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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pee-wee Harris, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll
+have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
+this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Pee-wee Harris
+
+Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+Illustrator: H. S. Barbour
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2019 [EBook #9833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE HARRIS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and Sue Clark (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT OF PEPSY’S REST HAD TWO STEADY
+EMPLOYEES.]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                             PEE-WEE HARRIS
+
+                                   BY
+                          PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
+
+                               Author of
+                          THE TOM SLADE BOOKS
+                         THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
+
+                             ILLUSTRATED BY
+                             H. S. BARBOUR
+
+                     Published with the approval of
+                       THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
+
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+                        PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK
+
+                  Made in the United States of America
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                          Copyright, 1922, by
+                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                        TO THE ONLY ORIGINAL—THE
+                        REAL PEE-WEE HARRIS—THIS
+                          STORY IS DEDICATED.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                FOREWORD
+
+Hey, listen!
+
+A lot of scouts said I was put out of the Tom Slade Series and so I had
+to go into the Roy Blakeley Series. And a lot of them said I was put out
+of the Roy Blakeley Series and that on account of that I started a
+series of my own. They said I had to get the author who wrote up Tom
+Slade’s adventures to help me. And a lot of them said if I didn’t look
+out, I’d be put out of this series, too.
+
+That shows how much sense they have, because how can a person that’s the
+main thing in a thing put himself out of that thing? Anyway, I’d like to
+see anybody put me out of this series. If they tried that it would be
+the best part of all the stories.
+
+Maybe when this series is finished I’ll be the only one left in it, but
+a lot I care because the fewer fellers there are the more there will be
+to eat. Roy Blakeley said if I’m writing a series the most important
+thing is to write close to the paper—that shows you how crazy he is. Gee
+whiz! He looks like a laughing hyena on the covers of those books he’s
+all the time writing.
+
+Tom Slade isn’t so bad. I like Tom Slade. Only he doesn’t know anything
+about girls—that’s one thing—I know all about them.
+
+Last summer I went down to where my uncle lives and spent vacation there
+and I had a peach of a time and all the things I did are told in the
+first story, but there are a lot of things left over and I’m going to
+tell these in another story. There are snakes and peach orchards and
+everything down there.
+
+Then comes the second story and that’s about a dandy mistake I made. Gee
+whiz! I’ve made better mistakes than any feller in our troop. I didn’t
+make it on purpose, but anyway it led to a lot of dandy adventures.
+That’s one good thing about mistakes, anyway. But one thing sure, if I
+had got into the right automobile I would have just gone about two
+blocks. So that shows that the wrong one may even be better than the
+right one. Only you bet I’m not going to tell you all about that story
+here.
+
+Then comes the third one and that’s the one where I started the Pollywog
+Patrol. It didn’t last long, but that’s all right, because pollywogs
+don’t last long. It wasn’t a full patrol, except we were full of
+dessert—three helpings. If you want plenty of dessert you’d better read
+that story.
+
+After that story comes the fourth one and there’s where I made the
+dandiest mistake I ever made. Another feller helped me make it. On
+account of that mistake a girl was good and sorry for the way she
+treated me and I bet you’d say it served her right. But anyway we’re
+good friends now.
+
+Then comes the fifth story and that’s the craziest one of all because
+that’s the story where I didn’t go to a desert island on account of the
+desert island coming to me.
+
+After the fifth one the stories get crazier and crazier. Maybe there’ll
+be as many as a hundred because I’ve got lots of paper and a new
+fountain pen and I’m having more adventures all the time. I’ve got
+ninety-seven of them thought up already—I mean adventures that I really
+had. And I’ve got a hundred and fifty-two thought up that I’m going to
+have, and that’s not counting one big one that I’ve started on already.
+So the only thing that will stop me will be if I don’t have any more
+paper, but even then I can go on writing, because scouts can write on
+birch bark and you can see for yourself how many birch trees there are.
+As long as there are some birch trees left I can keep on writing, so
+don’t you worry.
+
+                                                         Pee-wee Harris.
+
+P. S. Scouts know how to make paper out of leaves, too, so as long as
+there are leaves I can keep on writing.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                I THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA
+               II A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT
+              III AN INVITATION
+               IV HE GOES TO CONQUER
+                V ENTER PEPSY
+               VI THE WAY OF THE SCOUT
+              VII A BIG IDEA
+             VIII MAKING PLANS
+               IX IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
+                X DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS
+               XI TWO IS A COMPANY—THREE IS BAD LUCK
+              XII THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
+             XIII PEPSY’S SECRET
+              XIV SUSPENSE
+               XV SIX MERRY MAIDENS
+              XVI A REVELATION
+             XVII HARD TIMES
+            XVIII THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT
+              XIX THE OTHER VOICE
+               XX AN OFFICIAL REBUKE
+              XXI SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT
+             XXII FATE IS JUST
+            XXIII WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY
+             XXIV PEPSY’S ENTERPRISE
+              XXV AN ACCIDENT
+             XXVI PEPSY’S INVESTMENT
+            XXVII SEEN IN THE DARK
+           XXVIII STOCK ON HAND
+             XXIX INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
+              XXX PAID IN FULL
+             XXXI CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+            XXXII THE CLEW
+           XXXIII THE TRAMPLED TRAIL
+            XXXIV THE TRAIL’S END
+             XXXV EXIT
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             PEE-WEE HARRIS
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                        THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA
+
+
+Pee-wee Harris, mascot of the Raven Patrol, First Bridgeboro Troop, sat
+upon the lowest limb of the tree in front of his home eating a banana.
+To maintain his balance it was necessary for him to keep a tight hold
+with one hand on a knotty projection of the trunk while with the other
+he clutched his luscious refreshment.
+
+The safety of his small form as he sat on the shaky limb depended upon
+his hold of the trunk, while the tremendous responsibility of holding
+his banana devolved upon the other hand.
+
+Pee-wee was so much smaller than he should have been and the banana so
+much larger than it should have been that they might almost be said to
+have been of the same size.
+
+The slender limb on which Pee-wee sat trembled and creaked with each
+enormous bite that he took.
+
+The bright morning sunlight, wriggling through the foliage overhead,
+picked out the round face and curly hair of our young hero and showed
+him in all his pristine glory, frowning a terrible frown, clinging for
+dear life with one hand and engaged in his customary occupation of
+eating.
+
+He had ascended to this leafy throne with the banana in his pocket but
+he could not restore it to his pocket now even if he wished to. However,
+he did not wish to. In a military sense he was in a predicament; both
+arms were in bad strategic position and his center exposed to assault.
+His leafy throne was like many another throne in these eventful
+times—extremely shaky.
+
+But the commissary department was in fine shape....
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suddenly the expeditionary forces of Uncle Sam appeared in the form of
+the postman, who paused on his way across the lawn to the house.
+
+“Hello, up there,” he said, suddenly discovering Pee-wee.
+
+“Hello yourself and see how you like it,” the mascot of the Ravens
+called down.
+
+“I saw a banana up there and I thought maybe you were behind it,” the
+postman called, as he looked among the pack of letters he held in his
+hand.
+
+“It’s only half a banana,” Pee-wee shouted.
+
+“Well, you’re only half a scout,” the postman said; “you’d better drop
+it, here’s a letter for you.”
+
+“For me?”
+
+“For you.”
+
+Steadying himself, Pee-wee took an enormous bite, considerably reducing
+the length of the banana. “Wait a minute till I finish it,” he said as
+best he could with his mouth full. “Waaer-mint.”
+
+“Can’t wait,” the postman said, heartlessly moving away.
+
+“Waymnt,” Pee-wee yelled, frantically taking another bite;
+“wayermntdyehear, waymnt!”
+
+“Do you think the government can wait for you to finish a banana?” the
+postman demanded with a wicked grin upon his face. “You got two hands;
+here, take the letter if you want it; here it is,” he added, reaching
+up.
+
+Pee-wee tried to dispatch the remainder of the banana by one gigantic
+and triumphant bite but the desperate expedient did not work; his mouth
+with all its long practice, could not keep up with his hand; it became
+clogged while yet a considerable length of banana projected out of the
+gracefully drooping rind.
+
+“Here, take it,” the postman said in a tone of ruthless finality.
+
+Chewing frantically and waving the remainder of banana menacingly like a
+club, the baffled hero uttered some incomprehensible, imploring jumble
+of suffocated words while the postman moved away a step or two,
+repressing a fiendish smile.
+
+“Throw away the banana,” he said.
+
+By this time Pee-wee was able to speak and while his chewing apparatus
+was momentarily disengaged he demanded to know if the postman thought he
+was crazy. The postman, resolved not to miss the fun of the situation,
+was not going to let Pee-wee take another bite; time was precious, and
+two more bites of the sort that Pee-wee took might leave his hand free.
+
+“Take the letter,” he said with an air of cold determination, “or I’ll
+leave it at the house. Here, take it quick; I’ve no time to waste.”
+
+“Do you want me to waste a banana,” Pee-wee yelled imploringly; “a scout
+is supposed—”
+
+“Here, take it,” the postman said.
+
+There followed the most terrible moment in the life of Pee-wee Harris,
+Scout. He knew that one more bite would be fatal, that the postman would
+not wait. In two bites, or in three at most, he could finish the banana
+and his hand would be free.
+
+How could a postman, who brings joy to the lonely, words of love from
+far away, cheer to those who wait, comfort from across the seas, _Boys’
+Life Magazine_—how could such a being be so relentless and cruel? If
+that letter were left at the house, Pee-wee would have to go to the
+house and get it, and there his mother was lying in ambush waiting to
+pounce upon him and make him mow the lawn. Why would not the postman
+wait for just two bites? Maybe he could do it in one. He had consumed a
+peach in one bite and a ham sandwich in four—his star record.
+
+He made a movement with his hand, and simultaneously the postman
+retreated a step or two toward the house. Pee-wee tried releasing his
+hold upon the trunk with the other hand and almost lost his balance on
+the shaky limb.
+
+“Here,” said the postman, unyielding, “chuck the banana and take the
+letter or you’ll find it waiting for you in the front hall. It’s an
+important letter, it feels as if it had a couple of cookies in it.” The
+postman knew Pee-wee. “Here you go,” the torturer said grimly, “take it
+or not, suit yourself.”
+
+“Can’t you see both hands are busy?” the victim pled. “Two bites—a scout
+is supposed not to waste anything—he’s supposed—he’s supposed—_wait_ a
+minute—he’s supposed if he starts a thing to finish it—_wait!_ I’m not
+going to take a bite, I’m only giving you an argument—can’t you wait—”
+
+“Here you go, last chance, take it,” the postman said, a faint smile
+hovering at the corner of his mouth, “one, two, —”
+
+Out of Pee-wee’s wrath and anguish came an inspiration. “Stick the
+letter in the banana,” he said, holding the banana down.
+
+“I don’t know about that,” the postman said, ruefully.
+
+“I know about it,” Pee-wee thundered down at him. “You said I had to
+take it or not; that letter belongs to me and you have to deliver it.
+This banana, it’s—it’s the same as a mail box—you stick the letter in
+the banana. You think you’re so smart, you thought you’d make me throw
+away the banana, _naaah_, didn’t you? I wouldn’t do that, not even
+for—for—secretary—for the postmaster-general, I wouldn’t! A scout has
+resource.”
+
+“All right, you win,” said the postman, good-humoredly, “only look out
+you don’t fall; here you go, hold on tight.”
+
+Clutching to the knotty projection of trunk, Pee-wee reached the other
+hand as low as he could and the postman, smiling, stuck the corner of
+the coveted letter into the mealy substance of the banana.
+
+“You win,” the postman repeated laughingly; “it shows what Scout Harris
+can do with food.”
+
+“Food will win the war,” Pee-wee shouted. “You thought you could make me
+throw away my banana but you couldn’t. I knew a man that died from not
+eating a banana, I did.”
+
+“Explain all that,” the postman said.
+
+“He threw a banana away on his porch instead of eating it and later he
+stepped on it and slid down the steps and broke his leg and they took
+him to the hospital and compilations set in and he got pneumonia and
+died from not eating that banana. So there!”
+
+“That’s a very fine argument,” the postman said as he went away.
+
+“I know better ones than that!” Pee-wee shouted after him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+
+                          A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT
+
+
+So there he sat upon his precarious perch trying to reassume the posture
+which insured a good balance, clinging to the trunk with one hand and to
+the banana with the other.
+
+And now that the encounter which had almost resulted in a tragic
+sacrifice was over, and while our scout hero pauses triumphant, it may
+be fitting to apologize to the reader for introducing our hero in the
+act of eating. But indeed it was a question of introducing him in the
+act of eating or of not introducing him at all.
+
+For a story of Pee-wee Harris is necessarily more or less a story of
+food. And this is a story abounding in cake and pie and waffles and
+crullers and cookies and hot frankfurters. There will be found in it
+also ice cream cones and jawbreakers and cocoanut bars and potatoes
+roasted on sticks. Heroes of stories may have starved on desert islands
+but there is to be none of that here.
+
+In this tale, if you follow the adventures of our scout hero (who now at
+last appears before you as a star), you shall find lemonade side by side
+with first aid, and all the characters shall receive their just
+desserts, some of them (not to mention any names) two helpings.
+
+So there he sat upon the branch, the mascot of the Raven Patrol, with an
+interior like the Mammoth Cave and a voice like the whisperings of the
+battle zone in France. Take a good look at him while he is quiet for ten
+seconds hand running. Everything about him is tremendous—except his
+size. He is built to withstand banter, ridicule and jollying; his sturdy
+nature is guaranteed proof against the battering assaults of unholy
+mirth from other scouts; his round face and curly hair are the delight
+of the girls of Bridgeboro; his loyalty is as the mighty rock of
+Gibraltar. A bully little scout he is—a sort of human Ford.
+
+The question of removing the letter from the banana and getting rid of
+the banana (in the proper way) now presented itself to him. He took a
+bite of the banana and the letter almost fell. He then tried releasing
+his hold upon the trunk but that would not do. He then extracted the
+letter with his teeth which effectually prevented him from eating the
+banana.
+
+What to do?
+
+Steadying himself with one hand (he could not let go the trunk for so
+much as a moment), he brought the banana to his lips, held it between
+his teeth and took the letter in his unoccupied hand. As he bit into the
+banana the part remaining trembled and hung as on a thread; another
+moment and it would drop. The predicament was tragic. Slowly, but surely
+and steadily, the remainder of the banana broke away and _fell_—into the
+hand that held the letter.
+
+Holding both letter and banana in the one perspiring palm, Pee-wee
+devoured first the one and then the other. Both were delicious, the
+letter particularly. It had one advantage over the banana, for he could
+only devour the banana once, whereas he devoured the contents of the
+letter several times. He wished that bananas and doughnuts were like
+letters....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                             AN INVITATION
+
+
+The envelope was postmarked Everdoze which, with its one thousand two
+hundred and fifty-seven inhabitants, was the cosmopolitan center of Long
+Valley which ran (if anything in that neighborhood could be said to run)
+from Baxter City down below the vicinity of the bridge on the highway.
+
+That is, Long Valley bordered the highway on its western side for a
+distance of about ten miles. The valley was, roughly speaking, a couple
+of miles wide, very deep in places, and thickly wooded. It was
+altogether a very sequestered and romantic region. Through it,
+paralleling the highway, was a road, consisting mostly of two wagon ruts
+with a strip of grass and weeds between them. To traverse Long Valley
+one turned into this road where it left the highway at Baxters, and in
+the course of time the wayfarer would emerge out of this dim tract into
+the light of day where the unfrequented road came into the highway again
+below the bridge.
+
+About midway of this lonely road was Everdoze, and in a pleasant
+old-fashioned white house in Everdoze lived Ebenezer Quig who once upon
+a time had married Pee-wee’s Aunt Jamsiah. Pee-wee remembered his Aunt
+Jamsiah when she had come to make a visit in Bridgeboro and, though he
+had never seen her since, he had always borne her tenderly in mind
+because as a little (a _very_ little) boy her name had always reminded
+him of jam. The letter, as has been said, bore the postmark of Everdoze
+and had been stamped by the very hand of Simeon Drowser, the local
+postmaster.
+
+This is what the letter said:
+
+  Dear Walter:
+
+  Your uncle has been pestering me to write to you but Pepsy has
+  been using the pen for her school exercise and I couldn’t get hold
+  of it till to-day when she went away with Wiggle, perch fishing.
+  Licorice Stick says they’re running in the brook most wonderful
+  but you can’t believe half what he says. Seems as if the perch
+  know when school closes, leastways that’s what your uncle says.
+
+  Pee-wee reread these enchanting words. Pepsy! Wiggle! Perch
+  fishing! Licorice Stick! And school closing! And perch that knew
+  about it. That was the sort of perch for Pee-wee. He read on:
+
+  I told your uncle I reckoned you wouldn’t care to come here being
+  you live in such a lively place but he said this summer you would
+  like to come for there will be plenty for you to do because there
+  is going to be a spelling match in the town hall and an Uncle
+  Tom’s Cabin show in August.
+
+  You can have plenty of milk and fresh eggs and Miss Arabella
+  Bellison who has the school is staying this summer and she will
+  let you in the school-house where there is a library of more than
+  forty books but some of the pages are gone Pepsy says. She says to
+  tell you she will show you where she cut her initials but I tell
+  her not to put such ideas in your head and she knows how to climb
+  in even if the door is locked, such goings on as she and Wiggle
+  have, they will be the death of me.
+
+  Well, Walter, you will be welcome if you can come and spend the
+  summer with us. I suppose you’re a great big boy by now; your
+  mother was always tall for her age. There are boys here who would
+  like to be scout boys and your uncle says you can teach them. We
+  will do all we can so that you have a pleasant summer if you come
+  and tell your mother we will be real glad to see you and will take
+  good care of you.
+
+  I can’t write more now because I am putting up preserves, one
+  hundred jars already. The apples will be rotting on the trees,
+  it’s a shame. You will think we are very old-fashioned, I’m
+  afraid.
+
+Pee-wee paused and smacked his lips and nearly fell backward off the
+limb. One hundred jars of preserves and more coming! Apples rotting on
+the trees! All that remained to complete his happiness was a bush laden
+with ice cream cones growing wild. He read the concluding sentences:
+
+  Your uncle would be glad to go and bring you in the buckboard but
+  it would take very long and he is busy haying so if you don’t mind
+  the bad road it would be better for your father to send you in the
+  automobile. Be sure to turn off the highway to the right just
+  above Baxters. The road goes through the woods.
+
+                                        Your loving
+                                              Aunt Jamsiah.
+
+Steadying himself with one hand, Pee-wee took the letter between his
+teeth as if he were about to eat it. Then he cautiously let himself down
+so that he hung by his knees, then clutched the limb with his hands,
+hung for a moment with his legs dangling, and let go. In one sense he
+was upon earth but in another sense he was walking on air....
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+
+                           HE GOES TO CONQUER
+
+
+Thus it befell that on the second day after the receipt of this letter
+Pee-wee Harris was sitting beside Charlie, the chauffeur, in the fine
+sedan car belonging to Doctor Harris, advancing against poor, helpless
+Everdoze.
+
+He traveled in all the martial splendor of his full scout regalia, his
+duffel bag stuffed to capacity with his aluminum cooking set and two
+extra scout suits. His diminutive but compact and sturdy little form was
+decorated with his scout jack-knife hanging from his belt, his compass
+dangling from his neck, and his belt ax dragging down his belt in back.
+
+A suggestive little dash of the culinary phase of scouting was to be
+seen in a small saucepan stuck in his belt like a deadly dagger. Thus if
+danger came he might confront his enemy with a sample of scout cookery
+and kill him on the spot.
+
+His sleeves were bedecked with merit badges; from the end of his scout
+staff waved the flaunting emblem of the Raven Patrol; his stalking
+camera was swung over his shoulder like a knapsack; his nickel-plated
+scout whistle jangled against the saucepan; and in his trousers pockets
+were a magnifying glass, three jawbreakers, a chocolate bar, a few
+inches of electric wiring, and a rubber balloon in a state of collapse.
+
+The highway from Bridgeboro was a broad, smooth road, a temptation and a
+delight to speeders, where motorcycle cops lurked in the bushes hardly
+waiting for cars with New York licenses.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Baxter City and here they
+turned into such a road as Charlie vowed he had never seen before.
+Scarcely had they gone a mile over rocks and ruts when the dim woods
+closed in on either side, imparting a strange coolness. It was almost
+like going through a leafy tunnel. Projecting branches brushed the top
+of the car and mischievously grazed and tickled their faces. The voices
+of the birds, clear in the stillness, seemed to complain at this
+intrusion into their domain.
+
+“I’d like to know how I’m going to get back through this jungle after
+dark,” Charlie said. “I wonder what anybody wanted to start a village
+down here for?”
+
+“Maybe—maybe they did it kind of absent-mindedly,” Pee-wee said. “I
+never started a village so I don’t know.”
+
+“Well, you’ll _startle_ one anyway,” Charlie said. “I guess the village
+isn’t much bigger than you are.”
+
+The road took them southward through the valley. They were not far west
+of the highway but the low country and the thick woods obscured it from
+view. They could hear the tooting of auto horns over that way and
+sometimes human voices sounding strange across the intervening solitude.
+
+“I don’t see why they didn’t set the village down over at the highway;
+it’s not more than a mile or so,” Charlie said. “Maybe they were afraid
+the autos would run over it; safety first, hey? Nobody’ll run over it
+here, that’s one sure thing.”
+
+Pee-wee took the last bite of a hot frankfurter he had bought at a
+roadside shack on the highway and was now more free to talk.
+
+“Listen,” he said, “what’s that?”
+
+It was a distant rattling sound which began suddenly and ended suddenly.
+They both listened.
+
+“There must be a bridge up there along the highway,” Charlie said;
+“that’s the sound of cars going over it. Loose planking, hey?”
+
+Pee-wee listened to the rattling of the loose planks as another car sped
+over the unseen structure, little dreaming of the part that bridge was
+destined to play in his young life. The commonplace noise of the
+neglected flooring seemed emphasized by the quiet of the woodland. That
+reminder of human traffic, so near and yet so far and out of tune with
+all the gentler sounds of the valley, presented a strange contrast and
+jarred even Pee-wee’s stout nerves.
+
+“There goes another,” Charlie said; “we must be nearer to the highway
+than I thought.”
+
+They had, indeed, inscribed a kind of loop and having passed its
+farthest point from the main road were traveling toward it again and
+would have emerged upon it just beyond the bridge but for the wood
+embowered and sequestered village which was their destination. The first
+sign of this village was a cow standing in the middle of the grass-grown
+road as if to challenge their approach. Perhaps she was stationed there
+as a sort of traffic cop....
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                              ENTER PEPSY
+
+
+It will be seen by a glance at the accompanying sketch that the village
+of Everdoze was about opposite the bridge on the highway. From this main
+road the village could be reached by a trail through the woods. On
+hearing of this, Charlie expressed regret that he had not allowed his
+passenger to make the final stage of the journey on foot.
+
+“Well, I _never_ in all my _life_!” said Aunt Jamsiah as Pee-wee stepped
+out of the car. “In goodness’ name, where’s the rest of you? I thought
+you were a great, tall, strapping boy. I hope your appetite’s bigger
+than your body. And what on earth is that saucepan for? Are you going to
+cook us all alive? Did you ever _see_ such a thing!” she added, speaking
+to Uncle Ebenezer who had stepped forward to welcome his nephew.
+
+“He’s all decked out like a carnival! He’s just too killing!” She then
+proceeded to embrace him while his martial paraphernalia clanked and
+rattled.
+
+“We won’t need any more brass band,” said a young girl in a gingham
+apron and with brick red hair in long tightly woven braids, who stood
+close by; “he’s a _melodeon_. I don’t see what they sent such a big car
+for with such a little boy. ’Taint no fit, it ain’t.”
