PEE-WEE HARRIS: FIXER
[Illustration: “GO UP THAT SIDE STREET!” ORDERED PEE-WEE.]
PEE-WEE HARRIS: FIXER
BY
PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of
THE TOM SLADE BOOKS
THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
THE PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS
THE WESTY MARTIN BOOKS
ILLUSTRATED BY
H. S. BARBOUR
Published with the approval of
THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK
Copyright, 1924, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Inc.
Made in the United States of America
His middle name is hunter’s stew,
he mixes it;
In mixing he can thrice outdo
All other scouts he ever knew,
And when a thing goes all askew,
he fixes it.
CONTENTS
I He Appears
II Mug
III The Solemn Vow
IV The Noon Hour
V Queen Tut
VI The Safety Patrol
VII I Am the Law
VIII The Protector
IX The Parade
X The Fixer
XI Pee-wee’s Promise
XII Culture Triumphant
XIII Missionary Work
XIV Seeing New York
XV In for It
XVI The Real Emerson
XVII Alone
XVIII Deduction
XIX In the Dead of Night
XX The Depths
XXI Darkness
XXII Arabella
XXIII In the Woods
XXIV Robin Hood
XXV A New Member
XXVI A Fresh Start
XXVII Action
XXVIII Not a Scout
XXIX Voices
XXX When Greek Meets Greek
XXXI Bob, Scoutmaker
XXXII The New Scout
XXXIII Over the Radio
XXXIV The Short Cut
XXXV “Danger”
XXXVI Pee-wee Triumphant
PEE-WEE HARRIS: FIXER
CHAPTER I
HE APPEARS
Pee-wee Harris, or rather the left leg of Pee-wee Harris, emerged from
an upper side window of his home, and was presently followed by the rest
of Pee-wee, clad in his scout suit. He crept cautiously along an
ornamental shingled projection till he reached the safety of the porch
roof, where he stood pulling up his stocking and critically surveying
the shady street below him.
The roof of the front porch was approachable by a less venturesome route
than that of the ornamental coping. This was via the apartment of
Pee-wee’s sister Elsie, and out through one of her prettily curtained
front windows.
But he had been baffled in his attempt to violate this neutral territory
by finding the door to her sanctum locked. He had demanded admittance
and had thereupon heard whispering voices within. A hurried consultation
between Elsie and her mother had resulted in a policy fatal to Pee-wee’s
plans. Not only that, but worse; his honor as a scout had been impugned.
“Don’t let him in, I locked the door on purpose.” This from Elsie.
“I think he just wants to get to the porch roof,” Mrs. Harris had said,
to the accompaniment of a sewing machine.
“I don’t care, I’m not going to have him going through here; if he sees
my costume every boy in town will know about it and they’ve all got
sisters. Everybody who’s invited to the masquerade will know exactly
what I’m going to wear. I might just as well not go in costume. You know
how he is, he simply _couldn’t_ keep his mouth shut. What on earth does
he want to do on the porch roof anyway? If he’s not well enough to go to
school, I shouldn’t think he’d be climbing out on the front porch.”
“I suppose it’s something about his radio,” Mrs. Harris replied in her
usual tone of gentle tolerance. “He’s going back to school on Monday.”
“Thank goodness for that,” was Elsie’s comment.
“_That shows how much you know about scouts!_” the baffled hero had
roared. “_It’s girls that can’t keep secrets!_ If you think anybody’d
ever find out anything from me about what you’re going to wear——”
“Do go away from the door, Walter,” Mrs. Harris had pled. “You know that
Elsie is very, very busy, and I am helping her. She has only till
Wednesday to get her costume ready.”
Conscious of his prowess and resource, Pee-wee had not condescended to
discuss a matter involving his manly honor. He would discourse upon that
theme later when no barrier intervened.
He had returned to his own room and immediately become involved in a
formidable system of rigging which lay spread out upon the bed and on
the adjacent floor. The component parts of this were a rake-handle, two
broomsticks lashed together, a couple of pulleys, several large
screw-hooks, and endless miles of wire and cord.
This sprawling apparatus was Pee-wee’s aerial, intended to catch the
wandering voices of the night and transmit them to Pee-wee’s ear. In the
present instance, however, it caught Pee-wee’s foot instead, the section
of rigging which was spread upon the bed was drawn into the
entanglement, and our hero, after a brief and frantic struggle, was
broadcasted upon the floor.
This was the first dramatic episode connected with Pee-wee’s radio. It
was directly after he had extricated himself from the baffling meshes of
his own handiwork that he had emerged from the window of his room, left
foot foremost; which conclusively disproves the oft-repeated assertion
of Roy Blakeley that Pee-wee always went head first.