utica to
Syracuse. Then you go up north right close to Lake Ontario till you come
to Watertown and then you go up along the St. Lawrence River till you
get to Ogdensburg. There’s a dandy big apple orchard near Ogdensburg.
After you leave Ogdensburg, you go east again and you come to a place
named Malone. Then pretty soon you get to Lake Champlain—that’s a peachy
lake. It was invented by a man named Champlain—I mean discovered. Then
you go across into Vermont—that’s where the Green Mountains are, only
they’re blue. Then you go down through Vermont into New York and pretty
soon you get to Albany again. I’m a regular Cook’s Tours, hey? There’s a
place right near the station where you get four jawbreakers for a cent
in Albany. Mostly you get only three. After that you go down the river
until you get to Hudson and then you go over on the boat to Catskill.
And, oh boy, believe _me_, I know the way from there to Temple Camp. The
best way is to go up through Bridge Street, because Warner’s Drug Store
is on Bridge Street. He’s a nice man, Mr. Warner is, he charges only ten
cents for ice-cream sodas. Temple Camp isn’t on the tour map, but the
camp should worry.
The way you get to New York from Temple Camp is down through Kingston
and Newburgh to Jersey City. But, gee whiz, I don’t know why anybody
should want to go to Jersey City. I know a fellow that comes from Jersey
City—every time he gets a chance.
On the very day that we started on our trip, the rest of the troop went
to Temple Camp to stay for a month, so it was pre-arranged (I thought up
that word pre-arranged) that Harry would put us off there on the way
back. He said he’d even do more than that—that he’d throw us off. But
just the same, he likes Temple Camp, too.
So now to get the automobile started.