+
+Pee-wee gave this girl a withering look which she boldly returned,
+continuing to stare at him. Her face was covered with freckles and she
+was so unqualifiedly plain and homely in face and attire that she might
+be said to have been attractive on the ground of novelty.
+
+“Pepsy,” said Mrs. Quig, addressing her, “you shake hands with Walter
+and tell him you and he are going to be good friends. You come right
+here and do as I say now and no more of those looks.”
+
+“I ain’t going to kiss him,” the girl said by way of compromising.
+
+“You give him a welcome just like Wiggle is doing,” said Aunt Jamsiah,
+“and be ashamed that you have to learn your manners from such as he. You
+do as I say now.”
+
+“You’re welcome—and I can beat you running,” the girl said.
+
+“Girls are afraid of snakes,” Pee-wee retorted. Meanwhile the individual
+who had been cited as a model of social correctness by Aunt Jamsiah
+stood upon the doorstep looking eagerly up into Pee-wee’s face and
+wagging his tail with vigorous and lightning rapidity. Wiggle’s tail was
+easily the fastest thing in Everdoze. His head vibrated in unison with
+it and his look of intentness carried with it all sorts of friendly
+expectations. He fairly shook with excitement and cordiality. He
+followed the sedan car a few yards upon its homeward journey and then,
+by a sudden impulse, deserted it and returned to a position directly in
+front of Pee-wee with wagging tail and questioning gaze. Pie seemed to
+say, “I’m ready for anything, the sky is the limit.”
+
+“You haven’t had a bite to eat since breakfast and you’re _starving_. I
+can _tell_ it,” said Aunt Jamsiah. “You come right in the kitchen.”
+
+“I had a lot of frankfurters and things at the places along the
+highway,” Pee-wee said. “I had waffles at one place. I bet they make a
+lot of money along that road selling things. There are shacks all the
+way. All the autoists stop and buy things to eat. You can get tires and
+everything.”
+
+“Oh, I wouldn’t want to eat tires,” said Pepsy.
+
+“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” Pee-wee said.
+
+“What are your soldier clothes for?” the girl wanted to know.
+
+“They’re not soldier clothes,” Pee-wee said; “I’m a scout.”
+
+“I bet you don’t know as much as Miss Bellison does.”
+
+“I bet I don’t either,” Pee-wee said, “so I win.”
+
+“She’s the school teacher here and she knows everything.”
+
+“Did she know I was coming?”
+
+“No, she didn’t and—”
+
+“Then she doesn’t know everything,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“Smarty, smarty!” the girl retorted, “I came out of an orphan home and
+that’s more than you can say.”
+
+“You only get one helping of dessert there,” said Pee-wee. “I’d rather
+be a scout than an orphan. I know a feller who was an orphan and he was
+sorry for it afterwards.”
+
+“Are you going to stay all summer?”
+
+“Till school opens,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“Do you want me to show you where there’s a woodchuck hole?”
+
+At this point Pee-wee was summoned again to the kitchen where he ate a
+sumptuous repast, after which Pepsy and Wiggle took him about and showed
+him the farm.
+
+Pee-wee and Pepsy fenced a good deal but seemed to progress in this
+cautious and defensive way toward a friendly understanding. As for
+Wiggle he danced about, following elusive scents that led nowhere,
+carried off and back again by quick impulse, till at last the three
+ended their tour of inspection at a little summer house which had been
+built over a spring by the roadside. Here they drank of the bubbling,
+crystal water, Wiggle doing this as everything else, with erratic
+impulse, drinking a dozen times and not much at any time.
+
+The dying sunlight painted the slopes of the valley with crimson tints
+and the countryside was very still. Through the woods to the west could
+be heard occasionally the discordant noise from the loose flooring of
+the bridge on the highway as an auto sped over it. In the quiet evening
+the sound, with its sudden start, its rattling clamor and its quick
+cessation, made a jarring note in all the surrounding peacefulness.
+
+“That’s what wakes me up in the morning, the mail wagon going over,”
+Pepsy said; “I know it’s time to get up then. Those planks can talk,
+they say the same thing every day.
+
+                          You have to go back,
+                          You have to go back,
+                          You have to go back.
+
+You listen to-morrow morning.”
+
+“They could never wake _me_ up,” Pee-wee said, which was probably true.
+“What do you mean about their saying you have to go back?”
+
+“When Aunt Jamsiah took me, I was a probator. Do you know what that
+means?”
+
+“It’s what they do with people’s wills,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“It means if I don’t behave I have to go back to the orphan home,” the
+girl said. “And every day I was afraid I’d have to go back—for a long,
+long time, I was. And when I was lying in bed mornings I’d hear the
+planks saying that—
+
+                          You have to go back,
+                          You have to go back.
+
+just like that, and I’d get good and scared.”
+
+“You won’t have to go back,” said Pee-wee. “You leave it to me, I’ll fix
+it. Those planks—I’ve known lots of planks—and they can’t tell the
+truth. Don’t you care. I wouldn’t believe what an old plank said. Trees
+are all right, but planks—”
+
+“I don’t notice it so much now,” Pepsy said; “that was a year ago and
+Aunt Jamsiah says I’m all right and mind good except I’m a tomboy. That
+ain’t so bad, is it? Being a tomboy? A girl and me tried to set the
+orphan home on fire because they licked us, but I’m good here. But I
+wish they’d put a new floor on that bridge. Anyway, Aunt Jamsiah says
+I’m good now.” Pee-wee was about to speak, but noticing that the girl’s
+eyes were fixed upon a crimson patch on the hillside where the sun was
+going down, and seeing that her eyes sparkled strangely (for indeed they
+were not pretty eyes) he said nothing, like the bully little scout that
+he was.
+
+“Anyway, one thing, I wouldn’t let an old bridge get my goat, I
+wouldn’t,” he said finally, “and besides, you said you would show me a
+woodchuck hole.”
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+
+                          THE WAY OF THE SCOUT
+
+
+Pepsy’s right name was Penelope Pepperall and Aunt Jamsiah had taken her
+out of the County Home after the fire episode, by way of saving her from
+the worse influence of a reformatory. She and Uncle Ebenezer had agreed
+to be responsible for the girl, and Pepsy had spent a year of joyous
+freedom at the farm marred only by the threat hanging over her that she
+would be restored to the authorities upon the least suspicion of
+misconduct.
+
+She had done her work faithfully and become a help and a comfort to her
+benefactors. She had a snappy temper and a sharp tongue and was, indeed,
+something of a tomboy. But Aunt Jamsiah, though often annoyed and
+sometimes chagrined, took a charitable view of these shortcomings and
+her generous heart was not likely to confound them with genuine
+misdoing.
+
+So the stern condition of Pepsy’s freedom had become something of a dead
+letter, except in her own fearful fancy, and particularly when that
+discordant voice of the bridge spoke ominously of her peril.
+
+Pepsy had been trusted and had proven worthy of the trust. She had never
+known any mother or father, nor any home save the institution from which
+Aunt Jamsiah had rescued her, and she had grown to love her kindly
+guardians and the old farm where she had much work but also much
+freedom. “Chores will keep her out of mischief,” Aunt Jamsiah had said.
+
+Wiggle’s ancestry and social standing were quite as much a mystery as
+Pepsy’s; he was not an aristocrat, that is certain, and having no
+particular chores to do was free to devote his undivided time to
+mischief; he concentrated on it, as the saying is, and thereby
+accomplished wonders. He was Pepsy’s steady comrade and the partner of
+all her adventurous escapades.
+
+Pepsy was not romantic and imaginative; her freckled face and tightly
+braided red hair and thin legs with wrinkled cotton stockings, protested
+against that. She had a simple mind with a touch of superstition. It was
+a kind of morbid dread of the institution she had left which had
+conjured that ramshackle old bridge up on the highway into an ominous
+voice of warning. She hated the bridge and dreaded it as a thing
+haunted.
+
+Pee-wee soon became close friends with these two, and from a rather
+cautious and defensive beginning Pepsy soon fell victim to the spell of
+the little scout, as indeed every one else did. Pepsy did not surrender
+without a struggle. She showed Pee-wee the woodchuck hole and Pee-wee,
+after a minute’s skillful search, showed her the other hole, or back
+entrance, under a stone wall.
+
+“There are always two,” he told her, “and one of them is usually under a
+stone wall. They’re smart, woodchucks are.”
+
+“Are they as smart as you?” she wanted to know.
+
+“Smarter,” Pee-wee admitted, generously; “they’re smarter than skunks
+and even skunks are smarter than I am.”
+
+“I like you better than skunks,” she said. Wiggle seemed to be of the
+same opinion. “I like all the scouts on account of you,” she said.
+
+No one could be long in Pee-wee’s company without hearing about the
+scouts; he was a walking (or rather a running and jumping) advertisement
+of the organization. He told Pepsy about tracking and stalking and
+signaling and the miracles of cookery which his friend Roy Blakeley had
+performed.
+
+“Can he cook better than you?” Pepsy wanted to know, a bit dubiously.
+
+“Yes, but I can eat more than he can,” Pee-wee said. And that seemed to
+relieve her.
+
+“I can make a locust come to me,” he added, and suiting the action to
+the word he emitted a buzzing sound which brought a poor deluded locust
+to his very hand. At such wonder-working she could only gape and stare.
+Wiggle appeared to claim the locust as a souvenir of the scout’s magic.
+
+“You let it go, Wiggle,” Pee-wee said. “If you want to be a scout you
+can’t kill anything that doesn’t do any harm. But you can kill snakes
+and mosquitoes if you want to.” Evidently it was the dream of Wiggle’s
+life to be a scout for he released the locust to Pee-wee, wagging his
+tail frantically.
+
+“You have to be loyal, too,” the young propagandist said; “that’s a
+rule. You have to be helpful and think up ways to help people. No matter
+what happens you have to be loyal.”
+
+“Do you have to be loyal to orphan homes?” Pepsy wanted to know. “If
+they lick you do you have to be loyal to them?”
+
+Here was a poser for the scout. But being small Pee-wee was able to
+wriggle out of almost anything. “You have to be loyal where loyalty is
+due,” he said. “That’s what the rule says; it’s Rule Two. But, anyway,
+there’s another rule and that’s Rule Seven and it says you have to be
+kind. You can’t be kind licking people, that’s one sure thing. So it’s a
+teckinality that you don’t have to be loyal to an orphan home. You can
+ask any lawyer because that’s what you call logic.”
+
+“Deadwood Gamely’s father is a lawyer,” Pepsy said, “and I _hate_
+Deadwood Gamely and I wouldn’t go to his house to ask his father. He’s a
+smarty and I hit him with a tomato. Have I got a right to do that—if
+he’s a smarty?”
+
+Here was another legal technicality, but Pee-wee was equal to the
+occasion. “A—a scout has to be a—he has to have a good aim,” he said.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                               A BIG IDEA
+
+
+They had been driving the cows home during this learned exposition on
+scouting. Two things were now perfectly clear to Pepsy’s simple mind.
+One, that she would be loyal at any cost, loyal to her new friend, and
+through him to all the scouts. She knew them only through him. They were
+a race of wonder-workers away off in the surging metropolis of
+Bridgeboro. She could not aspire to be one of them, but she could be
+loyal, she could “stick up” for them.
+
+The other matter which was now settled, once and for all, was that it
+was all right to throw a tomato at a person you hated provided only that
+you hit the mark. Aunt Jamsiah had been all wrong in her anger at that
+exploit which had stirred the village. For to throw a tomato at the son
+of Lawyer Gamely was aiming very high.
+
+The son of Lawyer Gamely had a Ford and worked in the bank at Baxter
+City and was a mighty sport who wore white collars and red ties and said
+that “Everdoze was asleep and didn’t have brains enough to lie down,”
+and all such stuff.
+
+Pee-wee let down the bars while the patient cows waited, and Scout
+Wiggle (knowing that a scout should be helpful) gave the last cow a snip
+on the leg to help her along.
+
+Here, at these rustic bars, ended Pepsy’s chores for the day and in the
+delightful interval before supper she and Pee-wee lolled in the
+wellhouse by the roadside. Wiggle, with characteristic indecision,
+chased the cows a few yards, returned to his companions, darted off to
+chase the cows again, deserted that pastime with erratic suddenness, and
+returned again wagging his tail and looking up intently as if to ask,
+“What next?” Then he lay down panting. Mr. Ellsworth, Pee-wee’s
+scoutmaster, would have said that Wiggle lacked method....
+
+“If I had a lot of money,” Pepsy said, “you could teach me all the
+things that scouts know and I’d pay you ever so much. Once I had forty
+cents but I spent it at the Mammoth Carnival. I paid ten cents to throw
+six balls so I could get a funny doll and I never hit the doll and when
+I only had ten cents left I made believe the doll was Deadwood Gamely
+and I hated and _hated_ with all my might while I threw the ball the
+last six times but I couldn’t hit the doll.”
+
+“You can’t aim so good when you’re mad,” Pee-wee said, “so if you want
+to hit somebody with a tomato or an egg or anything like that you must
+have kind thoughts about the person that you’re aiming at, only you’re
+not supposed to throw tomatoes and eggs and things because you can have
+more fun eating them. I wouldn’t waste a tomato on that feller because
+anyway you’ve got your tongue.”
+
+“You can’t sass him,” said Pepsy, “because he uses big words and he’s
+such a smarty and he makes you feel silly and then you begin to cry and
+get mad. When he says I’m an orphan and things—and things—Wiggle hates
+him, too, don’t you, Wiggle?” The girl was almost crying then and
+Pee-wee comforted her.
+
+“Do you think I don’t know any long words?” he said. “I know some of the
+longest words that were ever invented and—and—even I can make special
+ones myself. Once I—don’t you cry—once I was kept in in school and Julia
+Carson was kept in too, because she wriggled in her seat—you know how
+girls do. I had to choose a word and write it a hundred times and I
+didn’t want to get through too soon, because I wanted to get out the
+same time she did. So I chose the word incomprehensibility, and I—”
+
+“Is that girl pretty?” Pepsy wanted to know. “She’s got a wart on her
+finger. It’s the best one I ever saw,” Pee-wee said. “She’s afraid to
+get in a boat, that girl is.”
+
+“I hate her,” Pepsy said.
+
+“What for?” Pee-wee inquired. “Because she has a wart? Don’t you know
+it’s good luck to have warts?”
+
+“Because—because she was bad and had to stay after school,” Pepsy said.
+
+“That shows how much you know about logic,” Pee-wee said, “because I had
+to stay too and I was worse than she was. So there.”
+
+“_I_ wouldn’t be afraid to get in a boat,” Pepsy said proudly.
+
+“I never said she was like you,” Pee-wee declared. “She’s not a tomboy.”
+
+Pepsy seemed comforted.
+
+“You leave that feller to me,” Pee-wee said. “I can handle Roy Blakeley
+and all his patrol and they’re a lot of jolliers—they think they’re so
+smart.”
+
+“I like you better than all of them,” Pepsy said. “Sometimes I’m kept
+after school too, you can ask Miss Bellison.”
+
+“One thing sure, I like you well enough to be partners with you,”
+Pee-wee said. “Do you want me to tell you something? I thought of a way
+to make a lot of money, and if I do I’m going to buy three new tents for
+our troop. Do you want to go partners with me? We’ll say the tents are
+from both of us and we’ll have a lot of fun.”
+
+“I had a dollar once and I sent it to the heathens,” Pepsy said, “and
+I’d rather help you than the heathens, because I like you better.”
+
+“Heathens are all right,” Pee-wee said, “and I’m not saying anything
+against heathens, especially wild ones, but we’re just as wild. You
+ought to go to Temple Camp and see how wild we are.”
+
+He did not look very wild as he sat upon the narrow seat with his knees
+drawn up and his scout hat on the back of his head showing his curly
+hair. The girl gazed at his natty khaki attire, the row of merit badges
+on his sleeve, the trophies of his heroic triumphs. She was not the
+first to feel the lure of a uniform. But it was the first uniform she
+had ever seen at close range, for in the wartime she had been in that
+frowning brick structure which still haunted her.
+
+“I’ll help you because you can do everything and you know a lot,” she
+said.
+
+In the fullness of her generosity and loyalty to Pee-wee’s prowess she
+never reminded him or even thought of the things she could do which he
+could not. She would not do her little optional chore of milking a cow
+for fear he might perceive her superiority in this little item of
+proficiency. Poor girl, she was a better scout than she knew.
+
+“If you think it up I’ll do all the work, and then we’ll be even,” she
+said.
+
+So Pee-wee told her of the colossal scheme which his lively imagination
+had conceived.
+
+“It all started with a hot frankfurter,” he said. “If I hadn’t bought a
+hot frankfurter I wouldn’t have thought of it. So that shows you how
+important a frankfurter is—kind of. Maybe a person might get to be a
+millionaire just starting with a frankfurter, you never can tell....”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+
+                              MAKING PLANS
+
+
+“I bought that frankfurter at a shack up on the highway and while I was
+eating it I just happened to think that as long as there’s lots of fruit
+and things here and as long as you know how to make fudge, we’d start a
+shack right here in this wellhouse and sell lemonade and fruit and fudge
+and cookies and things, and if we make lots of money I’d go up to Baxter
+City and buy some auto accessories like spark plugs and tire tape and
+things and we’d sell those, too. We’d put signs on the trees along the
+road telling people to stop here and I know how to make up signs so as
+to get people good and hungry. You have them say that things are _hot in
+the pan_ and you have to have drinks with names like _arctic_ and all
+like that. I know how to make them hungry and thirsty and I’ve got a
+balloon that I can blow up—see? And we’d print something on it and tie
+it to Wiggle’s tail and make him walk up and down the road. What do you
+say? Isn’t it a peachy scheme? Will you help me?”
+
+No dream of Pee-wee’s could be impossible of fulfillment. With him, to
+try was to succeed, according to Pepsy’s simple and unbounded faith. The
+plan _must_ be all right, and wondrous in its possibilities. It was an
+inspiration—born of a frankfurter. It was not for poor Pepsy to take
+issue with this master mind.
+
+Yet she did venture to say, “Not very many autos come down here, only a
+few that go through to Berryville. Licorice Stick—”
+
+“That’s a dandy name,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“He goes by a dozen times a day, but he hasn’t got any money, and Mr.
+Flint goes by but he’s a miser and Doctor Killem goes by in his buggy
+and he says people eat too much—”
+
+“He’s crazy!” Pee-wee shouted.
+
+“And that’s everybody that goes by except a few when they have the town
+fair in Berryville.”
+
+For a moment Pee-wee paused, balked but not beaten. “There’s going to be
+an Uncle Tom’s Cabin show in Berryville,” he said, “and the town fair,
+that’s two things. Let’s start in and maybe later there’ll be some
+summer boarders in Berryville. We’ll have waffles—I can make those. And
+we’ll have lemonade and fruit and all kinds of things and when you’re
+doing your chores I’ll tend counter. We’ll make a lot of money, you see
+if we don’t.”
+
+In her generous confidence, Pepsy was quite carried away by Pee-wee’s
+enthusiasm. She knew (who better than she?) that strangers never came
+along that lonely by-road. But she believed that somehow they _would_
+come when the scout waved his magic wand.
+
+“And I’ll make cookies,” she said, “and all the things to eat and you
+can print the signs—”
+
+“And shout to the people going by,” Pee-wee concluded enthusiastically.
+“You have to yell ALL HOT! THEY’RE ALL HOT! Just like that.”
+
+Few could resist this, Pepsy least of all. “Let’s go and ask Aunt
+Jamsiah about it right now,” she said.
+
+“Let _me_ do it, I know how to handle her,” said Pee-wee.
+
+And Pepsy deferred to the master mind, as usual....
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+
+                          IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
+
+
+Permission to use the wellhouse once secured, preparations for the vast
+enterprise progressed rapidly. The very next day, while Pepsy was at her
+chores, Pee-wee built a counter in the shack and sitting at this he
+printed signs to be displayed along the woody approaches to this
+mouth-watering dispensary.
+
+Neither the gloomy predictions of his uncle nor the laughing skepticism
+of his aunt dimmed his enterprising ardor. The signs which he printed
+with his uncle’s crate stencil, procured from the barn, bespoke the
+variety of tempting offerings which existed so far only in his fertile
+mind.
+
+He was somewhat handicapped in the preparation of these signs by the
+largeness of the perforated letters of the stencil and the limited size
+of the cards. He had preferred cards to paper because they would not
+blow and tear and Aunt Jamsiah had given him a pile of these, uniform in
+size, on one side of which had been printed election notices of the
+previous year. It was impossible, therefore, for Pee-wee to include all
+of each tempting announcement on one card, so he used two cards for each
+reminder to the public. Thus on one card he printed FRANKFURTERS and on
+its mate intended for posting just below, the palate-tickling
+conclusion, SIZZLING HOT.
+
+                              FRANKFURTERS
+                             SIZZLING HOT ⇾
+
+This is how the sign would appear upon some fence or tree. It would be a
+knockout blow to any hungry wayfarer.
+
+Another two-card sign, intended for warmer weather, read:
+
+                               ICE CREAM
+                           ⇽ COLD AND COOLING
+
+Other signs originating in Pee-wee’s fertile mind and covering the range
+of food and drink and auto accessories were these:
+
+                              PEANUT TAFFY
+                         SWEET AND DELICIOUS ⇾
+
+                             OUR TIRE TAPE
+                           ⇽ STICKS LIKE GLUE
+
+                                NON SKID
+                                CHAINS ⇾
+
+                                 FRESH
+                               ⇽ BANANAS
+
+                                 DRINK
+                             SWEET CIDER ⇾
+
+                                 MAGIC
+                            ⇽ CARBON REMOVER
+
+There were many others, enough to decorate the road for miles in both
+directions. If Pepsy as chef could live up to Pee-wee’s promises the
+neighborhood would soon become famous. That was her one forlorn hope,
+that the fame of their offerings would get abroad and lure the traffic
+from its wonted path. But Pee-wee’s enthusiasm and energy carried all
+before them like a storming column and she was soon as hopeful and
+confident as he.
+
+When her chores were finished that afternoon she hurried to their
+refreshment parlor, where Pee-wee sat behind the new counter like a
+stern schoolmaster, cards strewn about him, his round face black with
+stencil ink, still turning out advertising bait for the public.
+
+“I don’t care what they say,” she panted; “we’re going to make a lot of
+money and buy the tents. I tripped on the third step in the house just
+now and that means surely we’ll have good luck and I can help just as
+much as if I was a really truly scout, can’t I? Aunt Jamsiah says if I
+make a lot of doughnuts you’ll just eat them all and there won’t be any
+to sell. We mustn’t eat the things ourselves, must we?”
+
+“That shows how much she knows,” Pee-wee said; “we might have to do that
+to make the people hungry. If they see me eating a doughnut and looking
+very happy, won’t that make them want to buy some? We have upkeep
+expenses, don’t we?”
+
+“Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell her that,” Pepsy said, “but I never
+thought of it. You always think of things. I’m going to wash the ink off
+your face, so hold still.”
+
+She dipped her gingham apron under the trap-door in the flooring where
+the clear, cool water was, and taking his chin in her coarse little
+freckly hands, washed the face of her hero and partner. And meanwhile
+Wiggle tugged on her apron as if he thought she were inflicting some
+injury upon the boy.
+
+So blinded was Pee-wee by this vigorous bath and so preoccupied the
+others that for the moment none of them noticed the young fellow of
+about twenty who, with hat tilted rakishly on the side of his head and
+cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth, stood in the road
+watching them.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                     DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS
+
+
+Deadwood Gamely was the village sport and enjoyed a certain prestige
+because his father was a lawyer. He was also somewhat of an object of
+awe because he went to Baxter City every day, and worked in the bank
+there.
+
+His ramshackle Ford roadster was considered an evidence of the terribly
+reckless extravagance of his habits, but it was really nothing more than
+a sort of pocketbook, since all his money went into it, and a very
+shabby one at that. He had a cheap wit and swaggeringly condescending
+air which he practiced on the simple inhabitants of Everdoze, and in his
+banter he was not always kind. Yet notwithstanding that he was tawdry
+both in dress and speech the villagers did not venture much into the
+conversational arena with him because they knew that they were not his
+equals in banter and retort.
+
+“Hello, little orphan Annie,” he said. “Bungel was telling me the wagon
+is coming for you pretty soon. Over the hill to the poorhouse. Ever hear
+that song? What’s that you’ve got there, a soldier? Watcher doing with
+him? Lucky kid, _I’d_ like to be a soldier.”
+
+“What were you, a slacker?” Pee-wee shouted.
+
+This was not the kind of retort that Deadwood Gamely was accustomed to
+hearing and he gave a quick look at the small stranger in khaki who sat
+behind the counter like a judge on the bench staring straight at him.
+
+“Don’t get him riled,” Pepsy whispered. “He likes to get me riled so’s
+just to make me feel silly; it’s—it’s Deadwood Gamely. He’s always
+togged out swell like that,” she added fearfully.
+
+“The only thing that’s swell about him is his head,” said Pee-wee in his
+loudest voice. “Don’t you be scared of him, I’m here.”
+
+“What’s that?” said the young man in a tone intended to be darkly
+menacing.
+
+“You’d better put your hat on the top of your head or it’ll blow off,”
+said Pee-wee. “I said that I’m here. Let’s hear you deny it. If I was a
+crow I might be afraid of you.”
+
+Slightly taken aback by his ready retorts, the young man could only say,
+“If you were a crow, hey?” He stepped a little closer to the counter but
+the ominous advance did not alarm Pee-wee in the least. He sat behind
+his card-strewn counter holding the stencil brush like a sort of weapon
+ready to besmear that face of sneering assurance if its owner ventured
+too near.
+
+“So I’m a scarecrow, eh?” Mr. Gamely said with a side glance at Pepsy.
+He was not going to have her witness his discomfiture at the hands of
+this glib little stranger. Moreover, a slur at his personal splendor was
+a very grave matter and not to be overlooked.
+
+“I don’t like fresh kids,” said Mr. Deadwood Gamely, advancing with an
+air of veiled menace. “Sometimes they get so fresh they have to be
+salted a little. Don’t you think you’d better take that back?”
+
+Pepsy waited, fearful, breathless.
+
+“Sure I will,” said Pee-wee; “the next scarecrow I meet I’ll apologize
+to him.”
+
+Deadwood Gamely paused. His usual procedure in an affair of this kind
+would have been to advance quickly, ruffle his victim’s hair in a
+goading kind of swaggerish good humor and send him sprawling. He would
+not really have hurt a youngster like Pee-wee but he would have made him
+look and feel ridiculous.
+
+But a glance at Pee-wee’s gummy stencil brush reminded Mr. Gamely that
+discretion was the better part of valor. A dexterous dab or two of that
+would have put an end to all his glory. Pee-wee left no doubt about
+this.
+
+“This summer-house is on private land,” he said, “and I’m the boss of
+it. If you try to get fresh with me I’ll paint you blacker—blacker than
+a—than a tomato could—I will. You come ten steps nearer, I _dare_ you
+to.”
+
+Gamely paused irresolute, at which Pepsy, under protection of her
+partner’s terrible threat, set up a provoking laugh. Wiggle, appearing
+to sense the situation, began to bark uproariously. There was nothing
+for the baffled village sport to do but retreat as gracefully as he
+could.
+
+“Can’t you take a joke?” he said weakly. “Do you think I’d hurt you?”
+
+“I _know_ you wouldn’t,” said Pee-wee; “you wouldn’t get the chance. You
+think you’re smart, don’t you, talking about the wagon coming to get her
+and getting her all scared.”
+
+[Illustration: MR. GAMELY DECIDES TO KEEP AWAY FROM PEE-WEE’S BRUSH.]
+
+Deadwood Gamely broke into a very excessive but false laugh. “No harm
+intended,” he said, vaulting on to the fence and sitting discreetly at
+that distance. “What’s all this going on here? Going to have a circus or
+play store or something?”
+
+Pee-wee was always magnanimous in victory. Abiding enmity was a thing he
+knew not. So now he laid down his stencil brush (within easy reach) and
+said, “We’re going to start a refreshment shack and sell fruit and
+lemonade and waffles and things and maybe auto accessories and
+souvenirs.”
+
+Pepsy seemed a bit uncomfortable as Pee-wee said this, perhaps just a
+trifle ashamed. She was afraid that this clever, sophisticated young
+fellow would ridicule their enterprise, as indeed there was good reason
+to do. Yet she felt ashamed, too, of her momentary faithlessness to
+Pee-wee.
+
+“Maybe some people will pass here when they have the carnival at
+Berryville,” she said, half apologetically.
+
+To her surprise Deadwood Gamely, instead of emitting an uproarious,
+mocking laugh, appeared to be thinking.
+
+“Bully for you,” he finally said, looking all about as if to size up the
+surroundings. “Right on the job, hey? I’d like to buy some stock in that
+enterprise. Whose idea is it? Yours, kiddo?”
+
+“We’re going to make money enough to buy three tents for the scout troop
+I belong to,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“Visiting here, hey?”
+
+“I live in Bridgeboro, New Jersey; I’m here for the summer.”
+
+Deadwood Gamely sat on the fence still looking about him and whistling.
+Then, instead of bursting forth in derisive merriment as Pepsy dreaded
+he would do, he made an astonishing remark.
+
+“I tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “You kids take care of the place and
+furnish the fruit and stuff and I’ll put up the coin for all the stuff
+you have to buy—chewing gum, and accessories, and souvenirs and junk
+that has to be got in the city, and we’ll share even. I’ll put up the
+capital and be a silent partner. How does that strike you? You two will
+be the active partners. We’ll make the thing go big. I mean what I say.”
+
+“What’s a silent partner?” Pee-wee demanded.
+
+“Oh, that’s just the fellow that puts up the money and keeps in the
+background sort of, and nobody knows he’s interested.”
+
+“I’d rather be a noisy partner,” Pee-wee said. “I wouldn’t be silent for
+anybody, I wouldn’t.” Deadwood Gamely paused a moment, smiling. “No, but
+you could keep a secret, couldn’t you?” he asked.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI
+
+                   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....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                       THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
+
+
+The next morning Pee-wee strode forth and made the magnanimous sacrifice
+heroically. He found Deadwood Gamely in front of Simeon Drowser’s
+village store, talking with two men who sat in an auto.
+
+The auto was so large and handsome that it looked out of place in front
+of Simeon Drowser’s store, and the men who occupied it looked like city
+men. It encouraged Pee-wee (or rather confirmed his assurance of
+success) to see this sumptuous car in Everdoze, for it proved that
+people did come to that sequestered village. He pictured these two
+prosperous looking business men with frankfurters in their hands, their
+mouths dripping with mustard.
+
+Pee-wee was nothing if not self-possessed, his scout uniform was his
+protection, and he strode up and spoke quite to the point to the young
+fellow who leaned against the car with one foot on the running board.
+
+“We decided not to take you in as a partner,” he said, “because we want
+to have it all to ourselves and I came to tell you.”
+
+Deadwood Gamely seemed rather taken aback, but whether it was because of
+this refusal of his offer, or because Pee-wee’s loud announcement
+embarrassed him before the strangers it would be hard to say. Seeing
+that the diminutive scout no longer held the deadly stencil brush he
+removed Pee-wee’s hat with a swaggering good humor, ruffled his hair,
+and said (rather disconcertedly), “All right, kiddo; so long.”
+
+Pee-wee had anticipated an argument with Gamely and he was surprised at
+the promptness and agreeableness of his dismissal. Two things, one seen
+and one heard, remained in his memory as he trudged back to the farm.
+One was a brief case lying on the back seat of the auto on which was
+printed WALLACE CONSTRUCTION CO. The other was something he heard one of
+the men say after he had returned a little way along the road.
+
+“I didn’t think you were such a fool,” the man said, evidently to young
+Gamely. Within a few seconds more the auto was rolling away.
+
+It seemed to Pee-wee that Gamely had told the men of his proposal to
+join the big enterprise and that they had denounced his wisdom and
+judgment. But Pee-wee was not the one to be discouraged by that. “Maybe
+they know all about construction,” he said to himself, “but that’s not
+saying they know all about refreshment shacks. I bet they don’t know any
+more about eats than I do.” Which in all probability was the case.
+
+On the way back to the farm, Pee-wee noticed in a field the most
+outlandish scarecrow he had ever seen. It was sitting on a stone wall,
+and it must have been a brave crow that would have ventured within a
+mile of that ridiculous bundle of rags. The face was effectually
+concealed by a huge hat as is the case with most scarecrows, and all the
+cast-off clothing of Everdoze for centuries back seemed combined here in
+incongruous array.
+
+What was Pee-wee’s consternation when he beheld this figure actually
+descend from the fence and come shambling over toward him. If the legs
+were not on stilts they were certainly the longest legs he had ever
+seen, and they must have been suspended by a kind of universal joint for
+they moved in every direction while bringing their burden forward.
+
+Upon this absurd being’s closer approach, Pee-wee perceived it to be a
+negro as thin and tall as a clothespole, and so black that the blackness
+of sin would seem white by comparison and the arctic night like the
+blazing rays of midsummer. This was Licorice Stick whose home was
+nowhere in particular, whose profession was everything and chiefly
+nothing.
+
+“I done seed yer comin’,” he said with a smile a mile long which shone
+in the surrounding darkness like the midnight sun of Norway. His teeth
+were as conspicuous as tombstones, and on close inspection Pee-wee saw
+that his tattered regalia was held together by a system of safety pins
+placed at strategic points. The terrible responsibility of suspenders
+was borne by a single strand consisting of a key ring chain connected
+with a shoe lace and this ran through a harness pin which, if the worst
+came to the worst, would act as a sort of emergency stop. Licorice Stick
+was built in the shape of a right angle, his feet being almost as long
+as his body and they flapped down like carpet beaters when he walked.
+
+“You stayin’ wib Uncle Eb?” he asked. “I seed yer yes’day. I done hear
+yer start a sto.”
+
+“A what?” Pee-wee asked, as they walked along together.
+
+“A sto—you sell eats, hey?”
+
+“Oh, you mean a _store_,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“I help you,” said the lanky stranger; “me’n Pepsy, we good friends. She
+hab to go back to dat workhouse, de bridge it say so. Dat bridge am a
+sperrit.”
+
+“You’re crazy,” Pee-wee said. “What’s the use of being scared at an old
+rattly bridge. If you want to help us I’ll tell you how you can do it. I
+made a lot of signs and you can tack them all up on the trees along the
+road for us if you want to. I’ll show you just how to do it.”
+
+No one was at the shack when they reached it for Pepsy was about her
+household duties, so she had no knowledge of this new recruit in their
+enterprise. Pee-wee’s conscience was clear in this matter, however, for
+he had enlisted Licorice Stick as an employee, at the staggering salary
+of twenty-five cents a week; there was no thought of his being a
+partner. The willing assistance of his new friend would leave his own
+time free for more important duties, and the advertising work once done,
+Licorice Stick was to devote his time to catching fish for the “sto” and
+other incidental duties.
+
+Pee-wee now arranged his advertising masterpieces in order for posting.
+The imposing type on the cards impressed Licorice Stick deeply. He could
+not read two words but he seemed to sense the sensational announcements,
+and the arrow which Pee-wee had made on each card to indicate the
+direction of the shack was regarded by him as a sort of mystic symbol.
+
+“This is the way you have to do,” Pee-wee said; “now pay attention,
+because it pays to advertise. There are two cards for each sign, see?”
+
+“Dey’s nice black print,” Licorice Stick said with reverent
+appreciation. “En dey’s de magic sign, too.”
+
+“That tells them where the place is,” Pee-wee said. “Now, you keep the
+cards just the way I give them to you and always tack them up with the
+arrow pointing _this way_, see? Here’s a hammer and here’s some tacks.
+When you come to a nice big tree or a wooden fence or an old barn,
+you’re supposed to tack them up, and be sure to do it the way I tell
+you. Now, suppose you’re going to tack up the first card—the one on the
+top of the pile. You tack it up and right close under it you tack up the
+next one, and it will say:
+
+                              FRANKFURTERS
+                             SIZZLING HOT ⇾
+
+“Mmm—_mm!_” exclaimed Licorice Stick, as if a hot frankfurter had
+actually been produced by this ingenious card trick.
+
+“Then you go along a little way,” said Pee-wee, “till you come to
+another good place, maybe a fence or something, and you tack up the next
+one and right underneath it you tack up the next one; always take the
+next one off the top of the pile, see?
+
+                               ICE CREAM
+                           ⇽ COLD AND COOLING
+
+Pee-wee repeated, holding the next two cards up. This palate tickling
+sleight-of-hand seemed like a miracle to the smiling, astonished
+messenger.
+
+Pee-wee seemed a kind of magician summoning up luscious concoctions with
+a magic wand. The fifth and sixth cards were held together for a moment
+and lo, Licorice Stick listened to the mouth-watering announcement that
+peanut taffy was sweet and delicious.
+
+No “sperrit” of Licorice Stick’s acquaintance had ever cast a spell like
+this. They had called in weird voices but they had never contrived a
+menu before his very eyes.
+
+He went forth armed with the hammer and tacks and a pile of mysterious
+cards, a little proud but trembling a little, too. There was something
+uncanny about this; he would see it through but it was a strange, dark
+business. He shuffled along the road, peering fearfully into the woods
+now and again when suddenly a terrible apparition appeared before him.
+He stood stark still, his eyes bulging out of his head, his hands
+shaking and cold with fear....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII
+
+                             PEPSY’S SECRET
+
+
+“Sally Knapp says we ought to have some barrels to put the money in,”
+said Pepsy as they were decorating their little wayside booth on the day
+of the grand opening. “I don’t care what she says.”
+
+She was feeling encouraged and cheerful for indeed the little
+summer-house looked gay and attractive in its bunting drapery and
+flaunting pennants. Failure could not lurk in such festal array, the tin
+dishpan full of greasy doughnuts, the homemade rolls and fresh sausages
+(which were better than any common wayside frankfurters) would certainly
+lure the hungry thither. The world would seek these things out. And were
+not the people of the grand carnival at Berryville to pass here that
+very day, followed, no doubt, by gay pleasure seekers?
+
+To be sure there were no auto accessories yet, for there was no capital,
+but there was lemonade and candy and cider and homemade ice cream and
+there was Scout Harris wearing a kitchen apron ten times too big for
+him, tied with a wonderful, spreading bow in back, and a paper hat
+spotlessly white.
+
+The advertising department had not reported, but no doubt the woods were
+calling to the wayfarers in glaring red and black, or would as soon as
+the wayfarers put in an appearance. Pepsy wore her Sunday gingham dress
+embellished with a sash of patriotic bunting.
+
+“Don’t you care what the girls say,” Pee-wee advised her as he sat on
+the counter eating a piece of peanut taffy by way of testing the stock,
+so that he might the more honestly recommend it. “I wouldn’t let any
+girls jolly _me_, I wouldn’t. Lots of girls tried to jolly me but they
+never got away with it.”
+
+“Did that girl that was kept after school try to jolly you?” Pepsy
+asked.
+
+“I wouldn’t let any girls jolly me,” Pee-wee said, ignoring the specific
+question and speaking with difficulty, because of the stickiness of the
+taffy. “They think they’re smart, girls do; I don’t mean you, but most
+of them. I know how to handle them all right. They try to make a fool of
+you and then just giggle, but the last laugh is the best, that’s one
+sure thing.”
+
+“I told her she was a freshy,” Pepsy said, “and that she wouldn’t dare
+talk like that in front of you because you’d make a fool of her.”
+
+“I should worry about girls,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“I’m not worrying about our refreshment shack anyway,” Pepsy said,
+“because now I know it will be lots and lots of a success. And maybe you
+can buy four or five tents and lots of other things. Every night in bed
+I keep saying:
+
+                           It has to succeed,
+                           It has to succeed,
+
+and I make believe the floor on the bridge says that instead. But
+sometimes it says I have to go back. When the wind blows this way I can
+hear it loud. I know a secret that I thought of all by myself; I thought
+about it when I was lying in bed listening. And I can make us get lots
+of money, I can make it, oh, lots and lots and _lots_ of a success. So I
+don’t care any more what people say. I told Aunt Jamsiah I knew a secret
+and I could make us get lots of money here and she said I should tell
+her and I wouldn’t.”
+
+“Will you tell me?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+“No, I wouldn’t tell _anybody_.”
+
+“You ought to tell me because we’re partners.”
+
+“I wouldn’t tell anybody,” she said, shaking her head emphatically so
+that her red braids lashed about; “not even if you gave me—as much as a
+dollar....”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                                SUSPENSE
+
+
+Soon the gorgeous chariot containing the carnival paraphernalia came
+lumbering along en route for Berryville. It was a vision of red and gold
+with wheels that looked like pinwheels in a fireworks display.
+
+The one discordant note about it was the rather startling projection of
+the heads and legs of animals here and there as if the wagon were
+returning from a hunt in South Africa. But these were only the
+disconnected parts of a merry-go-round.
+
+Upon the white and silver wind organ which arose out of this ghastly
+display sat a personage in cap and bells with face elaborately decorated
+in every color of the rainbow. He was distributing printed announcements
+to the gaping citizens of Everdoze. Not so much as a frankfurter or a
+glass of lemonade did the people of this motley caravan buy.
+
+It was late in the afternoon and Pee-wee and Pepsy were feeling the
+tedium of waiting when suddenly the sound of merry laughter burst upon
+their ears and somebody said, “Oh, I think it’s perfectly _adorable_ to
+be on the wrong road! I just _adore_ being lost! And I _never_ saw
+anything so _perfectly excruciating_ in my life!”
+
+“It’s an auto full of girls,” said Pee-wee, adjusting his paper hat upon
+his head; “they come from the city, I can tell; you leave them to me.”
+
+“I _never_ saw anything so _adorably funny_ in all my _life”_ the
+partners now heard. “I just have a headache from laughing.”
+
+“I know that kind,” said Pee-wee; “they’ve got the giggles. You leave
+them to me.”
+
+Pepsy was ready enough to defer to the master mind, the more so because
+this approach of their first probable customers gave her a kind of stage
+fright. She was seized with sudden terror and the dishpan full of
+doughnuts shook in her hands as she placed it in full view by Pee-wee’s
+order.
+
+The auto was evidently picking its way along the hubbly road in second
+gear. “We’ll find a place where we can turn around somewhere,” said a
+man’s voice good humoredly.
+
+“Not till we’ve _gorged_ ourselves with food,” the voice of a girl
+caroled forth.
+
+Pee-wee gave his white paper cap a final adjustment, stood the pan of
+taffy enticingly in full view and waited as a pugilist waits, for the
+adversary’s next move.
+
+“I am going to have a saucerful of ground glass, the latest breakfast
+food,” a female voice sang merrily. At which there was a chorus of
+laughter.
+
+“What did she say?” Pepsy asked.
+
+“Girls are crazy,” Pee-wee said.
+
+Pepsy fumbled nervously with the several glasses of lemonade which stood
+temptingly ready on the counter and glanced fearfully but admiringly at
+the genius of this magnificent enterprise. It was the biggest moment in
+her poor little life and Pee-wee was a conquering hero. She placed the
+fudge within his reach and waited in terrible suspense to see him
+operate upon this giggling band of lost pilgrims.
+
+Nearer and nearer the car came and now it poked its big nickel-plated
+nose around the bend and advanced slowly, easily, along the narrow,
+grass grown way. It looked singularly out of place in that wild valley.
+
+A low, melodious horn politely reminded Simeon Drowser, who stood gaping
+in the middle of the road, to withdraw to a safer gaping point. He
+retreated to the platform in front of the post office and consulted with
+Beriah Bungel, the village constable, about this sumptuous apparition.
+Only a couple of hundred feet remained now between the refreshment
+parlor and this party of mirthful victims. If Pepsy’s red hair had been
+short enough it would have stood on end; as it was her fingers tingled
+with mingled appeal and confidence in the head of the firm.
+
+Would it stop? Oh, would it stop? The suspense was terrible.
+
+“F-r-resh doughnuts!” called Pee-wee in a sonorous voice. “Ice cold
+lemonade! It’s _ice cold_! Get your fudge here!”
+
+Pepsy looked admiringly upon her hero. She would not have dared to
+obtrude into the negotiations which seemed at hand. She gazed wistfully
+at a half dozen girls in fresh, colorful, summer array as only a little
+red-headed orphan girl in a gingham dress can do. She gazed at the big,
+palatial touring car with eyes spellbound. It was thus that the Indians
+first gazed upon the ships of Columbus.
+
+[Illustration: PEE-WEE TRIPPED ON HIS APRON AND WENT SPRAWLING.]
+
+“Hot frankfurters,” shouted Pee-wee from behind his counter. “They’re
+all hot! Here you are! Get your fresh sweet cider! Five a glass!
+Doughnuts six for a dime! All fresh!”
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV
+
+                           SIX MERRY MAIDENS
+
+
+“What kind of nuts did you say?” called a girl merrily, as the car
+stopped.
+
+“Doughnuts,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“We thought maybe everybody here were nuts,” laughed the man who was
+driving.
+
+“I’d like a nice saucerful of ground glass,” laughed one of the girls.
+“Can you serve carbon remover with it?”
+
+“Oh, isn’t he just too cute!” another girl said. “Could we get a little
+of your _delicious_ tire tape, we’re so hungry? What are you all going
+to drink, girls? We’ll have six glasses of carbon remover, if you
+please, and, let’s see, we’ll have six plates of ice cream hot out of
+the oven.”
+
+“Do you think you can jolly me?” said the head of the firm. “I’ll give
+you some carpet tacks to eat if you’d like them.”
+
+“Oh, wouldn’t those be _too scrumptuous_,” another girl said. “Do you
+serve peanut glue with them?”
+
+“I’ll give you some fried fish-hooks,” Pee-wee shot back with blighting
+sarcasm.
+
+“Yes, but what we’d like most of _all_ is the ground glass,” said
+another girl. “Is it chocolate or vanilla flavor?” At which they all
+giggled, while the man smiled broadly.
+
+“What flavor glass are you going to have, Esther?” a girl asked.
+
+“Oh, I think I’ll take cathedral glass,” caroled forth another; “I think
+it’s more digestible than window glass, if it’s properly cooked.” At
+which there was another chorus of laughter.
+
+The terrible conqueror, who intended to subdue this bevy of giggling
+maidens and cast a blight upon their levity, stood behind his counter
+like a soldier making a last stand in a third line trench, while Pepsy,
+captivated by the mirthful assailants, laughed uncontrollably.
+
+The head of the firm saw that this was no time for dallying measures,
+his own partner was laughing, and even Wiggle was barking uproariously
+at Pee-wee as if he had shamelessly gone over to the enemy.
+
+“Oh, it’s just—too _excruciatingly funny_ for anything!” one of the
+girls laughed. “I _never_ in my _life_ heard of such—Oh, look at him!
+_Look at him!_ Hold me or I’ll _collapse_!”
+
+Pee-wee had come around from behind the counter, tripped on his long
+white apron and gone sprawling on the ground, and the faithless Wiggle,
+taking advantage of this inglorious mishap, started pulling on the apron
+with all his might and main. Loyal Pepsy was only human, and tears of
+laughter streamed down her cheeks, and the neighboring woodland echoed
+to the sound of the unholy mirth in the auto.
+
+A large frying fork which Pee-wee used as a sort of magnet to attract
+trade was still in his hand and by means of this he caught his white
+paper cap as it blew away, piercing it as if it were a fresh doughnut.
+It was indeed the only instance of triumph for him in the tragic affair.
+He arose, with Wiggle still tugging at his apron, his face decorated
+with colorful earth, his eyes glaring defiance.
+
+The driver of the auto, who seemed to be a kindly man, put an end to
+this unequal and hopeless struggle of the scout, by ordering a round of
+lemonade and purchasing fifty cents’ worth of doughnuts. “When you have
+a few minutes to spare,” he said in a companionable undertone, “stroll
+up the road and look about; the scenery is beautiful.”
+
+“What do you mean?” Pee-wee demanded .
+
+“And be sure to take some salted spark plugs with you in case you get
+lost in the woods,” one of the girls chirped teasingly as the auto
+started. And the victim distinctly heard another say, as the big car
+rolled away: “It’s a _shame_ to tease him; he’s just too cute for
+anything. I could just _kiss_ him. But it was so excruciatingly funny.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                              A REVELATION
+
+
+“What are you laughing at?” Pee-wee demanded to know, as soon as he had
+regained his poise and dignity. “You’re as bad as they are.”
+
+“I couldn’t _help_ laughing,” Pepsy said remorsefully, “’specially when
+you fell down. You said you were going to handle them.”
+
+“That could happen to the smartest man,” Pee-wee said in scornful
+reproval; “that could happen to—to—to Julius Caesar.”
+
+“He’s dead, you ask Miss Bellison,” said Pepsy timidly.
+
+“That shows how much you know,” said Pee-wee scornfully as he brushed
+off his clothing. “Can’t something be a kind of a thing that could
+happen to somebody who’s dead if he was very smart, only if he wasn’t
+dead? We got a dollar and ten cents from them, didn’t we?”
+
+“Yes, but—did you—did you—handle them?” Pepsy asked fearfully.
+
+“There are different ways of handling people,” Pee-wee said; “you can’t
+handle people that are crazy, can you? I can handle scoutmasters even.”
+Pepsy was willing to believe anything of her hero and she said, “They
+were a lot of freshies and I hate them anyway.”
+
+Pee-wee did not trouble himself about what the man had said. His chief
+interest was the dollar and ten cents of working capital which they now
+had and how to invest it. In his enthusiasm he had been rather premature
+in his advertisement of auto accessories and he now purposed to make
+good at least one of these announcements by commissioning Simeon Drowser
+to buy some ten-cent rolls of tire tape for him at Baxter City, whither
+Simeon went daily.
+
+He started along the road to the post office where he hoped to catch
+Simeon before that worthy left for Baxter City. But he did not reach the
+post office. The first interruption to his progress was one of his own
+two-card signs staring him in the face from a roadside tree
+
+                              CHEWING GUM
+                             FOR PUNCTURES
+
+He paused scowling before this novel announcement.
+
+His gaze then wandered to a fence on which he read the astounding words:
+
+                              PANCAKES FOR
+                               HEADLIGHTS
+
+Alas, the ground glass which should have appeared in place of pancakes
+did duty beneath the single word _EAT_ on another tree nearby. _Eat
+GROUND GLASS_ the hungry motorist was blithely advised.
+
+Nor was this the worst. As Pee-wee penetrated deeper into the woods the
+more terrible was the masquerade of his own enticing signs. His
+stenciled cards, deserting their lawful mates, had struck up ghastly
+unions with other cards proclaiming frightful items of refreshment to
+the appalled wayfarer who was reminded of _NON-SKID BANANAS_ and advised
+that _OUR PEANUT TAFFY STICKS LIKE GLUE_. The faithless _TIRE TAPE_
+which should have surmounted the _STICK LIKE GLUE_ card was nestling
+under the fatal _EAT_, while _FRANKFURTERS COLD AND COOLING_ and _ICE
+CREAM SIZZLING HOT_ met Pee-wee’s astonished gaze. He stood looking at
+this awful sequel of his handiwork.
+
+Most of the cards were besmeared with mud and one or two in such a
+freakish way as to give a curious turn to their meaning. On one card a
+mischievous little rivulet of mud or wetted ink had ingeniously changed
+a T into a crude R and the travelers read _RUBES SOLD HERE_.
+
+Pee-wee contemplated this exhibition with dismay. Wherever he looked, on
+fence or tree, some ridiculous sign stared him in the face. He did not
+continue on to the post office but retraced his steps to the refreshment
+parlor which was the subject of these printed slanders.
+
+He and Pepsy were discussing this miscarriage of their exploitation
+design when a shuffling sound in the distance proclaimed the shambling
+approach of the advertising department. And if Pee-wee had not made good
+his flaunting boast to handle the six merry maidens he at least made
+amends and regained somewhat of his heroic tradition in his handling of
+Licorice Stick.
+
+“What did I tell you to do?” he shouted, his face red with terrible
+wrath. “What did I tell you to do? Do you know the way you put those
+cards up? You made fools of us, that’s what you did!”
+
+“I done gone make no fools ob you, nohow,” Licorice Stick exclaimed. “I
+see a sperrit ’n I shakes like dat, I do. As shu I’m stan’ here I see a
+sperrit in dem woods.”
+
+From a vivid and terrifying narrative the partners made out that while
+Licorice Stick was on his way to embellish the wayside in strict
+accordance with instructions, he had encountered a spirit from the other
+world in the form of the carnival clown whom we have seen pass our
+wayside rest.
+
+The ghostly raiment of this lowly humorist and the motley decoration of
+his face had so frightened Licorice Stick that he had dropped his cards
+and retreated frantically into the woods. When the awful apparition had
+passed he had stealthily shuffled back to the spot and with many furtive
+glances about him had gathered up the cards with trembling hands, and
+proceeded to post them in pairs without regard to their proper order.
+
+After this triumphant exploitation feat (which ought to commend him to
+every lying advertiser in the world) Licorice Stick had shuffled into a
+new path of glory, going to the carnival, where (not finding the sperrit
+in evidence) he had accepted a position to stand behind a piece of
+canvas with his head in an opening and allow people to throw baseballs
+at him.
+
+On hearing this Pee-wee desisted from any further criticism. For, as he
+told Pepsy, “a scout has to be kind and forgiving, and besides when I go
+to the carnival I can plug him in the face with a baseball two or three
+times and then we’ll be square.”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII
+
+                               HARD TIMES
+
+
+If many people went to the carnival they must have approached it from
+the other direction. It was a small carnival and probably did not
+attract much interest outside of Berryville. A few stragglers passed Mr.
+Quig’s farm traveling in buck-boards and farm wagons, but they did not
+come from distant parts and evidently were not hungry. Some were so
+unscrupulous as to bring their lunches with them. One reckless farmer,
+indeed, bought a doughnut and exchanged it for another with a smaller
+hole.
+
+Altogether the neighboring carnival did not bring much business to
+Pee-wee and Pepsy. Aunt Jamsiah took their enterprise good-naturedly;
+Uncle Ebenezer said it was a good thing to keep the children out of
+mischief. Miss Bellison, the young school teacher, bought ten cents’
+worth of taffy each day as a matter of duty, and Beriah Bungel, the town
+constable, being a natural born grafter, helped himself to everything he
+wanted free of charge.
+
+So the pleasant summer days passed and brought them little business.
+Occasionally some lonely auto would crawl along the foliage-arched road,
+its driver looking for a place to turn around so that he might get back
+out of his mistaken way. Most of these were too disgruntled at their
+mistakes and the quality of the road to heed the voice of the tempter
+who shouted at them, “Lemonade, ice cold! Get your lemonade here!” They
+usually answered by asking how they could get to West Baxter. And
+Pee-wee would answer, “You have to go four miles back, get your hot
+doughnuts here.” Then they would start back but they never, _never_ got
+their hot doughnuts there.
+
+If Pee-wee’s stout heart was losing hope he did not show it, but Pepsy
+was frankly in despair. In her free hours she sat in their little
+shelter, her thin, freckly hands busy with the worsted masterpiece that
+she was working. Pee-wee, at least, had his appetite to console him, but
+she had no relish for the stale lemonade and melting, oozy taffy which
+stood pathetically on the counter each night.
+
+One day a lumbering, enclosed auto went by, an undertaker’s car it was,
+and Pepsy was seized with sudden fright lest it be the orphan asylum
+wagon come to get her. The two dominating thoughts of her simple mind
+were the fear that she would have to go back to “that place” and the
+hope that Pee-wee might get the money to buy those precious tents. She
+had learned something of scouting, that scouts camp and live in the
+open, and she had learned something of the good scout laws. She was
+witnessing now an exhibition of scout faith and resolution, of faith
+that was hopeless and resolution that was futile. She was soon to be
+made aware of another scout quality which fairly staggered her and left
+her wondering.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                      THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT
+
+
+One night after dark, Pepsy and Pee-wee were sitting in their little
+roadside pavilion because they preferred it to the lamp-lighted kitchen
+smelling of kerosene where Uncle Ebenezer read the _American Farm
+Journal_, his arms spread on the red covered table.
+
+A cheery little cricket chirped somewhere in this scene of impending
+failure; nearby a katydid was grinding out her old familiar song as if
+it were the latest popular air. In the barn across the yard the
+discordant sound of the horses kicking the echoing boards sounded clear
+in the still night and seemed a part of the homely music of the
+countryside.
+
+Suddenly a speeding auto, containing perhaps its load of merry, heedless
+joy riders, went rattling over the old bridge along the highway and the
+loose planks called out across the interval of woodland to the little
+red-headed girl in this remote shack along the obscure by-road.
+
+                         “You have to go back,
+                         You have to go back,
+                         You have to go back.”
+
+Little did those speeding riders know of the voice they had called up to
+terrify this unknown child. The rattling, warning voice ceased as
+suddenly as it had begun as the unseen car rolled noiselessly along the
+smooth highway.
+
+“Don’t you be scared of it,” Pee-wee said. “You’re as bad as Licorice
+Stick. Those old boards don’t know what they’re talking about. I
+wouldn’t be scared of what anything said unless it was alive, that’s
+sure.”
+
+“They voted not to build a new bridge for two years because they’ve got
+to build a new school-house,” said Pepsy. “That’s because this county
+hasn’t got much money. I’ll be glad when they build it; the floor’s
+going to be made out of stone, like.”
+
+“You mean the bridge?”
+
+“Yes, and I wish they’d hurry up. Every night I hear that and I know
+boards tell the truth, because if a door squeaks that means you’re going
+to get married.”
+
+“All you need is an oil can to keep from getting married then,” said
+Pee-wee, “because if you oil a door it won’t squeak. So there; let’s
+hear you answer that argument.”
+
+There was no answer to that argument; keeping single was just a matter
+of lubrication; but just the same that appalling sentence which had
+become fixed in Pepsy’s mind, haunted her, especially when she lay on
+her feather mattress in the yellow painted bed up in her little room.
+
+She was just about to go in when they were aroused by a sound in the
+distance. Pee-wee thought it was an auto and he made ready to deliver
+his usual verbal assault to the travelers. Louder and louder grew the
+sound and suddenly a motorcycle with no headlight went whizzing past in
+the darkness. It was followed by another, also without any headlight,
+but this second rider stopped a little distance beyond the shack and got
+off his machine.
+
+Something, he knew not what, dissuaded Pee-wee from making his customary
+announcements and he stood in the darkness watching this second speeder
+who seemed to be delayed by some trouble with his machine. The traveler
+was certainly too hurried and preoccupied to think of doughnuts.
+
+Meanwhile, the first cyclist had covered perhaps fifty yards and was
+still going. The little red tail-light of his machine shone brightly.
+Pee-wee was just wondering why these travelers used no headlights and
+whether the first cyclist would return to assist his friend, when he
+beheld something which caught and held his gaze in rapt concentration.
+
+The little red tail-light went out and on four times in quick
+succession. There followed an appreciable pause, then two quick flashes.
+Pee-wee watched the tiny light, spellbound. It appeared for a couple of
+seconds, then flashed twice with lightning rapidity.
+
+“Hide,” Pee-wee repeated to himself and motioned with his hand for Pepsy
+not to move.
+
+Now, in such rapid succession that Pee-wee could hardly follow them, the
+flashes appeared, tinier as the cyclist sped further away.
+
+“_Hide Kelly’s barn_,” Pee-wee breathed.
+
+Presently the second cyclist was on his machine again, speeding through
+the darkness. Either the first cyclist knew that his friend’s trouble
+was not serious, or time was so precious that he could not pause in any
+case. Indeed, their flight must have been urgent to speed on such a road
+without headlights. The whole thing had a rather sinister look. Pee-wee
+wondered who Kelly was and where his barn was located.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+                            THE OTHER VOICE
+
+
+“What do you mean, hide in Kelly’s barn?” Pepsy whispered, greatly
+agitated.
+
+“Can you keep still about it?” Pee-wee said. “Girls can’t keep secrets.
+Can you keep still till I tell you it’s all right to speak?”
+
+“I can keep a secret and not even tell it to you,” she shot back at him
+in spirited defiance. “I know a secret that will—that will—help us
+_sure_ to make lots and lots of money. And I wouldn’t even tell you or
+Aunt Jamsiah, because she tried to make me. So _there_, Mr. Smarty. And
+I don’t care whether you tell me or not if I can’t keep a secret, but
+I’ve got a secret all by myself and it’s that much bigger than yours,”
+she said, spreading out her thin, little arms to include a vast area.
+“And besides that, I _hate_ you,” she added, bursting into tears and
+starting for the house. “And you can have that girl who was kept in
+after school for a partner,” he heard her sobbing as she crossed the
+yard.
+
+Pepsy did not pause to speak with Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah who were
+sitting in the kitchen, but the latter, seeing her in tears, said
+kindly, “No folks passed by to the carnival to-night, Pepsy?”
+
+“Looks like rain,” Uncle Eb said consolingly; “to-morrer’ll be the big
+night when they have the wrestlin’ match. I reckon Jeb Collard n’ all
+his summer folks will go up on th’ hay-rig from West Baxter. You wait
+till to-morrer night, Pep. Mamsy’ll make you up a pan of fresh doughnuts
+fer to-morrer night, won’t you, Mamsy? Don’t you take on now, Pepsy
+girl; you jes’ go ter bed n’ ferget yer troubles.”
+
+“I don’t care about people from West Baxter,” Pepsy said, stamping her
+foot and shaking her head violently, “and I don’t care about the old
+carnival or anything—so _now_. They’re all too stingy—to—to—buy
+things—they’re too _stingy_. I—I—I—don’t care,” she went on fairly in
+hysterics, “he says I can’t—I can’t—keep—keep—a secret—but I’ve got one
+and I won’t tell it to anybody and I thought it up all myself and it
+will _surely_ make lots and lots and lots of people come and buy—and—and
+he’ll see if girls can do things.” She was crying violently and shaking
+like a leaf.
+
+“What is the secret, Pepsy?” Aunt Jamsiah asked gently; “maybe I can
+help you.”
+
+“I won’t tell—I won’t tell _anybody_,” Pepsy sobbed.
+
+They were accustomed to these outbursts of her tense little nature and
+said no more.
+
+Pepsy went up to her little room under the eaves, catching each breath
+and trembling. No wonder they had not understood her at that big brick
+orphan home. No wonder she had hated it. Little as she was, she was too
+big for it.
+
+She was in a mood to torment herself that night and she lay awake to
+listen for that dread voice from across the woods. She lay on her left
+side so they would have good luck next day. She was greatly overwrought
+and when at last she did hear the sound, loud and heartless with its
+sudden beginning and sudden end, it startled and terrorized her as if it
+were indeed that gloomy, windowless equipage of the State Orphan Home,
+coming to take her away.
+
+She pushed her little fingers into her ears so that she could not hear
+it....
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX
+
+                           AN OFFICIAL REBUKE
+
+
+As for Pee-wee, his trouble was quite of another character. The dubious
+outlook for their great enterprise did not submerge his buoyant spirit.
+He had been the genius of many colossal enterprises, most of them
+falling short of his glowing predictions, and his ingenious mind passed
+from one thing to another with no lingering regrets.
+
+He usually invested so much enthusiasm in organization that he had none
+left for maintenance. He did not stick at anything long enough to be
+disappointed in it; there were too many other worlds to be conquered.
+His heart was no longer in the refreshment parlor and he was already
+finding solace in becoming his own solitary customer, by eating the
+taffy which he could not sell.
+
+There had been so few things in Pepsy’s poor little life that she had
+put her whole intense little heart and soul in this and was resolved
+that this hero from the great world of Bridgeboro should buy the tents
+which in plain fact he had already forgotten about.
+
+So it happened that while Pepsy was lying on her left side (one of
+Licorice Stick’s prescriptions) to insure good luck for the morrow,
+Pee-wee was dangling his legs from the counter eating a doughnut.
+
+What concerned him now was this mystery of the speeding cyclists. That
+was the big thing in his young life. He believed them to be fugitives.
+Their reckless speed, and the fact that they used no headlights, gave
+color to this delightful supposition. Little had they thought that this
+diminutive scout, unseen in the darkness, had read that message in the
+Morse Code with perfect ease. _Hide Kelly’s Barn_. What did that mean?
+
+If Pee-wee had liked Beriah Bungel, the Everdoze constable, he would
+have gone to him with this information. But he disliked Beriah Bungel
+with true scout thoroughness; he knew him to be officious, and swelling
+with self-importance and he was not going to put business in such a
+creature’s way.
+
+But the next morning something happened which showed Scout Harris in a
+new light. Going to the post office early in the morning, he saw a sign
+posted on the bulletin board and he read it with lively interest.
+
+                            $250.00 REWARD
+
+  for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
+  thieves who stole two motorcycles from the yard of Chandlers
+  Motorcycle Repair Shop in Baxter City.
+
+  The machines are Indian models bearing license plates 2570 and
+  92632. Both machines are comparatively new.
+
+  Communicate with Austin Sawyer, County prosecutor, County of
+  Borden, Baxter City.
+
+This notice had evidently been brought down by the mail driver early in
+the morning and several distinguished citizens of Everdoze were gathered
+about commenting on it. It seemed certain that none of the Everdoze
+dozers had heard the motorcycles and surely no one in the village would
+have been any the wiser for seeing those quick, tiny flashes, which told
+so much to the scout.
+
+“I heerd somethin’ but ’twan’t no motorcycles,” said Nathaniel Knapp;
+“’twas a auto or I’m crazy.”
+
+Then spoke Beriah Bungel, sticking his thumbs into his suspenders so
+that his rusty-colored coat flapped open showing his imposing badge,
+“They wouldn’ never come this way, they wouldn’, when they got th’
+highway ter go on. They hit inter th’ highway from Baxter, that’s what
+they done. Them fellers hez con-federates waitin’ across th’ state line
+with Noo York license plates. They made th’ line last night; them
+fellers gits as fur as they kin on the first go off. Waal, haow’s
+_re_-freshments?” he added, turning upon Pee-wee.
+
+“You ought to know,” Pee-wee piped up; “you took enough of them.” Which
+caused a laugh among the store loungers.
+
+“When I wuz a youngster if I sassed my elders I got the hickory stick,”
+Beriah said.
+
+“Yes, and when you grew up you got the peppermint sticks and doughnuts
+and things,” Pee-wee shot back.
+
+At this Darius Dragg and Nathaniel Knapp laughed uproariously. Constable
+Bungel saw but one way out of his rather embarrassing situation and that
+was the old approved device of a box on the ears. The official slap
+sounded loud in the little post office and left Pee-wee’s cheek and ear
+tingling.
+
+“I’ll learn yer haow to answer back yer superiors,” said Constable
+Bungel. “We daon’t relish sass from city youngsters daown here, you mind
+that. Naow yer git along aouter here n’ tell yer uncle ter learn yer
+some manners n’ _re_-spect fer th’ law.”
+
+Pee-wee faced him, his cheek flushed, his eyes blazing. “You’re a—you’re
+a—coward—and a _thief_—that’s what you are,” he shouted.
+“You—you—haven’t got brains enough to find two—two —motorcycles—you
+haven’t—all you can do is stand around and eat things that other people
+are trying to sell! You’re a coward and a—a fool—and you owe us as much
+as—a—a dollar. You’d better button your coat up or you’ll—you’ll be
+stealing your own watch—you—you _coward_!”
+
+With this rebuke, which left Beriah gaping, Pee-wee started home,
+holding a hand to his cheek. He was trying hard not to cry, not from
+pain, but from the indignity he had suffered. He had never known such a
+thing in all his life before. He felt shamed, humiliated. His whole
+sturdy little form trembled at the thought of such degradation at the
+hands of a stranger....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+                         SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT
+
+
+Perhaps you will say that Pee-wee was not a good scout to speak with
+such impudent assurance to his elders. But you are to remember what I
+told you about Pee-wee, that everything about him was tremendous except
+his size. He was not always the ideal scout in little things. He was a
+true scout in the big things.
+
+When he reached the shack he found Pepsy waiting for him and he poured
+forth his grievance into her sympathetic ears. “I’ll fix him all right,”
+he said; “he’s a coward, that’s what he is, and he needn’t think I’m
+afraid of him. I’ll get even with him all right. Whenever I make up my
+mind to do a thing I do it, that’s one thing sure.”
+
+“Only we didn’t make a success of our refreshment parlor,” Pepsy
+ventured to say, “but just the same we’re going to because—”
+
+“What do _I_ care about it?” Pee-wee vociferated. “I know a way to get
+two hundred and fifty dollars and that’s more money than we’d ever make
+in this old place. And I’ll have you for my partner just the same. I’m
+going to get two hundred and fifty dollars all at once.”
+
+“Can I see it when you get it?” Pepsy asked.
+
+“You can have half of it because we’re partners,” Pee-wee said,
+recovering something of his former spirits as this new prospect opened
+before him.
+
+“Can’t we have the refreshment parlor any more?” Pepsy asked wistfully.
+“Because, honest and true, we’re going to make lots and lots of money in
+it; I know a way—”
+
+“Listen, Pepsy,” Pee-wee said. “Do you know what the Morse Code is? It’s
+the language they use when they telegraph. Scouts have to know all about
+that. Do you remember when I said _hide Kelly’s barn_ last night? That’s
+what that first feller said to the other one who was stuck. Didn’t you
+notice how his little red light kept flashing away up the road? That’s
+what it meant. They’re hiding in Kelly’s barn and nobody knows it.
+
+“There’s a sign in the post office and it says they’ll give two hundred
+and fifty dollars to anybody who tells where they are. Do you think I’d
+tell Beriah Bungel?” he added contemptuously. “I’m going to tell a man
+named Sawyer, he’s the county prosecutor, he lives in Baxter City. Only
+we have to go right away. I’m going back with the mail car to Baxter. Do
+you want to go? If you do you have to hurry up.”
+
+The last time that Pepsy had appeared before an official-of-the-law she
+had been sent to the big brick building and she was naturally wary of
+prosecutors, judges and such people. Suppose Mr. Sawyer should order
+herself and Pee-wee to the gallows for meddling in these dark,
+mysterious matters. Pee-wee read this in her face.
+
+“Don’t be scared,” he said manfully; “I wouldn’t let anybody hurt you.
+My father knows a man that’s a judge and he tells jokes and has two
+helpings of dessert and everything just like other people. Prosecutors
+aren’t so bad, gee whiz, they’re better than poison-ivy; they’re better
+than school principals anyway, that’s sure. You see, I’ll handle him all
+right.”
+
+Pepsy’s thoughts wandered to the six merry maidens whom Pee-wee had
+“handled” with such astounding skill. “Can’t we have our refreshment
+parlor any more?” she asked, with a note of homesickness for the little
+place they had decorated with such high hope. “If you’ll wait, if you’ll
+wait as much as—two weeks—lots and lots and lots and lots of people will
+come—”
+
+But Pee-wee was not to be deterred by sentiment and false hope. “Don’t
+you want us to have two hundred and fifty dollars?” he asked scornfully.
+“Don’t you want us to buy those tents?” This was too much for Pepsy. She
+grasped Pee-wee’s hand, following him reluctantly, as she gave a wistful
+look back at their little wayside shelter. The “stock” had not been set
+out for the day and the bare counter made the place look forlorn and
+deserted as they went away.
+
+“It’s a blamed sight easier than running a refreshment parlor,” Pee-wee
+said; “it’s just like picking the money up in the street. All we have to
+do is to go to Mr. Sawyer’s office and tell him and—”
+
+“You have to go in first,” said Pepsy.
+
+Pee-wee’s enthusiasm was contagious and Pepsy was soon keyed up to the
+new enterprise, even to the point of facing Mr. Sawyer. She had
+cautiously resolved, however, to remain close to the door of his office,
+so that she might effect a precipitate retreat at the first mention of
+an orphan asylum.
+
+Whatever Pee-wee did must be right and she saw now that two hundred and
+fifty dollars won in the twinkling of an eye was better than life spent
+in the retail trade. Yet she could not help thinking wistfully and
+fondly of their little enterprise and its cosy headquarters.
+
+They sat on a rock by the roadside waiting for the mailman’s auto to
+come along. Once in that Pepsy felt that her fate would be sealed. She
+had never been away from Everdoze since she had first been taken there.
+Baxter City was a vast place which she had seen in her dreams, a place
+where people were arrested and run over and where the constables were
+dressed up like soldiers. She clung tight to Pee-wee’s hand.
+
+“I hate him, too,” she said, referring to Beriah Bungel, “and it will
+serve him right if Whitie dies and I just hope he does, because his
+father hit you.”
+
+“Who’s Whitie?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+“He’s Mr. Bungel’s little boy and he’s all white because he’s sick, and
+they can’t take him to a great big place in the city so they can make
+him all well again and it just serves him right and I’m glad they
+haven’t got any money. Everybody says he’s going to die and Licorice
+Stick knows he’s going to die in a rainstorm on a Friday, that’s what he
+said.”
+
+This information about a little boy who was so pale that they called him
+Whitie, and who was going to die in a rainstorm on a Friday was all new
+to Pee-wee.
+
+“Licorice Stick is crazy,” he said. “What does he know about dying? He
+never died, did he?” This brilliant argument appeared to impress Pepsy.
+
+“If they took him to a hospital in New York then he wouldn’t have to die
+because they could fix him,” Pepsy said. “I heard Aunt Jamsiah say so.
+There are doctors there that can fix people all well again.”
+
+“I bet I’m as good a fixer as they are,” Pee-wee said; “I fixed lots of
+people; I fixed a whole patrol once.”
+
+“So they wouldn’t die?”
+
+“They thought they were smart but I fixed them.”
+
+“Fixing smarties is different,” said Pepsy. “If people have something
+the matter with their hips you can’t fix them. Because, anyway, if
+they’re going to die on a Friday even snail water won’t fix them.”
+
+“Snail water, what’s that?”
+
+“It’s medicine made from snails; Licorice Stick knows how to make it.
+You have to stir it with a willow stick and then you get well quick.”
+
+“How can you get well quick when snails are slow?” Pee-wee asked. “That
+shows that Licorice Stick is crazy. It would be better to make it with
+lightning-bugs.”
+
+“Lightning-bugs mean there are ghosts around,” said Pepsy; “the
+lightning-bugs are their eyes. But anyway, just the same, nobody can fix
+Whitie Bungel, because the doctor from Baxter said so, and he knows
+because he’s got an automobile.”
+
+“Automobiles don’t prove you know a lot,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“Just the same Whitie is going to die,” said Pepsy, “and then you’ll
+see, because when my mother didn’t have any money _she_ died, so there.”
+
+Pee-wee did not answer; he appeared to be thinking. And so the minutes
+passed as they sat there on the rock by the roadside, waiting for the
+mailman’s auto to take them to Baxter City.
+
+“Do you say I can’t fix it?” he finally demanded. “Maybe you think
+scouts can’t fix things. They know first aid, scouts do. I can fix that
+little feller; maybe you think I can’t. You come with me, I’ll show you.
+Scouts—scouts can do things—they’re better than snails and
+lightning-bugs. I’ll show you what they can do; you come with me.”
+
+“Ain’t you going to wait for the mailman?”
+
+“No, I’m not. You come with me.”
+
+This apparent desertion of another cherished enterprise all in the one
+day, took poor Pepsy quite by storm. She did not understand the workings
+of Pee-wee’s active and fickle mind. But she followed his sturdy little
+form dutifully as he trudged up the road and into a certain lane.
+
+On he went, like a redoubtable conqueror with Pepsy after him. To her
+consternation he went straight up to the kitchen door, yes, of Constable
+Beriah Bungel’s humble abode! Pepsy stood behind him in a kind of daze
+and heard his resounding knock as in a dream. Then suddenly to her
+dismay and terror she saw Beriah Bungel himself standing in the open
+doorway looking fiercely down at the little khaki-clad scout.
+
+“Mr. Bungel,” she heard as she stood gaping and listening and ready to
+run at the terrible official’s first move, “Mr. Bungel, if you want to
+know where those two fellers are that stole the motorcycles, they’re
+hiding in Kelly’s barn and I guess they’ll stay there till dark. So if
+you want to go and get them you’ll get two hundred and fifty dollars as
+long as you don’t say who told you where they are.”
+
+Without another word he turned and trudged away along the path, Pepsy
+following after him, too astonished to speak.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII
+
+                              FATE IS JUST
+
+
+On that very morning Constable Bungel performed the stupendous feat
+which sent his name ringing through Borden County and established him
+definitely as the Sherlock Holmes of Everdoze.
+
+Followed by the local citizenry, who marveled at his deductive skill, he
+advanced against Kelly’s barn in the outskirts of Berryville. Here,
+perceiving evidences of occupation, he demanded admittance and on being
+ignored he forced an entrance and courageously arrested two young
+fellows who were hiding there waiting for the night to come.
+
+It is painful to relate that in process of being captured one of these
+youthful fugitives delivered a devastating blow upon the long nose of
+the constable thereby unconsciously doing a good turn like a true scout
+and repaying him in kind for his treatment of Pee-wee.
+
+Thus it will be seen that fate is just for, as Pee-wee explained to
+Pepsy, “He got everything I wanted him to get, a punch in the nose and
+two hundred and fifty dollars. And that shows how I got paid back for
+doing a good turn, because if I hadn’t given up that two hundred and
+fifty dollars he wouldn’t have got punched, so you see it pays to be
+generous and kind like it says in the handbook.”
+
+The official pride of Beriah Bungel as he led his captives back to
+Everdoze to await transportation to Baxter City was somewhat chilled by
+the inglorious appearance of his face. There can be no pomp and dignity
+in company with a wounded nose and Beriah Bungel’s nose was the largest
+thing about him except his official prowess.
+
+“Don’t tell anybody I told him,” Pee-wee whispered to Pepsy, “or you’ll
+spoil it all and they won’t give him the money.”
+
+“Suppose he tells himself,” Pepsy said.
+
+But Officer Bungel did not tell of the keen eyes and scout skill which
+had put him in the way of profit and glory. For he was like the whole
+race of Beriah Bungels the world over, officious, ignorant,
+contemptible, grafting, shaming human nature and making thieving
+fugitives look manly by comparison.
+
+Everdoze was greatly aroused by this epoch-making incident. Even a few
+stragglers from Berryville followed the crowd back as far as Uncle
+Ebenezer’s farm and Pee-wee tried to tempt them into the ways of the
+spendthrift with taffy and other delights which cause the reckless to
+fall. But it was of no use.
+
+“I bet if there was a murder we could sell a lot,” he said. “Motorcycle
+thief crowds aren’t very big. If the town hall burned down I bet we’d do
+a lot of business. I wish the school-house would burn down, hey? Murders
+and fires, those are the best, especially murders, because lots of
+people come.”
+
+“I like fires better,” Pepsy said. “Lots and lots and lots of people go
+to fires.”
+
+“Yes, and they get thirsty watching them, too,” said Pee-wee. “That’s
+the time to shout, ice cold lemonade.”
+
+There was one person in Everdoze, and only one, who neither followed nor
+witnessed this triumphal march, which had something of the nature of a
+pageant. This was a little lame boy, very pale, who sat in a wheel chair
+on the back porch of the lowly Bungel homestead.
+
+The house was up a secluded lane and did not command a view of the weeds
+and rocks of the main thoroughfare. This frail little boy, whose blue
+veins you could follow like a trail, had never seen or heard of Pee-wee
+Harris, scout of the first class (if ever there was one) and mascot of
+the Raven Patrol. He had indeed heard his father speak of “cuffing a
+sassy little city urchin on the ear,” but how should _he_ know that this
+same sassy little urchin had thrown away two hundred and fifty dollars?
+
+Thrown it away? Well, let us hope not. Let us hope that those wonder
+workers in the big city succeeded in “fixing” him, as indeed they must
+have done, if they were as good fixers as Scout Harris. Let us hope that
+Licorice Stick had gotten things wrong (as we have seen him do once
+before) and that little Whitie Bungel did not die in a rainstorm on a
+Friday.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                   WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY
+
+
+To translate some little red flashes of light and read a secret in them
+was utterly beyond the comprehension of poor Pepsy. Here was a miracle
+indeed, compared with which the prophecies and spooky adventures of
+Licorice Stick were as nothing. And to win two hundred and fifty dollars
+by such a supernatural feat was staggering to her simple mind.
+
+Licorice Stick’s encounters with “sperrits” had never brought him a
+cent. But deliberately to sacrifice this fabulous sum in the interest of
+a poor little invalid that he had never seen, made Pee-wee not only a
+prophet but a saint to poor Pepsy. If scouts did things like this they
+were certainly extraordinary creatures. To give two hundred and fifty
+dollars to a person who has boxed your ears and then to go merrily upon
+your way in quest of new triumphs, that Pepsy could not understand.
+
+The whole business had transpired so quickly that Pepsy had only seen
+the two hundred and fifty dollars flying in the air, as it were, and now
+they were poor again, even before they had realized their riches. And
+there was Pee-wee sitting on the counter of their unprofitable little
+roadside rest, with his knees drawn up, sucking a lemon stick (which
+apparently no one else wanted) and discoursing on the subject of good
+turns generally. There seemed to be nothing in his life now but the
+lemon stick.
+
+“You think girls can’t do good turns, don’t you?” Pepsy queried
+wistfully.
+
+Pee-wee removed the lemon stick from his mouth, critically inspecting
+the sharp point which he had sucked it to. By a sort of vacuum process
+he could sharpen a stick of candy till it rivaled a stenographer’s
+pencil.
+
+“Do you know what reciprical means?” he asked with an air of concealing
+some staggering bit of wisdom.
+
+“It’s a kind of a church,” Pepsy ventured.
+
+“That’s Episcopal,” Pee-wee said with withering superiority, placing the
+lemon stick carefully in his mouth again. This action was followed by a
+sudden depression of both cheeks, like rubber balls from which the air
+has escaped. He then removed the dagger-like lemon stick again to
+observe it.
+
+“If you have an apple and I have an apple and you give me yours, that’s
+a good turn, isn’t it? And if I give you mine that’s another good turn,
+isn’t it? And we’re both just as well off as we were before. That’s
+recip—” He had to pause to lick some trickling lemon juice from his
+chubby chin, “rical.”
+
+Pepsy seemed greatly impressed, and Pee-wee continued his edifying
+lecture. “I should worry about two hundred and fifty dollars because you
+saw how people always get paid back only sometimes it isn’t so soon like
+with the apples. Everything always comes out all right,” continued the
+little optimist between tremendous sucks, “and if you’re going to get a
+punch in the nose you get it, and you can see how Mr. Bungel got paid
+back auto—what d’you call it?”
+
+“Automobile?” Pepsy ventured.
+
+“Automatically,” Pee-wee blurted out, catching a fugitive drop of lemon
+juice as it was about to leave his chin. “Good turns are the same as bad
+turns, only different. Do you see? I bet you can’t say _automatically_
+while you’re sucking a lemon stick.”
+
+“Is it a—a scout stunt?” Pepsy asked.
+
+Pee-wee performed this astounding feat for her edification, catching the
+liquid by-product with true scout agility. Whether from scout gallantry
+or scout appetite, he did not put Pepsy to the test.
+
+“I’m glad of it, anyway,” she said, “because now we can stay here and
+have our store and there isn’t anybody like that pros—like that Mr.
+Sawyer to be afraid of.”
+
+“Do you think I’m afraid of prosecutors?” Pee-wee demanded to know. “I’m
+not afraid of them any more than I’m afraid of June-bugs; I bet you’re
+afraid of June-bugs.”
+
+“I’m _not_,” she vociferated, tossing her red braids and looking very
+brave.
+
+“Then why should you be afraid of prosecutors? I wouldn’t be afraid of
+anything that doesn’t sting.”
+
+Pepsy said nothing, only thought. And Pee-wee said nothing, only sucked
+the lemon stick, observing it from time to time, as its point became
+more deadly.
+
+“Maybe I’m not as brave as you are and can’t do things and I’m scared of
+Baxter City, but I bet you I can think up as good turns as you can, so
+there! And if you promise to stay here I’ll make it so lots of people
+will come and you can buy the tents and that will be a good turn, won’t
+it? You said if you make up your mind to do a thing you can do it.”
+
+“I wouldn’t take back what I said,” said Pee-wee, finishing the lemon
+stick by a terrible sudden assault with his teeth.
+
+“Well, then, _so there_, Mr. Smarty,” she said with an air of triumph,
+“I’m going to do a good turn, you see, because I made up my mind to it
+good and hard, and we’ll make lots and lots of money. So do you promise
+to stay here and keep on being partners? Do you cross your heart you
+will?”
+
+If Pee-wee had been as observant of Pepsy as he was used to being of
+signs along a trail he might have noticed that her eyes were all ablaze
+and that her little, thin, freckly wrist trembled. But how should he
+know that his own carelessly uttered words had burned themselves into
+her very soul? “_If you make up your mind to do a thing you can do it._”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV
+
+                           PEPSY’S ENTERPRISE
+
+
+Pepsy knew the scouts only through Pee-wee. She knew they could do
+things that girls could not do. She must have been deaf if she did not
+hear this. She knew they walked with dauntless courage in great cities,
+and that they were not afraid of prosecutors.
+
+They were strange, wonderful things to her. They possessed all the manly
+arts and some of the womanly arts as well. They could track, swim, dive,
+read strange messages in flashes of light, sacrifice appalling riches
+and think nothing of it. They could cook, sew, imitate birds, and read
+things in the stars. Pee-wee had not left Pepsy in the dark about any of
+these matters.
+
+Pepsy knew that she could not aspire to be a scout. The young
+propagandist had forgotten to tell her of the Girl Scouts who can do a
+few things, if you please. But one thing Pepsy could do; she could
+worship at the feet of his heroic legion.
+
+If all there was to doing things was making up your mind to do them,
+then could she not do a good turn as well as a boy? Surely Scout Harris,
+the wonder worker, could not be mistaken about anything. He had shown
+Pepsy, conclusively, how good turns (to say nothing of bad ones) are
+always paid back by an inexorable law. Punches on the nose, or kindly
+acts of charity and sweet sacrifice, it was always the same....
+
+Pepsy had no money invested in their unprofitable enterprise, for she
+had had no money to invest. Neither had she any capital of scout
+experience to draw upon. But one little nest egg she had. She had once
+made a small deposit in this staunch institution of reciprocal kindness.
+All by herself, and long before she had known of Pee-wee and the scouts,
+she had done a good turn.
+
+According to the inevitable rule, which she did not doubt, the principal
+and interest of this could now be drawn. Why not? Somewhere, and she
+knew where, there was a good turn standing to her credit. It would be
+paid her just as surely as that splendid punch in the nose was paid to
+Beriah Bungel. And, using this good turn that was standing to her
+credit, she would be the instrument which fate would choose, to pay
+Scout Harris back for his great sacrifice of two hundred and fifty
+dollars. You see how nicely everything was going to work out.
+
+The person who would now do Pepsy the good turn which would bring
+success and fortune to their little enterprise and enable Scout Harris
+to buy three tents, was Mr. Ira Jensen who lived in the big red house up
+the road. A very mighty man was Mr. Ira Jensen, almost as terrible in
+worldly grandeur and official power as a prosecutor. Not quite, but
+almost. At all events, Pepsy could muster up courage to go and face him,
+and that she was now resolved to do.
+
+Indeed, this had been her secret.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+
+                              AN ACCIDENT
+
+
+Mr. Ira Jensen sometimes wore a white collar and he was deacon in the
+church and he was the one who selected the Everdoze school teacher, and
+he was president of the Borden County Agricultural Association and he
+had a khaki-colored swinging-seat on his porch and muslin curtains in
+his windows. So you may judge from all this what a mighty man he was.
+
+Such a man is not to be approached except upon a well-considered plan.
+It required almost another week of idling in the refreshment parlor, of
+vain hopes, and ebbing interest on the part of the scout partner, to
+bring Pepsy to the state of desperation needed for her terrible
+enterprise. A sudden and alarming turn of Pee-wee’s fickle mind
+precipitated her action.
+
+“Let’s eat up all the stuff and make the summer-house into a gymnasium,
+and we can give magic lantern shows in it, too. What do you say?”
+Pee-wee inquired in his most enthusiastic manner. “We can charge five
+cents to get in.” He did not explain whence the audiences would come. He
+had found an old magic lantern in the attic and that was enough. The
+only stock now on hand was what might be called the permanent stock (if
+any stock could be called permanent where Pee-wee was). No longer did
+the fresh, greasy doughnut and the cooling lemonade grace the forlorn
+little counter.
+
+“No, I won’t!” Pepsy said, tossing those red braids. “I won’t eat the
+things because we started here and I love them, so there!”
+
+“If you love them I should think you’d want to eat them,” said Pee-wee.
+“That shows how much you know about logic.”
+
+“I don’t care, I’m just going to stay here and if you promise to wait
+we’ll get lots and lots of money,” she said. “You promised me you’d
+wait,” she added wistfully, “you crossed your heart. Won’t you please
+wait till—till—five days—maybe? Won’t you, _please_? Maybe that will be
+a good turn, maybe?”
+
+He did not refuse. Instead he helped himself to some gumdrops out of a
+glass jar, and appeared to be content. But Pepsy knew better than to
+trust the fickle heart of man and that night she played the poor little
+card that she had been holding.
+
+After Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah had gone to bed and while the curly head
+of Scout Harris was reposing in sweet oblivion upon his pillow, Pepsy
+crept cautiously down the squeaky, boxed-in stairs and paused, in
+suspense, in the kitchen. The ticking of the big clock there seemed very
+loud, almost accusing, and Pepsy’s heart seemed to keep time with it as
+it thumped in her little breast.
+
+How different the familiar kitchen seemed, deserted and in darkness! The
+two stove lids were laid a little off their places to check the banked
+fire, leaving two bright crescent lines like a pair of eyes staring up
+at her. This light, reflected in one of the milk pails standing inverted
+on a high shelf, made a sort of ghostly mirror in which Pepsy saw
+herself better than in that crinkly, outlandish mirror in her little
+room.
+
+For a moment she was afraid to move lest she make a noise, and so she
+paused, almost terrified, looking at her own homely little face, on the
+most fateful night of her life. Then she tiptoed out through the pantry
+where the familiar smell of fresh butter reassured her. It seemed
+companionable, in the strange darkness and awful stillness, this smell
+of fresh butter. She crept across the side porch where the churn stood
+like a ghost, a dish-towel on its tall handle and crossed the weedy
+lawn, where the beehives seemed to be watching her, and headed for the
+dark, open road.
+
+But here her courage failed. Some thought of doing her errand in the
+morning occurred to her, but she could not go then without saying where
+and why she was going. And in case of failure no one must ever know
+about this....
+
+So she screwed up her courage and returned to the side porch to get a
+lantern. She shook it and found it empty. There was nothing to do now
+but brave the darkness or go down into the cellar and fill the lantern
+from the big kerosene can. She paused in the darkness before those
+sepulchral stone steps, then in a sudden impulse of determination she
+tightened her little hand upon the lantern till her nails dug into her
+palms and went down, down.
+
+She groped her way to the kerosene can and finally came upon it and felt
+its surface. Yes, it was the kerosene can. Her trembling little hand
+fumbled for the tiny faucet. How queer it felt in the dark when she
+could not see it! It seemed to have a little knob or something on it....
+
+Her hand was shaking but she held the little tank of the lantern under
+the faucet and was about to turn the handle when something—something
+soft and wet and silent—touched her other hand. She drew a quick breath,
+her heart was in her mouth, her hands were icy cold. Still she had
+presence of mind enough not to scream.
+
+But as she rose in panic terror from her stooping posture, the lantern
+pulled upward against the faucet, toppling the big can off its skids.
+There was no plug in the can and the kerosene flowed out upon the
+terror-stricken child, wetting her shoes and stockings, and made a great
+puddle on the stone floor. She stood in the darkness, seeing none of
+this, which made the catastrophe the more terrible.
+
+And then, as she stood in terror, wet and bewildered, waiting for
+whatever terrible sequel might come, she felt again that something soft
+and wet and silent on her hand. She moved her hand a little and felt of
+something soft—soft in a different way. Soft but not wet.
+
+“Wiggle,” she sobbed in a whisper; “why—why—didn’t you—you—tell me it
+was you—Wiggle?”
+
+But he only licked her hand again as if to say, “If there is anything on
+for to-night, I’m with you. Cheer up. Adventures are my middle name....”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI
+
+                           PEPSY’S INVESTMENT
+
+
+For a few seconds Pepsy stood in suspense amid the spreading, dripping
+havoc she had caused, listening for some sound above. But the seconds
+piled up into a full minute and no approaching step was heard. The
+danger seemed over.
+
+But the very air was redolent of kerosene; she stood in a puddle of it,
+and one of her stockings and both of her plain little buttoned shoes
+were thoroughly wet. When she moved her toes she could feel the soppy
+liquid. Oh, for a light! It would lessen her terror if she could just
+_see_ what had happened and how she looked.
+
+She groped her way to the small oblong of lesser darkness which
+indicated the open bulk-head doors, and felt better when she was in the
+free open darkness of outdoors. Wiggle, seeming to know that something
+unusual was happening, kept close to her heels.
+
+She reëntered the kitchen, where those accusing, ghostly, red slits of
+eyes in the stove seemed to watch her. She fumbled nervously on the
+shelf above the stove and got some matches, spilling a number of them on
+the floor. She could not pause to gather them up while those red eyes
+stared.
+
+She had planned her poor little enterprise with a view to secrecy, but
+in the emergency and with the minutes passing, she did not now pause to
+think or consider. Near the flour barrel hung several goodly pudding
+bags, luscious reminders of Thanksgiving. Aunt Jamsiah had promised to
+make a plum-pudding for Pee-wee in the largest one of these and he had
+spent some time in measuring them and computing their capacity, with the
+purpose of selecting the most capacious. Pepsy now hurriedly took all of
+these and a kitchen apron along with them, and descended again into the
+cellar.
+
+By the dim lantern light she lifted the fallen tank and replaced it on
+its skids. Then she wiped up the floor as best she could with the
+makeshift mop which had been intended to serve a better purpose. She
+wiped off her soggy shoes and tried to clean that clinging oiliness from
+her hands. It seemed to her as if the whole world were nothing but
+kerosene.
+
+She did not know what to do with the drenched rags, so she took them
+with her when she started again for the dark road, this time with her
+two cheery companions, the lantern and Wiggle. She soon found the
+dripping rags a burden and cast them from her as she passed the well.
+Wiggle turned back and inspected the smelly, soggy mass, found that he
+did not like it, took a hasty drink from the puddle under the well
+spout, and rejoined his companion.
+
+It must have been close to ten o’clock when Mr. Ira Jensen, enjoying a
+last smoke on his porch before retiring, saw the lantern light swinging
+up his roadway. The next thing that he was aware of was the pungent odor
+of kerosene borne upon the freshening night breeze. And then the little
+delegation stood revealed before him, Wiggle, wagging his tail, the
+lantern sputtering, and Pepsy’s head jerking nervously as if she were
+trying to shake out what she had to say.
+
+It took Pepsy a few moments to key herself up to the speaking point.
+Then she spoke tremulously but with a kind of jerky readiness suggesting
+many lonely rehearsals.
+
+“Mr. Jensen,” she said, “I have to do a good turn and so I came to ask
+you if you’ll help me and the reason I smell like kerosene is because I
+tipped over the kerosene can.” This last was not in her studied part,
+but she threw it in in answer to an audible sniff from Mr. Jensen.
+
+“You said when I came here and stayed nights when Mrs. Jensen was sick
+with the flu and everybody else was sick and you couldn’t get anybody to
+do—to nurse her—you remember?” She did not give him time to answer for
+she knew that if she paused she could not go on. Her momentum kept her
+going. “You said then—just before I went home—you’d—you said I was—you
+said you’d do me a good turn some day, because I helped you. So now a
+boy that’s staying with us—we have a refreshment parlor and nobody comes
+to buy anything—and he wants to buy some tents and we have to make a lot
+of money so will you please have them have the County Fair in Berryville
+this year so lots of people will go past our summer-house?
+
+“We have lemonade and he calls to the people and tells them, only there
+ain’t any people. But lots and lots and lots of people come to the
+County Fair from all over, don’t they? So now I’d like it for you to do
+me that good turn if you want to pay me back.”
+
+Thus Pepsy, standing tremulously but still boldly, her thin little hand
+clutching the lantern, played her one card for the sake of Pee-wee
+Harris, Scout. Standing there in her oil soaked gingham dress, she made
+demand upon this staunch bank of known probity, for principal and
+interest in the matter of the one great good turn she had done before
+she had ever known of Scout Harris. It never occurred to her as she
+looked with frank expectancy at Mr. Jensen that her naive request was
+quite preposterous.
+
+To his credit be it said, Mr. Jensen did not deny her too abruptly.
+Instead he spread his knees and arms and, smiling genially, beckoned her
+to him.
+
+“I can’t, I’m all kerosene,” she said.
+
+“Never you mind,” he said. “You come and stand right here while I tell
+you how it is.”
+
+So she set down the lantern and stepped forward and stood between his
+knees and then he lifted her into his lap. “Well, well, well, you’re
+quite a girl; you’re quite a little girl, ain’t you, huh? So you came
+all the way in the dark to ask me that! Here, you sit right where you
+are and never you mind about kerosene; if you ain’t scared of the dark I
+reckon I ain’t scared of kerosene. Now, I want you should listen ’cause
+I’m going to tell you jes’ how it is n’ then you’ll understand. Because
+I call you a little kind of a—a herro-ine, that’s what I call you.”
+
+He wasn’t half wrong about that, either....
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+
+                            SEEN IN THE DARK
+
+
+So then he told her how it was about the County Fair, which shortly
+would open. He told her very gently and kindly how Northvale had been
+chosen because it was the county seat and how he was powerless to change
+the plans.
+
+He looked around into her sober face, and sometimes lifted it to his,
+and at almost every hope-blighting sentence, asked her if she did not
+understand. He told her all about how county fairs are big things,
+planned by many men, months and months in advance. And at each pause and
+each gently asked question she nodded silently, as if it was all quite
+clear and plausible, but her heart was breaking.
+
+“But I’m not going to forget that good turn I owe you, no, siree,” he
+added finally as he set her down on the porch, much to Wiggle’s relief.
+“And I’m coming down the road to pay you a visit n’ look over that
+refreshment store of yours n’ see if I can’t make some suggestions
+maybe. Now, what do you say to that?”
+
+Pepsy nodded soberly, her thoughts far away.
+
+“You’ll see me along there,” Mr. Jensen added cheerily, as he patted her
+little shoulder, “n’ I give you fair warning I’m the champion doughnut
+eater of Borden County.”
+
+She smiled, still wistfully, and gulped, oh ever so little.
+
+“That’s what I am,” he added with another genial pat. “So now you cheer
+up and run back home and go to bed n’ don’t you lie awake crying. You
+tell that little scout feller I’m coming to make you a visit n’ that I
+usually drink nine glasses of lemonade. Now you run along and get to bed
+quick.”
+
+“Thanks,” she said, her voice trembling.
+
+So Pepsy took her way silently along the dark road. Her bank had failed,
+she could do nothing more. This was a strange sequel to follow Pee-wee’s
+glowing representations about good turns. She did not understand it. And
+now that she had failed, the catastrophe in the cellar loomed larger,
+and she saw her nocturnal truancy as a serious thing. What would Aunt
+Jamsiah think of this? Pepsy had been forbidden to go away from the farm
+at night, except to weekly prayer meeting.
+
+The crickets sang cheerily as she returned along the dark road, a
+disconsolate little figure, swinging her lantern. She was weary—weary
+from exertion and disappointment and foreboding. Her good scout
+enterprise was suddenly changed into an act of sneaking disobedience.
+The physical exhaustion which follows nervous strain was upon her now
+and her little feet lagged in their soaking shoes and once or twice she
+stumbled with fatigue. For what burden is heavier than a heavy heart?
+The soothing voices of insect life which soften the darkness and cheer
+the wayfarer in the countryside seemed only to mock her with their
+myriad care-free songs. And to make matters worse there suddenly rang in
+her ears from far over to the west the loud clatter of those loose
+planks on the old bridge along the highway, as a car sped over it:
+
+                         “You have to go back,
+                         You have to go back.”
+
+Then the noise ceased suddenly, and there was no sound but the calling
+of a screech-owl somewhere in the intervening woods.
+
+Pepsy sat down on a rock by the roadside partly to rest and partly
+because she did not want to go home. She knew, or she ought to have
+known, that Aunt Jamsiah was pretty sure to be lenient about a harmless
+transgression with so generous a motive. But the warning voice from that
+unseen bridge disconcerted her. It was not long after she was seated
+that her head hung down and soon the gentle comforter of sleep came to
+her and she lay there, pillowing her head on her little thin arm.
+
+But the comforter did not stay long, for Pepsy dreamed a dream. She
+dreamed that all the people of the village, Simeon Drowser, Nathaniel
+Knapp, Darius Dragg, the sneering Deadwood Gamely, and even the
+faithless Arabella Bellison, the school teacher, were pointing fingers a
+yard long at her and saying, “You have to go back to the big brick
+building. You have to go back, you have to go back.” On the big doughnut
+jar in the “refreshment parlor” sat Licorice Stick saying, “You have to
+go back the next time it thunders.” She shook her fist at Licorice Stick
+and called him a Smarty and said she would _not_ go back, but they all
+laughed and sang:
+
+                         “You have to go back,
+                         You have to go back.”
+
+Miss Bellison was the worst of all....
+
+                         “You have to go back,
+                         You have to—”
+
+With a sudden start Pepsy sat up on the rock, wide awake,
+
+                         “—go back,
+                         You have to go back.”
+
+She still heard.
+
+Her forehead throbbed and her face felt very hot. There was a ringing in
+her ears. She was feverish, but she did not know that. All she knew was
+that everybody was against her and that the bridge had put them up to
+it. She was dizzy and had to put her hand on the rock to steady herself.
+
+The lantern light was extinguished but she did not remember the lantern,
+or Wiggle. She felt very strange and wanted a drink of water. Her hand
+trembled and her little arm with which she braced herself against the
+rock, felt weak. And her head throbbed, throbbed....
+
+Where were all those people? She felt around for them. Then she heard
+the voice again, far off through the woods, up along that highway. It
+was just an innocent automobile,
+
+                         “You have to go back.”
+
+Pepsy rose to her feet with a start, reeled, reached for a tree, and
+clutched it. “I’ll stop it, I’ll—I’ll make it—it stop—I’ll tear it—I’ll
+pull them off,” she said. “I—I _won’t_—go back—I _won’t_, I _won’t_, I
+_won’t_!”
+
+Staggering across the road she entered the woods. Each tree there seemed
+like two trees. She groped her way among them, dizzy, almost falling.
+Sometimes the woods seemed to be moving. Perhaps it was by the merest
+chance that she stumbled into the trail which led through the woods to
+the highway, ending close to the old bridge.
+
+But once in the familiar path she ran in a kind of frenzy. No doubt the
+fever gave her a kind of temporary, artificial strength, as indeed it
+gave her the crazy resolve somehow to still that haunting voice forever.
+Crazed and reeling she stumbled and ran along, pausing now and again to
+press her throbbing head, then running on again like one possessed.
+
+At last she came out of the woods suddenly on to the broad, smooth
+highway. There was the bridge, silent and—no, not dark. For there was a
+bright spot somewhere underneath it and gray smoke wriggling up through
+those cracks between the planks. And there, yes, there, crawling away in
+the darkness was a black figure. A silent, stealthy figure, stealing
+away.
+
+To the dazed, feverish girl, the figure seemed to have two pairs of
+arms. She tried to call but could not. Her scream of delirious fright
+died away into a murmur as she staggered and fell prone upon the ground
+and knew no more.
+
+But never again—never, _never_ would those cruel planks taunt her with
+their heartless prediction. Never would they frighten the poor,
+sensitive, fearful little red-headed orphan girl any more.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+                             STOCK ON HAND
+
+
+It was Joey Burnside, the burliest and heartiest of the volunteer
+firemen, who carried Pepsy back through the woods to the farm while
+still the conflagration was at its height.
+
+There was not timber enough left from the old bridge to kindle a scout
+camp-fire. A few charred remnants had gone floating down the stream and
+these fugitive remnants drifting into tiny coves and lodging in the
+river’s bends were shown by the riverside dwellers as memorials of the
+event which had stirred the countryside more than any other item of
+neighborhood history. Under the gaping space of disconnected road the
+stream flowed placidly, uninterrupted by all the recent hubbub above it.
+The straight highway looked strange without the bridge.
+
+Pepsy had a fever all that night, but toward morning she fell asleep,
+and Aunt Jamsiah, who had watched her through the night, tiptoed into
+the little room under the eaves and out again to tell Pee-wee that he
+had better wait, that all Pepsy needed now was rest.
+
+“Can’t I just look at her?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+So he was allowed to stand in the doorway and see his partner as she lay
+there sleeping the good sleep of utter exhaustion.
+
+“When she wakes up,” Aunt Jamsiah said pleasantly.
+
+Pee-wee knew the circumstances of her being found at the burning bridge
+and brought home, but he asked no questions and Aunt Jamsiah said
+nothing of the events of that momentous night. It seemed to be generally
+understood that this matter was in Aunt Jamsiah’s hands for thorough
+consideration later.
+
+Meanwhile Pee-wee went across the lawn and down the road to the scene of
+their hapless enterprise. The roadside rest could boast now of but two
+jars, one of peppermint sticks and one of gumdrops (both in rapid
+process of consumption) and a number of spools of tire tape. But the
+absence of doughnuts and sausages and lemonade, this was nothing. It was
+the absence of Pepsy that counted.
+
+Pee-wee took his customary eye-opener, consisting of a gumdrop. He had
+to shake the jar to get a red one, that being the kind he preferred.
+Then he drew his legs up on the counter and proceeded to work upon the
+willow whistle he was making.
+
+His handiwork soon reached that stage of manufacture where it was
+necessary to soak the willow bark in water, so as to cause it to swell.
+He thereupon distributed the remaining gumdrops impartially between his
+mouth and his trousers’ pocket and filled the empty jar with water,
+dropping his handiwork into it. Thus by gradual stages and without any
+sensational “closing out sales” the refreshment business was steadily
+going into a state of liquidation, even the lemon sticks being reduced
+to a liquid. There was no stock on hand now but two peppermint sticks
+and some tire tape.
+
+Suddenly a most astonishing thing happened. The sound of an automobile
+horn was heard in the distance. A deep, melodious, dignified horn. Not
+since the passing of the six merry maidens had such welcome music
+sounded in Pee-wee’s enraptured ears.
+
+The signs had all been made right, the ice cream had been made cold, the
+sausages hot, and the ground glass had been put where it belonged. No
+longer did “our taffy stick like glue.” Indeed, there was no taffy of
+any kind on hand, notwithstanding these blatant announcements.
+
+Along came the automobile, an eight-cylinder Super Junkster. And, yes,
+it was followed by another, and still another! Pee-wee could see the
+imposing procession as far down as the bend.
+
+“Some detour,” a good-natured voice said.
+
+“Detour? _Detour_?” Pee-wee whispered in sudden and terrible excitement.
+Then, as the full purport of the staggering truth burst upon him he
+issued forth from the roadside rest and contemplated the approaching
+pageant with joy bubbling up like soda water in his heart.
+
+“Never mind,” said another voice, “we can get some eats in this jungle,
+thank goodness. What I won’t do to a couple of hot frankfurters!”
+
+A sudden chill cooled the fresh enthusiasm of Scout Harris.
+
+“I’ll buy every blamed doughnut they’ve got in the place,” somebody
+shouted. “We won’t leave a thing for the rest of the cars that have to
+plow through this jungle. I suppose this is what motorists will be up
+against for six months. What do you know about that? This eats merchant
+ought to clear a couple of million. I’ll dicker with him for everything
+hot that he’s got, I’m starving.”
+
+“Same here!” another shouted.
+
+Frantically, like a soldier waving his country’s emblem in the last
+desperate moment of forlorn hope, Scout Harris clambered over the
+counter and grasped the jar containing two peppermint sticks.
+
+“Peppermint sticks! Peppermint sticks!” he shouted at the advancing
+column. “Get your peppermint sticks! They quench thirst and—and—and
+satisfy your hunger! They’re filling! They warm you up! Peppermint is
+hot! _Oh_, get your peppermint sticks here!”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX
+
+                         INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
+
+
+Pee-wee emerged safely, if not triumphantly, from this ordeal amid much
+laughter, and was just congratulating himself upon his skillful handling
+of “the trade” in a period of acute shortage when he received a knockout
+blow. In depositing the trifling price of the peppermint sticks in his
+trousers pocket, he discovered there four gumdrops glued together and
+clinging so affectionately that nothing could part them.
+
+At the moment of this discovery, Scout Harris, thus driven into a corner
+and standing at bay with nothing but one huge, consolidated gumdrop for
+defense, heard the unmistakable sound of another car crawling over the
+rocks and hubbles of that outlandish road in second gear. On, on, on, it
+came like some horrible British tank.
+
+And now again he heard voices, “We can eat about twenty of them in my
+patrol; y-mm. Are we hungry? Oh, no! Hot frankfurters! Oh, _boy_, lead
+me to them. I could even eat the sign, I’m so hungry. Put her in high.
+What do we care about the road?”
+
+Pee-wee listened and waited in terrible suspense. Scouts! He knew
+something about the scout capacity. Then, upon the fresh morning air
+there floated another voice calling a sentence which he knew too well;
+it was the good scout motto.
+
+“Hey there, you, whoever you are, Mr. Refreshment Man? _Be Prepared!_
+We’re s-c-o-u-t-s, we are, and we’re h-u-n-g-r-e-e! We haven’t had
+anything since breakfast at four-thirty. We had to come around through
+this rocky tour or detour or whatever you call it. Somebody ate the
+bridge last night. Are there any scouts down in this South African
+backyard?”
+
+If Pee-wee had not heard that familiar motto “Be Prepared,” he would
+have known the approaching caravan to be scouts by their talk and
+banter.
+
+_Be Prepared._ Pee-wee glanced at the bare counter and the empty jars
+and the shiny dishpan which held nothing but Pepsy’s ball of worsted and
+the terrible ornamental thing that she was knitting. There they were,
+just as she had laid them the day before. Poor little Pepsy....
+
+Then they descended upon him as only hungry scouts can descend.
+Pee-wee’s glowing promises which decorated the woods (and which he could
+not fulfill) had brought the party to a state of distraction. It was a
+big Crackerjack touring car overflowing with scouts and driven by a
+smiling scoutmaster. It seemed as if they ought to have been pressed in
+and down with a shovel, like ice cream in a quart box.
+
+“For the love of—” one of them began.
+
+“Look what’s here, it’s a _scout_.”
+
+“That?” shouted another. “Let’s have the magnifying glass, will you?”
+
+Pee-wee straightened himself up to his full height. The big Crackerjack
+touring car stopped.
+
+“_Some_ detour,” the scoutmaster said with an air of infinite relief.
+
+“Do they have scouts down here?” a member of the party asked.
+
+“I’m only staying here, I belong in Bridgeboro, New Jersey,” Pee-wee
+said.
+
+“Don’t talk about bridges,” another scout said.
+
+“Talk about something pleasant. A scout is supposed to save life, scout
+law number six; let’s have a couple of thousand hot dogs, will you?
+We’re dying. And forty-eleven dozen doughnuts with the holes removed.”
+
+“Do you—I—eh—do you—need any tire tape?” Pee-wee stammered, playing for
+time.
+
+“Tire tape! What do you take us for? A lot of blow-outs? Let’s have some
+eats and _we’ll_ take care of the blow-out.”
+
+“Come on, hurry up, a scout is supposed to be prepared,” piped up a
+natty scout wearing the bronze cross.
+
+“Where’s all the food?” the scoutmaster asked, glancing at the empty
+counter. “We were led to suppose—”
+
+“Don’t you know what a shortage is?” Pee-wee piped up in sheer
+desperation.
+
+“We know what a _shorty_ is,” one of the party shot back.
+
+“You don’t expect us to eat a shortage, do you?” another said. “Come
+ahead, hurry up, a scout isn’t supposed to be cruel. You can always
+depend on scout signs that you find in the woods. A scout that puts
+scout signs—”
+
+“Those are different kinds of signs!” Pee-wee shouted. “Those are trail
+signs. You think you’re so smart! That shows how much you know
+about—about—”
+
+“Three strikes out,” one of the scouts shouted. “About—about industrial
+conditions,” Pee-wee concluded. “Don’t you know what a—a—what d’you call
+it—a—”
+
+“Yes, that’s what you call it,” a scout laughed. “Don’t you know what a
+reconstruction period is?” Pee-wee fairly yelled, amid uncontrollable
+laughter. “If something happens like a war—or a—a bridge burning down—or
+something—or other—that makes business conditions—what d’you call it—it
+makes them all kind of upside down, doesn’t it? Sometimes—kind of—things
+are hard to get. Everybody knows that.”
+
+“We can see it,” a scout said.
+
+By this time the scoutmaster was laughing heartily but with the greatest
+good humor. Pee-wee continued bravely, to the great amusement of the
+party.
+
+“Gee whiz, nobody ever came along this road. You admit that scouts are
+hungry, don’t you?”
+
+“We _proclaim_ it,” said the scoutmaster.
+
+“I ate a lot of the stuff and my aunt wouldn’t cook any more stuff for
+us because nobody ever came and it got stale and I ate too much of it,
+that’s what she said. So now, anyway, we’re going to start in again
+because the business world—and we’re—we’re going to speed up
+production.”
+
+“All right, speed up the auto and good luck to you,” the scout with the
+bronze cross said. He seemed to be a patrol leader.
+
+There was a little fraternal chat before this boisterous troop moved on
+and all seemed interested in Pee-wee and his enterprise. They were on
+their way to camp somewhere down the line.
+
+“You’ll succeed all right,” they called back to him, “only be sure to
+have plenty of stuff on hand when we come back in a couple of weeks or
+we’ll kill you.”
+
+“Do you like waffles and honey?” the proprietor shouted after them.
+
+“We’ve got the bees working overtime for us,” a scout called back.
+
+“I’ll have a lot of those—ten cents each,” Pee-wee announced. “Do you
+like clam chowder?” he called, raising his voice to cover the increasing
+distance.
+
+“Don’t you make us hungry,” one called back. “Good luck to you, you’ll
+make it a go all right.”
+
+“I’m lucky, I always have good luck,” the small optimist screamed at the
+top of his voice. “Do you like peanut taffy? Do you like hot corn,” he
+added, fairly yelling this sudden inspiration after the departing
+sufferers; “with butter and pepper on it; do you like that? I’ll have
+some!”
+
+These were the last words they heard as the big car moved slowly over
+the rocky, grass-grown road. They are good words to end a chapter
+with—hot corn with pepper and butter on it....
+
+Oh, boy!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+
+                              PAID IN FULL
+
+
+Pee-wee was just about to make a frantic rush to the house when he saw
+another automobile coming along the road, brushing the projecting
+foliage aside as some stealthily advancing creature might do. Not far
+behind it he could hear other cars grinding along that impossible road
+in second gear.
+
+The world seemed to be making a pathway, or rather a highway, to
+Pee-wee’s door. The sequestered, overgrown road, with its intertwined
+and overarching boughs, was become a surging thoroughfare. The birds,
+formally unmolested in their wonted haunts, complained to one another of
+this sudden intrusion into their domains.
+
+Away back where this obscure road branched off the highway to furnish
+the unfrequented access to Everdoze and Berryville, a sign had been
+placed that morning with an arrow pointing toward the depths of the
+Everdoze jungle.
+
+                                DETOUR ⇾
+                         HIGHWAY CLOSED. FOLLOW
+                             YELLOW ARROWS.
+
+These yellow arrows appeared at intervals along the Everdoze road, thus
+guiding the motorist back to the highway at a point a mile or two below
+the gap where the bridge had been. Everdoze was on the map now in dead
+earnest. The little hamlet nestling in its wooded valley was destined to
+review such a procession of Pierce-Arrows, and Packards, and Cadillacs,
+aye and Fords and jitney busses, as it had never dreamed of in all its
+humble career.
+
+Who was responsible for this? Or was accident responsible? Who, if
+anyone, by the mere touching of a match had started a blaze which would
+illuminate poor little Everdoze? Everdoze had gone to bed (at eight P.
+M.) in obscurity. It had awakened to find itself dragged into the light
+of day. Already Constable Bungel was devising a formidable code of
+“traffic regulations”—traps and snares to catch the prosperous and make
+them pay tribute as they passed along.
+
+As early as seven o’clock that vigilant agent of the peace had placed a
+sign in front of the post office (where he was wont to loiter) reading,
+“NO PARKING HERE.” But all the while he hoped that the unwary would park
+there and pay the three dollars and costs.
+
+But of all the signs which appeared in Everdoze on that day when fate,
+like an alarm clock, had awakened it out of its slumber, there was one
+which thrilled the soul of Pee-wee Harris and caused consternation to
+everybody else. This appeared in front of the “Taown Hall” and at a
+number of other strategic places in and out of the village.
+
+“Come and read it! _Come and read it!_” shouted little Silas Knapp as he
+madly intercepted Pee-wee who, as I have said, was about to run to the
+house. “It’s a monolopy or somethin’ like that—Mr. Browser says so! Come
+and read it!”
+
+So before going to the house Pee-wee went and read it. He did not know
+that the stern phraseology had been penned ever so tenderly and with a
+twinkle in the eye of the writer. He did not know that it was a tribute
+(or shall we say the repayment of a good turn?) to the little red-headed
+girl, who, all unaware of this hubbub, was sleeping in her little
+bedroom under the eaves. Strange that such a little girl could thus
+shake her fist by proxy at the grasping villagers!
+
+                                NOTICE
+
+  The property on both sides of the road from two miles north of the
+  Everdoze line to the boundary of Ebenezer Quig’s farm, is of
+  private ownership.
+
+  Any one attempting to sell or vend or who erects any tent or shack
+  for such purpose upon said property will be prosecuted to the full
+  extent of the law.
+
+                                                      Ira C. Jensen.
+
+So Pepsy had kept her word after all, her one poor little investment of
+kindness had paid a hundred percent dividend, and the partners were the
+owners of a _monopoly_, or a monolopy, whichever you choose to call it.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXXI
+
+                        CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+
+
+Along the road and over the stone wall and straight across the bed of
+tiger-lilies sped Pee-wee, using his own particular mode of scout pace,
+patent not applied for. Across the side porch and into the kitchen he
+went, pell-mell, shouting in a voice to crack the heavens.
+
+“It’s a monolopy—I mean a monopoly! We’ve got a monopoly! Where’s
+everybody? Hey, Aunt Jamsiah, where are you? Where’s Uncle Eb? Hurry up
+and make some doughnuts? There’s a detour! Cars—hundreds of cars—from
+the highway—they’re coming along the road. You ought to see. Where’s the
+ice-pick? Can I have some lemons? Are there any cookies left? I left two
+on the plate last night. Where’s the sugar so I can—”
+
+He paused in his frenzy of haste and enthusiasm as Aunt Jamsiah opened
+the sitting room door, very quietly and seriously.
+
+“Shh, come in here, Walter,” she said.
+
+Her manner, kind, gentle, but serious, disconcerted Pee-wee and chilled
+his enthusiasm. The very fact that he was summoned into the sitting room
+seemed ominous for that holy of holies was never used; not more than
+once or twice in Pee-wee’s recollection had his own dusty shoes stood
+upon that sacred oval-shaped rag carpet. Never before had he found
+himself within reaching distance of that plush album that stood on its
+wire holder on the marble table.
+
+This solemn apartment was the only room in the house that had a floor
+covering and the fact that Pee-wee could not hear his own foot-falls
+agitated him strangely. Uncle Eb sat in the corner near the melodeon
+looking strangely out of place in his ticking overalls.
+
+“Is—is she—dead?” Pee-wee whispered fearfully.
+
+“Sit down, Walter,” said Aunt Jamsiah; “no, she isn’t dead, she’s
+better.”
+
+Uncle Eb said nothing, only watched Pee-wee keenly.
+
+Pee-wee seated himself, feeling very uncomfortable.
+
+“Walter,” said his aunt, “something very serious has happened and I’m
+going to ask one or two questions. You will tell me the truth, won’t
+you?”
+
+“I’ll answer fer him doin’ that,” said Uncle Eb.
+
+“Sure I will,” said Pee-wee proudly.
+
+“Walter, do you know what Pepsy’s secret was? You remember she said she
+had a secret that would make lots and lots of people come and buy things
+from you?”
+
+“Girls are—” Pee-wee began. He was going to say they were crazy, but
+remembering the one that lay upstairs he caught himself up and said,
+“they’re kind of—they think they have big ideas when they haven’t. I
+should worry about their secrets.”
+
+“But some of Pepsy’s ideas and plans have been very big, Walter,” his
+aunt said ruefully. “You see we know her better than you do. She’s very,
+_very_ queer; I’m afraid no one understands her.”
+
+“I understand her,” said Pee-wee. “She believes in bad luck days.”
+
+Aunt Jamsiah paused a moment, considering; then she went straight to the
+point. “Pepsy wants to do right, dear, but she will do wrong in order to
+do right—sometimes. We have always been a little fearful of her for that
+reason. She—she can’t argue in her own mind and consider things as—as
+you do.”
+
+“I know lots of dandy arguments,” Pee-wee announced.
+
+“You know, Walter, her father was a—he was a—not a very good man. And
+Pepsy is—queer. Last night she made a dreadful mess in the cellar. She
+was at the kerosene; oh, it makes me just sick to think of it. She had
+some rags soaked with kerosene. Some of them were found out by the well.
+The others—” Aunt Jamsiah lifted her handkerchief to her eyes and wept
+for a moment, silently.
+
+“What others?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+“The ones that were used to set fire to the bridge, dear. Oh, it’s
+terrible to think of it. Poor, _poor_ Pepsy. That is what is bringing
+_lots and lots_ of people along our road to-day, Walter. Pepsy was found
+lying unconscious near the bridge. She had kerosene all over her. One
+charred rag was found over there. It just makes me—it makes me—”
+
+Pee-wee arose and laid one hand on the back of the hair-cloth chair. He,
+too, was concerned now.
+
+“You—you didn’t tell her—you didn’t blame—accuse her—did you?” he asked.
+
+“No, I didn’t,” his aunt breathed worriedly. “I asked her to tell me all
+about last night and she would tell me nothing. She said that the planks
+on the bridge tormented her. To almost everything I asked her she said,
+‘I won’t tell.’ She is very, _very_ stubborn; she was always so.”
+
+“Because, anyway,” Pee-wee said, alluding to his former query, “if
+anybody says she burned down the bridge on purpose it’s a lie. I don’t
+care who says it, it’s a lie. She’s—she’s my partner—and it’s a lie.
+If—even—if the minister says it, it’s a lie!”
+
+“Listen, my dear boy,” said his aunt kindly. “I’m not angry with Pepsy,
+poor child. I’m not accusing her, and you mustn’t talk about the Rev.
+Mr. Gloomer telling lies. Pepsy tried to burn down the orphan home once,
+for some trifling grievance. We can’t take the responsibility of the
+poor child any longer. I’m afraid that any minute Beriah Bungel will
+want to take her—arrest her. I know she’s your partner, dear, but it
+would be better for us to send her back to the state home where she will
+probably be kept than to let her be arrested. I don’t think she knew
+what she was doing, poor, poor child—”
+
+Aunt Jamsiah broke down completely, crying in her handkerchief. So Uncle
+Eb finished what little there was to say.
+
+“We had to send fer ’em, Walter,” said he. “She’ll be better off there
+fer a spell, I reckon. I ain’t so sure about her doin’ it, though it
+looks bad. Leastways, she didn’t know what she was doing. But don’t you
+worry—”
+
+Pee-wee did not wait to hear more. He just could not stand there.
+
+“When—when are they—coming?” he asked.
+
+“I reckon to-morrow, boy. Now, you look here—”
+
+But Pee-wee had gone.
+
+Up the narrow, boxed-in stairs he went, never asking permission. He
+could see nothing but a big enclosed wagon, dark inside, with Pepsy
+inside it. He had no more idea what he was going to do that day than the
+man in the moon. But he knew what he was going to do that very minute.
+When a scout makes up his mind to do a thing....
+
+Into the little room under the eaves he strode, his eyes glistening, but
+his heart staunch and his resolve indomitable. And she smiled when she
+saw him. She was sitting up and she looked ever so little in her
+nightclothes and ever so plain with her tightly braided red hair. But
+her eyes were clear and she smiled when she looked at him....
+
+“I won’t tell anybody where I went,” she said, “because I was a smarty
+and I thought I could make somebody do a good turn ever so—_ever so
+big_. And they’d only laugh at me if I told them what it was. So I’m not
+going to be a tell-tale cat.”
+
+“Pep,” he said, “it shows that you’re right because lots and lots of
+automobiles are coming along our road since the old bridge burned down
+and it’s a detour and that means hundreds and hundreds of them have to
+go past our refreshment place and we’re going to make lots of money. And
+I thought of a dandy idea, it’s what they call an inspiration. We’re
+going to name the place Pepsy Rest, because Pepsy will remind people to
+buy chewing gum, because that has pepsin in it and as soon as you’re all
+well we’ll start in and keep on being partners, because we have a
+monopoly. Do you know what that is? It’s when you can sell all you want
+of something and nobody else can sell it. See?
+
+“Mr. Jensen, he put up a sign, and he said no one should sell things on
+his property and he owns all the property along the road, and you bet
+everybody is scared of _him_. So now we’re going to have a great big
+business and we began as poor boys, I mean girls, I mean a boy and a
+girl. So don’t you believe anything that anybody tells you, not even—not
+even Aunt Jamsiah. Because you know how I told you I was a good fixer
+and I’m always lucky, you have to admit that.”
+
+“Can I be the one to count the money?” Pepsy asked.
+
+“Sure, and I’ll be the one to eat what’s left of the things that won’t
+keep,” said Pee-wee. “Only don’t you worry no matter what you hear—”
+
+She was on the point of telling him how Mr. Jensen had done his good
+turn after all, and all about what she remembered of the previous night.
+But she decided that she was not going to have a boy laughing at her and
+put it within his power to call her a tell-tale cat some day. So instead
+she threw her arms around him and said, “_Oh goody, goody!_”
+
+You know how girls do.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+                                THE CLEW
+
+
+Pee-wee never knew until now how much he cared about his little
+companion of the summer and how little he cared about their roadside
+enterprise except so far as she was concerned in it.
+
+All morning the almost continuous procession passed along the road
+reviewed by a gaping assemblage on the platform in front of the post
+office. Many motorists who read the enticing promises along the way
+paused for refreshment only to find the little rustic shelter bare and
+deserted.
+
+But they were not the only ones to be disappointed. Upon the front porch
+of Doctor Killem’s house there sat in a wheel chair the queerest little
+figure ever seen outside of a soup advertisement. He was of the kewpie
+type, all head and eyes, and he had a kind of ridiculous air of stern
+authority about him as he sat all bundled up in blankets soberly
+reviewing the passing cars. So odd and gnomelike was he that he might
+have stepped out of the pages of “Alice in Wonderland.” He would have
+made a good radiator ornament on an automobile.
+
+This, you will know, was little Whitie Bungel, who seemed not at all
+disconcerted at being elsewhere than in his own home. He had been moved
+about so much without any exertion on his own part that he was quite at
+home anywhere.
+
+Though Pee-wee had spoken in high hope to Pepsy about their unexpected
+and glowing prospects, he was haunted by thoughts of the terrible thing
+which was to happen on the morrow. Pepsy was to be taken away, back to
+the big brick building which she hated, just as the planks of the old
+bridge had foretold.
+
+Pee-wee’s loyalty was so staunch that he did not even consider the
+things his aunt had said. He was going to save Pepsy from that place and
+make her the sharer of the fortune that was within their grasp. He made
+this resolve with the same generous impulse as that which had caused him
+to put two hundred and fifty dollars within the reach of Mr. Bungel who
+had boxed his ears.
+
+“I’m lucky,” he said to himself as he trudged down to the post office;
+“I’ll fix things all right. I’ll show them; I don’t care, I’ll show
+them. They won’t take her back to that place, not while I’m around.”
+
+He did not know how he was going to prevent this but he had unbounded
+faith in his capacity to fix things and in his good luck.
+
+So, as he trudged along, stepping out of the way of many cars, he came
+to the home of Doctor Killem.
+
+“Hello, soldier,” piped up a little thin voice upon the porch.
+
+“I’m not a soldier,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“My father can arrest people,” said the little gnome, looking straight
+ahead of him.
+
+“That doesn’t prove I’m a soldier,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“You’ve got a uniform,” said the gnome. “I’m not afraid of soldiers. My
+father’s got a lot of money, he’s got two hundred and fifty dollars and
+I’m not going to get dead.”
+
+“Where’s your father?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+“He’s up the road and he’s going to catch people and put them in jail.”
+
+“Is he?”
+
+“Why do you say ‘Is he?’ I didn’t go to the hospital last night. Do you
+want to know why?” He asked questions as if they were riddles.
+
+“Yes, why?” Pee-wee asked, half interested.
+
+“Because the bridge burned down. Do you like bridges?”
+
+“It isn’t a question of whether a person likes them or not,” Pee-wee
+said, preoccupied with his own sorrow and worry, yet amused in spite of
+himself at this queer little fellow.
+
+“Yes it is,” said Whitie Bungel.
+
+“All right then, it is,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“Why did you say it wasn’t?”
+
+“Oh, I don’t know, I guess I was thinking of something else.”
+
+“What were you thinking of?”
+
+“Oh, I don’t know—nothing.”
+
+“Why did you say you were?”
+
+“You didn’t tell me about why you didn’t go to the hospital last night.”
+
+“I can see things that other folks can’t see,” Whitie announced.
+
+“You’re like Licorice Stick,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“He’s black,” Whitie said.
+
+“I know he is.”
+
+“Then how am I like him? I’m white. My name is Whitie.”
+
+Pee-wee felt like a prisoner at the bar of justice with this little
+personage swathed in blankets, staring down at him. His wrappings
+covered his neck and all that could be seen of him was his face,
+perfectly motionless. Finally he said as if he were pronouncing
+sentence.
+
+“Doctor Killem took me in his auto. We had to turn around and come back
+when we came to the bridge burning down. He’s going to take me another
+way. I saw a man getting dead.”
+
+“Where?” Pee-wee asked, his interest somewhat aroused.
+
+“Will you give me that tin thing if I tell you?”
+
+“That isn’t a tin thing, it’s a compass, it tells you which way to go.”
+
+“Can it talk?”
+
+“No, it can’t talk.”
+
+“Then how can it tell you?”
+
+“It points its finger.”
+
+“You’re crazy.”
+
+“All right,” Pee-wee laughed in spite of himself. “You tell me about the
+man getting dead and I’ll give you the tin thing.”
+
+“He was lying down in the bushes and wriggling.”
+
+“Where? Near the bridge?” Pee-wee asked.
+
+“Doctor Killem didn’t see him and he laughed at me. He said I was seeing
+things. Can you wriggle? I looked back out of the window and saw him.”
+
+“Did you tell your father about it?” Pee-wee asked, hardly knowing what
+to think of this information.
+
+“My mother made him give her the two hundred and fifty dollars so I
+wouldn’t get dead. Do you know what I’m going to be when I grow up?”
+
+“No; what?”
+
+“A giant.”
+
+“Well, you’d better hurry up about it.”
+
+“Do you know where my father got that two hundred and fifty dollars?”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“It was a prize for catching thieves. _You_ can’t catch thieves.”
+
+“I know it,” Pee-wee said.
+
+“Are you going to be a thief when you grow up?”
+
+“No, I guess not,” said Pee-wee.
+
+“You can have three guesses.”
+
+“All right, I guess not three times. Now, tell me if you told your
+father about seeing that man getting dead.”
+
+“Yes, and he said I’m always seeing things; everybody says that. Maybe
+I’ll get dead when it rains.”
+
+“Don’t you believe it,” Pee-wee said; “Licorice Stick’s been telling you
+that. Didn’t you say you were going to be a giant first?”
+
+“You’re not a giant.”
+
+Alas, Pee-wee knew this only too well. He knew too that it would be
+quite impossible to get anything in the way of a connected narrative out
+of this stern little autocrat. Whether he had actually been “seeing
+things” or had only seen something in his queer little inner life, who
+should say? Evidently no one took him very seriously. And this fact did
+not seem to trouble him at all.
+
+Removing the compass cord from about his neck, Pee-wee advanced to
+proffer his second gift to the Bungel family. Little did that stiff,
+serious little figure know that the much-needed money which Mrs. Bungel
+had been wise enough to take from her husband, had come from the same
+source. Pee-wee searched in vain for any sign of hands in those
+enveloping blankets. There were no hands, there seemed to be no body
+even; just two eyes looking straight ahead as if their owner were not
+going to assist at all in the transfer of the little gift. So Pee-wee
+laid the compass on the porch rail.
+
+“There you are,” he said; “that needle always points to the north.”
+
+The two severe eyes stared down at the compass on the rail but their
+owner made no attempt to reach it as Pee-wee started off. If Pee-wee had
+not been so worried and preoccupied he would have thought that he had
+never seen anything so absurdly amusing in all his life.
+
+“Come back and say good-by,” the little voice commanded.
+
+Pee-wee returned and stood in the exact spot where he had stood before
+and said, “Good-by.” Although the little pale face did not turn the
+fraction of an inch, the staring eyes followed Pee-wee as he went along
+the road.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+                           THE TRAMPLED TRAIL
+
+
+Pee-wee felt as if he were emerging from some enchanted spot in the
+“Arabian Nights,” abounding with giants and men “getting dead.” He had
+no more belief in what this imperious little imp had told him than he
+had in the predictions of Licorice Stick, or the homely superstitions of
+Pepsy.
+
+Indeed, if he had thought seriously of these erratic snapshot bits of
+information about figures wriggling in the dark and “getting dead” he
+would never have mentioned these things to Licorice Stick whom he ran
+plunk into as that aggregation of rags and nonsense sat upon a stone
+wall up the road engaged in the profitable occupation of watching the
+passing cars. Licorice Stick’s business was contemplating the world and
+he always attended strictly to business.
+
+“Lordy me!” he said, rolling his eyes, “you don’ go nowheres that kid ’e
+tell you. Dat wrigglin’ man, he no man, he a sperrit. Don’ you go near
+dat bridge, you get a spell. Yo keep away f’m dat bridge.”
+
+How much this had to do with Pee-wee’s actually going to the scene of
+the fire it would be hard to say. If he had not talked with Whitie he
+probably would not have gone. At all events, he had nothing else to do
+and he wanted to think. So he followed the trail through the woods to
+the highway.
+
+It seemed quite probable that Whitie’s jerky sentences were about true,
+that the doctor had been compelled to turn back by reason of the burning
+bridge. The fact that Whitie was holding his imperial court on the
+doctor’s porch made this part of his story seem true.
+
+Perhaps it would be about right to say that little Whitie’s spasmodic
+announcements directed Pee-wee in his idle wanderings on that morning
+when he was fearful and sick at heart.
+
+Long afterwards he remembered with interest that it was little Whitie
+Bungel (for whose recovery he had sacrificed two hundred and fifty
+dollars and not a little glory) who put him in the way of the terrible
+discovery that he made on that fateful day. And the funny thing about it
+was that the little gnome had given the clew to his benefactor and not
+his father who knew nothing about the frightful revelation of that
+morning until it was all over.
+
+So perhaps there is a little god of good turns after all, who, all
+unseen, administers punches in the nose and pays back two hundred and
+fifty dollar gifts and so forth, and has the time of his life watching
+how these things work out. Or a “pay back sperrit” as Licorice Stick
+might have called him....
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Pee-wee approached the scene of the fire he saw in the bushes
+something which caught his eye. This was a torn fragment of clothing.
+The bushes were trampled down at the spot. It was not hard for the scout
+to follow this line of trampled brush which was so disordered that he
+thought it could not have been caused by a walking or fleeing person. It
+was well away from the area where the men had fought the flames.
+
+Here and there something brown and sticky on the leaves caught the
+scout’s eye. Some one had crawled stealthily through here. Or else—
+_dragged_ himself through. Pee-wee shuddered at this thought. He
+examined the trampled channel more carefully. And from this examination
+he was satisfied of one fact which made him uneasy, apprehensive.
+
+The weight which had crushed the bush down had been a prone, dead
+weight. At intervals of perhaps three or four feet were gathered wounded
+strands of the tall grass, as if some groping hand had reached ahead,
+gathering and pulling on them. Pulling a helpless weight. Pee-wee knew
+this for he saw with the eyes of a scout.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+                            THE TRAIL’S END
+
+
+This trampled channel petered out in a comparatively bare area across
+which was more brush. Almost hidden in this was a tumbled-down shack,
+hardly bigger than a closet, in which boys who had been wont to dive
+from the old bridge had donned their bathing suits. It had been thrown
+together as a storage place for fishing tackle and crab nets and these
+latter, rotten and gray with age, still hung in the dank, musty place.
+
+Pee-wee paused a moment, irresolute, nervous. He had a strange feeling,
+a feeling of apprehension which amounted to a certainty. And as he
+paused two charred bits of timber from the old bridge, still held
+together by a rusty brace, creaked, and the creaking seemed loud in the
+stillness of desolation.
+
+A rusty can, the discarded receptacle of bait, lay at his feet, and in
+his hesitation and transient fear, he kicked it, and followed it,
+kicking it again.
+
+Then, banishing such cracked-up excuses for delay he put aside his fears
+and went around the tiny shelter to where the rotted door hung loose
+upon one broken hinge.
+
+Within lay a human figure. The hair was wet and matted and prickly
+leaves were stuck in it. The face was streaked with blood, the clothes
+were torn. One of the legs lay in a very unnatural attitude. The eyes
+were wide open and staring with a glassy look at some rough fishing rods
+which lay across the rafters above. One of the arms was outstretched and
+the hand lay open as if its owner were saying, “Here I am, you see.”
+There was something very appalling about that dumb attitude of speech
+and welcome when the voice and the eyes could not speak. For he had “got
+dead,” this poor troubled creature; “got dead” after committing one
+hideous crime to hide another.
+
+[Illustration: PEE-WEE SUMMONED THE NEAREST PEOPLE TO THE OLD SHACK.]
+
+The people in the nearest house along the now deserted highway came at
+Pee-wee’s breathless summons and gazed down silently but would not touch
+the figure with outstretched arm and opened hand that seemed to say,
+“Step in, you’re welcome, here I am.”
+
+So they called the coroner and the body of Deadwood Gamely was borne
+away and it was soon known that he had died from injuries received in
+falling down the embankment which he was scrambling up after setting
+fire to one of the supports of the old bridge.
+
+He had not done this horrible thing willfully, at least not for money to
+spend. That very day a warrant was issued for his arrest in Baxter City
+for embezzlement of funds which he had stolen from the bank in which he
+had been employed. But the angel of death had traveled faster than the
+law.
+
+That the contractors, or one of them, who wished to benefit the county
+with a modern bridge had offered Gamely pay to do this dreadful deed of
+arson seemed certain. But it seemed equally certain that the wretched
+boy had balked at this frightful enterprise, putting it off from day to
+day, until discovery and arrest for his other crime stared him in the
+face. He had waited till the very night before the day on which his
+petty thefts would be revealed. Then in frantic desperation he had taken
+this only means of acquiring a sum of money quickly. No one could say
+this for a certainty.
+
+But in a story where we have witnessed so many good turns may we not
+dismiss poor Deadwood Gamely and his tragic end from our thoughts with
+the hope, nay, even the confidence, that his second crime was not a deed
+of willing choice? There was more money misappropriated by Tom, Dick and
+Harry, before the new steel bridge was up than ever poor Deadwood
+Gamely, with his silly clothes and hat, would have dared to steal. And
+so the tax rate went up and Commissioner Somebody-or-other got a new
+automobile and County Engineer Grabson built a big house and so on, and
+so on, and so on.
+
+But before the new million-dollar bridge was finished the Pepsy Roadside
+Rest was flourishing as the only real “monolopy” in Everdoze.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXXV
+
+                                  EXIT
+
+
+So it befell that the big black wagon belonging to the brick orphan home
+came and turned around and went back again. It got in the way of all the
+automobiles that were headed for The Home of Fresh Doughnuts (a new
+sign) and was a nuisance generally. The men who drove it didn’t buy so
+much as a gumdrop.
+
+But what cared the partners? For such a business were they doing as
+would make the Standard Oil Company turn green with envy. Their
+financial rating was so high that you couldn’t see it without a
+telescope. Every time there was a strike over at the new bridge the
+partners reaped a profit from the delay. Thus labor unconsciously put
+business in the way of monopolies.
+
+And so the great enterprise prospered. The advertising department had
+now two steady employees—Licorice Stick and Wiggle. Licorice Stick
+covered the road up as far as Berryville with a huge placard hung from
+his neck. Wiggle proudly flew an inflated balloon from his tail bearing
+the appropriate reminder HOT DOGS AT THE PEPSY REST.
+
+One evening, oh, it must have been about six o’clock, the weary partners
+were closing up their little shack for the night. Pepsy was counting the
+money and Pee-wee was eating the cookies that were left over. For he was
+conscientious and must open shop with a fresh supply each day. Sometimes
+he would have a dozen or more to eat, but he did it bravely—from a sense
+of duty. A scout is dutiful.
+
+Presently there hove in sight a large figure, walking.
+
+“Oh, it’s Mr. Jensen,” said Pepsy; “hurry up and finish the cookies or
+he’ll want them; he always does that.”
+
+Mr. Jensen came up mopping his forehead. “Any lemonade left?” he asked.
+
+“There’s about one glass,” Pee-wee said.
+
+In accordance with his invariable daily custom, Mr. Jensen bought up the
+remainder of stock, drank several glasses of cider, and chatted with the
+partners.
+
+“Ain’t heard of any rivals, have you?” he asked.
+
+“We’ve got the whole detour eating out of our hands,” said Pee-wee,
+which was literally true.
+
+“Makin’ money fast, huh? You takin’ good care of this little gal of
+mine?”
+
+Pepsy smiled at him and he put his arm around her and kissed her and
+said, “If he don’t take good care of you, you just come and let me
+know.” Then he winked at Pee-wee.
+
+When he was gone something reminded Pee-wee to look into the big
+lemonade cooler and make sure that it was empty. It was not quite empty,
+there being about ten lemon pits, a slice of rind, and a small piece of
+ice left in the bottom of it. But this was worth going after and Pee-wee
+went after it. With all his strength he raised the goodly cooler to a
+position above his head and tilted it to his mouth. His arms trembled
+under its weight, and his hands slipped upon its cold, beady sides. The
+several drops of highly diluted lemonade trickled down into his mouth
+but the flavory pits and rind remained at bay at the bottom of the
+cooler.
+
+They would not roll but they might fall. Pee-wee held the cooler up to a
+perfectly perpendicular position above his upturned face. Then, oh,
+horrors! The wet cooler slipped through his hands and the curly head of
+Pee-wee Harris disappeared within it. If the postman who found him
+wrestling valiantly with a banana and clinging with the other hand,
+could only have seen him in this new and terrible predicament!
+
+And thus the curly head and terribly frowning countenance of Scout
+Harris disappears out of our story into a new realm of joy....
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pee-wee Harris, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll
+have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using
+this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: Pee-wee Harris
+
+Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+Illustrator: H. S. Barbour
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2019 [EBook #9833]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE HARRIS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and Sue Clark (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p class='c000'></p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic001'>
+<p><span class='small'>THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT OF PEPSY’S REST HAD TWO STEADY EMPLOYEES.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='xlarge'>PEE-WEE HARRIS</span></div>
+    <div class='c001'><span class='small'>BY</span></div>
+    <div>PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH</div>
+    <div class='c001'><i>Author of</i></div>
+    <div><span class='small'>THE TOM SLADE BOOKS</span></div>
+    <div><span class='small'>THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS</span></div>
+    <div class='c001'><span class='small'>ILLUSTRATED BY</span></div>
+    <div>H. S. BARBOUR</div>
+    <div class='c001'><span class='small'>Published with the approval of</span></div>
+    <div>THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA</div>
+    <div class='c001'>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</div>
+    <div><span class='small'>PUBLISHERS&nbsp;:&nbsp;:&nbsp;NEW YORK</span></div>
+    <div class='c001'><span class='xsmall'>Made in the United States of America</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='sc'><span class='small'>Copyright, 1922, by</span></span></div>
+    <div>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>TO THE ONLY ORIGINAL—THE</div>
+    <div>REAL PEE-WEE HARRIS—THIS</div>
+    <div>STORY IS DEDICATED.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>FOREWORD</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Hey, listen!</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A lot of scouts said I was put out of the Tom Slade Series and so I had
+to go into the Roy Blakeley Series. And a lot of them said I was put
+out of the Roy Blakeley Series and that on account of that I started a
+series of my own. They said I had to get the author who wrote up Tom
+Slade’s adventures to help me. And a lot of them said if I didn’t look
+out, I’d be put out of this series, too.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>That shows how much sense they have, because how can a person that’s
+the main thing in a thing put himself out of that thing? Anyway, I’d
+like to see anybody put me out of this series. If they tried that it
+would be the best part of all the stories.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Maybe when this series is finished I’ll be the only one left in it, but
+a lot I care because the fewer fellers there are the more there will be
+to eat. Roy Blakeley said if I’m writing a series the most important
+thing is to write close to the paper—that shows you how crazy he is.
+Gee whiz! He looks like a laughing hyena on the covers of those books
+he’s all the time writing.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Tom Slade isn’t so bad. I like Tom Slade. Only he doesn’t know anything
+about girls—that’s one thing—I know all about them.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Last summer I went down to where my uncle lives and spent vacation
+there and I had a peach of a time and all the things I did are told in
+the first story, but there are a lot of things left over and I’m going
+to tell these in another story. There are snakes and peach orchards and
+everything down there.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then comes the second story and that’s about a dandy mistake I made.
+Gee whiz! I’ve made better mistakes than any feller in our troop. I
+didn’t make it on purpose, but anyway it led to a lot of dandy
+adventures. That’s one good thing about mistakes, anyway. But one thing
+sure, if I had got into the right automobile I would have just gone
+about two blocks. So that shows that the wrong one may even be better
+than the right one. Only you bet I’m not going to tell you all about
+that story here.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then comes the third one and that’s the one where I started the
+Pollywog Patrol. It didn’t last long, but that’s all right, because
+pollywogs don’t last long. It wasn’t a full patrol, except we were full
+of dessert—three helpings. If you want plenty of dessert you’d better
+read that story.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>After that story comes the fourth one and there’s where I made the
+dandiest mistake I ever made. Another feller helped me make it. On
+account of that mistake a girl was good and sorry for the way she
+treated me and I bet you’d say it served her right. But anyway we’re
+good friends now.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then comes the fifth story and that’s the craziest one of all because
+that’s the story where I didn’t go to a desert island on account of the
+desert island coming to me.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>After the fifth one the stories get crazier and crazier. Maybe there’ll
+be as many as a hundred because I’ve got lots of paper and a new
+fountain pen and I’m having more adventures all the time. I’ve got
+ninety-seven of them thought up already—I mean adventures that I
+really had. And I’ve got a hundred and fifty-two thought up that I’m
+going to have, and that’s not counting one big one that I’ve started on
+already. So the only thing that will stop me will be if I don’t have
+any more paper, but even then I can go on writing, because scouts can
+write on birch bark and you can see for yourself how many birch trees
+there are. As long as there are some birch trees left I can keep on
+writing, so don’t you worry.</p>
+
+<div class='c003'>Pee-wee Harris.</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>P. S. Scouts know how to make paper out of leaves, too, so as long as
+there are leaves I can keep on writing.</p>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='c004'>CONTENTS</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<table class='table0' summary=''>
+<colgroup>
+<col width='15%' />
+<col width='84%' />
+</colgroup>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>I</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chI'>THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>II</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chII'>A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>III</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chIII'>AN INVITATION</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>IV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chIV'>HE GOES TO CONQUER</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>V</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chV'>ENTER PEPSY</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>VI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chVI'>THE WAY OF THE SCOUT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>VII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chVII'>A BIG IDEA</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>VIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chVIII'>MAKING PLANS</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>IX</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chIX'>IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>X</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chX'>DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXI'>TWO IS A COMPANY—THREE IS BAD LUCK</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXII'>THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXIII'>PEPSY’S SECRET</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XIV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXIV'>SUSPENSE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXV'>SIX MERRY MAIDENS</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XVI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXVI'>A REVELATION</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XVII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXVII'>HARD TIMES</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XVIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXVIII'>THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XIX</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXIX'>THE OTHER VOICE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XX</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXX'>AN OFFICIAL REBUKE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXI'>SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXII'>FATE IS JUST</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXIII'>WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXIV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXIV'>PEPSY’S ENTERPRISE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXV'>AN ACCIDENT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXVI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXVI'>PEPSY’S INVESTMENT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXVII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXVII'>SEEN IN THE DARK</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXVIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXVIII'>STOCK ON HAND</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXIX</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXIX'>INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXX</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXX'>PAID IN FULL</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXXI</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXXI'>CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXXII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXXII'>THE CLEW</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXXIII</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXXIII'>THE TRAMPLED TRAIL</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXXIV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXXIV'>THE TRAIL’S END</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c005'>XXXV</td>
+    <td class='c006'><a href='#chXXXV'>EXIT</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001' />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+  <h1 class='c007'>PEE-WEE HARRIS</h1>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+  <h2 id='chI' class='c008'>CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pee-wee Harris, mascot of the Raven Patrol, First Bridgeboro Troop, sat
+upon the lowest limb of the tree in front of his home eating a banana.
+To maintain his balance it was necessary for him to keep a tight hold
+with one hand on a knotty projection of the trunk while with the other
+he clutched his luscious refreshment.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The safety of his small form as he sat on the shaky limb depended upon
+his hold of the trunk, while the tremendous responsibility of holding
+his banana devolved upon the other hand.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee was so much smaller than he should have been and the banana so
+much larger than it should have been that they might almost be said to
+have been of the same size.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The slender limb on which Pee-wee sat trembled and creaked with each
+enormous bite that he took.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The bright morning sunlight, wriggling through the foliage overhead,
+picked out the round face and curly hair of our young hero and showed
+him in all his pristine glory, frowning a terrible frown, clinging for
+dear life with one hand and engaged in his customary occupation of
+eating.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He had ascended to this leafy throne with the banana in his pocket but
+he could not restore it to his pocket now even if he wished to.
+However, he did not wish to. In a military sense he was in a
+predicament; both arms were in bad strategic position and his center
+exposed to assault. His leafy throne was like many another throne in
+these eventful times—extremely shaky.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But the commissary department was in fine shape....</p>
+
+<hr class='c011' />
+
+<p class='c002'>Suddenly the expeditionary forces of Uncle Sam appeared in the form of
+the postman, who paused on his way across the lawn to the house.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hello, up there,” he said, suddenly discovering Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hello yourself and see how you like it,” the mascot of the Ravens
+called down.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I saw a banana up there and I thought maybe you were behind it,” the
+postman called, as he looked among the pack of letters he held in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s only half a banana,” Pee-wee shouted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Well, you’re only half a scout,” the postman said; “you’d better drop
+it, here’s a letter for you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“For me?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“For you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Steadying himself, Pee-wee took an enormous bite, considerably reducing
+the length of the banana. “Wait a minute till I finish it,” he said as
+best he could with his mouth full. “Waaer-mint.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can’t wait,” the postman said, heartlessly moving away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Waymnt,” Pee-wee yelled, frantically taking another bite;
+“wayermntdyehear, waymnt!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you think the government can wait for you to finish a banana?” the
+postman demanded with a wicked grin upon his face. “You got two hands;
+here, take the letter if you want it; here it is,” he added, reaching
+up.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee tried to dispatch the remainder of the banana by one gigantic
+and triumphant bite but the desperate expedient did not work; his mouth
+with all its long practice, could not keep up with his hand; it became
+clogged while yet a considerable length of banana projected out of the
+gracefully drooping rind.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Here, take it,” the postman said in a tone of ruthless finality.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Chewing frantically and waving the remainder of banana menacingly like
+a club, the baffled hero uttered some incomprehensible, imploring
+jumble of suffocated words while the postman moved away a step or two,
+repressing a fiendish smile.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Throw away the banana,” he said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>By this time Pee-wee was able to speak and while his chewing apparatus
+was momentarily disengaged he demanded to know if the postman thought
+he was crazy. The postman, resolved not to miss the fun of the
+situation, was not going to let Pee-wee take another bite; time was
+precious, and two more bites of the sort that Pee-wee took might leave
+his hand free.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Take the letter,” he said with an air of cold determination, “or I’ll
+leave it at the house. Here, take it quick; I’ve no time to waste.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you want me to waste a banana,” Pee-wee yelled imploringly; “a
+scout is supposed—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Here, take it,” the postman said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There followed the most terrible moment in the life of Pee-wee Harris,
+Scout. He knew that one more bite would be fatal, that the postman
+would not wait. In two bites, or in three at most, he could finish the
+banana and his hand would be free.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>How could a postman, who brings joy to the lonely, words of love from
+far away, cheer to those who wait, comfort from across the seas,
+<i>Boys’ Life Magazine</i>—how could such a being be so relentless and
+cruel? If that letter were left at the house, Pee-wee would have to go
+to the house and get it, and there his mother was lying in ambush
+waiting to pounce upon him and make him mow the lawn. Why would not the
+postman wait for just two bites? Maybe he could do it in one. He had
+consumed a peach in one bite and a ham sandwich in four—his star
+record.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He made a movement with his hand, and simultaneously the postman
+retreated a step or two toward the house. Pee-wee tried releasing his
+hold upon the trunk with the other hand and almost lost his balance on
+the shaky limb.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Here,” said the postman, unyielding, “chuck the banana and take the
+letter or you’ll find it waiting for you in the front hall. It’s an
+important letter, it feels as if it had a couple of cookies in it.” The
+postman knew Pee-wee. “Here you go,” the torturer said grimly, “take it
+or not, suit yourself.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can’t you see both hands are busy?” the victim pled. “Two bites—a
+scout is supposed not to waste anything—he’s supposed—he’s
+supposed—<i>wait</i> a minute—he’s supposed if he starts a thing to
+finish it—<i>wait!</i> I’m not going to take a bite, I’m only giving
+you an argument—can’t you wait—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Here you go, last chance, take it,” the postman said, a faint smile
+hovering at the corner of his mouth, “one, two, —”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Out of Pee-wee’s wrath and anguish came an inspiration. “Stick the
+letter in the banana,” he said, holding the banana down.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t know about that,” the postman said, ruefully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know about it,” Pee-wee thundered down at him. “You said I had to
+take it or not; that letter belongs to me and you have to deliver it.
+This banana, it’s—it’s the same as a mail box—you stick the letter in
+the banana. You think you’re so smart, you thought you’d make me throw
+away the banana, <i>naaah</i>, didn’t you? I wouldn’t do that, not even
+for—for—secretary—for the postmaster-general, I wouldn’t! A scout
+has resource.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All right, you win,” said the postman, good-humoredly, “only look out
+you don’t fall; here you go, hold on tight.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Clutching to the knotty projection of trunk, Pee-wee reached the other
+hand as low as he could and the postman, smiling, stuck the corner of
+the coveted letter into the mealy substance of the banana.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You win,” the postman repeated laughingly; “it shows what Scout Harris
+can do with food.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Food will win the war,” Pee-wee shouted. “You thought you could make
+me throw away my banana but you couldn’t. I knew a man that died from
+not eating a banana, I did.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Explain all that,” the postman said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He threw a banana away on his porch instead of eating it and later he
+stepped on it and slid down the steps and broke his leg and they took
+him to the hospital and compilations set in and he got pneumonia and
+died from not eating that banana. So there!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That’s a very fine argument,” the postman said as he went away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know better ones than that!” Pee-wee shouted after him.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chII' class='c008'>CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>So there he sat upon his precarious perch trying to reassume the
+posture which insured a good balance, clinging to the trunk with one
+hand and to the banana with the other.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And now that the encounter which had almost resulted in a tragic
+sacrifice was over, and while our scout hero pauses triumphant, it may
+be fitting to apologize to the reader for introducing our hero in the
+act of eating. But indeed it was a question of introducing him in the
+act of eating or of not introducing him at all.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>For a story of Pee-wee Harris is necessarily more or less a story of
+food. And this is a story abounding in cake and pie and waffles and
+crullers and cookies and hot frankfurters. There will be found in it
+also ice cream cones and jawbreakers and cocoanut bars and potatoes
+roasted on sticks. Heroes of stories may have starved on desert islands
+but there is to be none of that here.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>In this tale, if you follow the adventures of our scout hero (who now
+at last appears before you as a star), you shall find lemonade side by
+side with first aid, and all the characters shall receive their just
+desserts, some of them (not to mention any names) two helpings.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So there he sat upon the branch, the mascot of the Raven Patrol, with
+an interior like the Mammoth Cave and a voice like the whisperings of
+the battle zone in France. Take a good look at him while he is quiet
+for ten seconds hand running. Everything about him is
+tremendous—except his size. He is built to withstand banter, ridicule
+and jollying; his sturdy nature is guaranteed proof against the
+battering assaults of unholy mirth from other scouts; his round face
+and curly hair are the delight of the girls of Bridgeboro; his loyalty
+is as the mighty rock of Gibraltar. A bully little scout he is—a sort
+of human Ford.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The question of removing the letter from the banana and getting rid of
+the banana (in the proper way) now presented itself to him. He took a
+bite of the banana and the letter almost fell. He then tried releasing
+his hold upon the trunk but that would not do. He then extracted the
+letter with his teeth which effectually prevented him from eating the
+banana.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>What to do?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Steadying himself with one hand (he could not let go the trunk for so
+much as a moment), he brought the banana to his lips, held it between
+his teeth and took the letter in his unoccupied hand. As he bit into
+the banana the part remaining trembled and hung as on a thread; another
+moment and it would drop. The predicament was tragic. Slowly, but
+surely and steadily, the remainder of the banana broke away and
+<i>fell</i>—into the hand that held the letter.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Holding both letter and banana in the one perspiring palm, Pee-wee
+devoured first the one and then the other. Both were delicious, the
+letter particularly. It had one advantage over the banana, for he could
+only devour the banana once, whereas he devoured the contents of the
+letter several times. He wished that bananas and doughnuts were like
+letters....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>AN INVITATION</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The envelope was postmarked Everdoze which, with its one thousand two
+hundred and fifty-seven inhabitants, was the cosmopolitan center of
+Long Valley which ran (if anything in that neighborhood could be said
+to run) from Baxter City down below the vicinity of the bridge on the
+highway.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>That is, Long Valley bordered the highway on its western side for a
+distance of about ten miles. The valley was, roughly speaking, a couple
+of miles wide, very deep in places, and thickly wooded. It was
+altogether a very sequestered and romantic region. Through it,
+paralleling the highway, was a road, consisting mostly of two wagon
+ruts with a strip of grass and weeds between them. To traverse Long
+Valley one turned into this road where it left the highway at Baxters,
+and in the course of time the wayfarer would emerge out of this dim
+tract into the light of day where the unfrequented road came into the
+highway again below the bridge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>About midway of this lonely road was Everdoze, and in a pleasant
+old-fashioned white house in Everdoze lived Ebenezer Quig who once upon
+a time had married Pee-wee’s Aunt Jamsiah. Pee-wee remembered his Aunt
+Jamsiah when she had come to make a visit in Bridgeboro and, though he
+had never seen her since, he had always borne her tenderly in mind
+because as a little (a <i>very</i> little) boy her name had always
+reminded him of jam. The letter, as has been said, bore the postmark of
+Everdoze and had been stamped by the very hand of Simeon Drowser, the
+local postmaster.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This is what the letter said:</p>
+
+<p class='c012'>Dear Walter:</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Your uncle has been pestering me to write to you but Pepsy has been
+using the pen for her school exercise and I couldn’t get hold of it
+till to-day when she went away with Wiggle, perch fishing. Licorice
+Stick says they’re running in the brook most wonderful but you can’t
+believe half what he says. Seems as if the perch know when school
+closes, leastways that’s what your uncle says.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Pee-wee reread these enchanting words. Pepsy! Wiggle! Perch fishing!
+Licorice Stick! And school closing! And perch that knew about it. That
+was the sort of perch for Pee-wee. He read on:</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>I told your uncle I reckoned you wouldn’t care to come here being you
+live in such a lively place but he said this summer you would like to
+come for there will be plenty for you to do because there is going to
+be a spelling match in the town hall and an Uncle Tom’s Cabin show in
+August.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>You can have plenty of milk and fresh eggs and Miss Arabella Bellison
+who has the school is staying this summer and she will let you in the
+school-house where there is a library of more than forty books but some
+of the pages are gone Pepsy says. She says to tell you she will show
+you where she cut her initials but I tell her not to put such ideas in
+your head and she knows how to climb in even if the door is locked,
+such goings on as she and Wiggle have, they will be the death of me.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Well, Walter, you will be welcome if you can come and spend the summer
+with us. I suppose you’re a great big boy by now; your mother was
+always tall for her age. There are boys here who would like to be scout
+boys and your uncle says you can teach them. We will do all we can so
+that you have a pleasant summer if you come and tell your mother we
+will be real glad to see you and will take good care of you.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>I can’t write more now because I am putting up preserves, one hundred
+jars already. The apples will be rotting on the trees, it’s a shame.
+You will think we are very old-fashioned, I’m afraid.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee paused and smacked his lips and nearly fell backward off the
+limb. One hundred jars of preserves and more coming! Apples rotting on
+the trees! All that remained to complete his happiness was a bush laden
+with ice cream cones growing wild. He read the concluding sentences:</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Your uncle would be glad to go and bring you in the buckboard but it
+would take very long and he is busy haying so if you don’t mind the bad
+road it would be better for your father to send you in the automobile.
+Be sure to turn off the highway to the right just above Baxters. The
+road goes through the woods.</p>
+<div class='c014'>Your loving</div>
+<div class='c015'>Aunt Jamsiah.</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Steadying himself with one hand, Pee-wee took the letter between his
+teeth as if he were about to eat it. Then he cautiously let himself
+down so that he hung by his knees, then clutched the limb with his
+hands, hung for a moment with his legs dangling, and let go. In one
+sense he was upon earth but in another sense he was walking on air....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chIV' class='c008'>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>HE GOES TO CONQUER</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Thus it befell that on the second day after the receipt of this letter
+Pee-wee Harris was sitting beside Charlie, the chauffeur, in the fine
+sedan car belonging to Doctor Harris, advancing against poor, helpless
+Everdoze.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He traveled in all the martial splendor of his full scout regalia, his
+duffel bag stuffed to capacity with his aluminum cooking set and two
+extra scout suits. His diminutive but compact and sturdy little form
+was decorated with his scout jack-knife hanging from his belt, his
+compass dangling from his neck, and his belt ax dragging down his belt
+in back.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A suggestive little dash of the culinary phase of scouting was to be
+seen in a small saucepan stuck in his belt like a deadly dagger. Thus
+if danger came he might confront his enemy with a sample of scout
+cookery and kill him on the spot.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>His sleeves were bedecked with merit badges; from the end of his scout
+staff waved the flaunting emblem of the Raven Patrol; his stalking
+camera was swung over his shoulder like a knapsack; his nickel-plated
+scout whistle jangled against the saucepan; and in his trousers pockets
+were a magnifying glass, three jawbreakers, a chocolate bar, a few
+inches of electric wiring, and a rubber balloon in a state of collapse.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The highway from Bridgeboro was a broad, smooth road, a temptation and
+a delight to speeders, where motorcycle cops lurked in the bushes
+hardly waiting for cars with New York licenses.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It was late in the afternoon when they reached Baxter City and here
+they turned into such a road as Charlie vowed he had never seen before.
+Scarcely had they gone a mile over rocks and ruts when the dim woods
+closed in on either side, imparting a strange coolness. It was almost
+like going through a leafy tunnel. Projecting branches brushed the top
+of the car and mischievously grazed and tickled their faces. The voices
+of the birds, clear in the stillness, seemed to complain at this
+intrusion into their domain.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’d like to know how I’m going to get back through this jungle after
+dark,” Charlie said. “I wonder what anybody wanted to start a village
+down here for?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Maybe—maybe they did it kind of absent-mindedly,” Pee-wee said. “I
+never started a village so I don’t know.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Well, you’ll <i>startle</i> one anyway,” Charlie said. “I guess the
+village isn’t much bigger than you are.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The road took them southward through the valley. They were not far west
+of the highway but the low country and the thick woods obscured it from
+view. They could hear the tooting of auto horns over that way and
+sometimes human voices sounding strange across the intervening
+solitude.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t see why they didn’t set the village down over at the highway;
+it’s not more than a mile or so,” Charlie said. “Maybe they were afraid
+the autos would run over it; safety first, hey? Nobody’ll run over it
+here, that’s one sure thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee took the last bite of a hot frankfurter he had bought at a
+roadside shack on the highway and was now more free to talk.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Listen,” he said, “what’s that?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It was a distant rattling sound which began suddenly and ended
+suddenly. They both listened.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There must be a bridge up there along the highway,” Charlie said;
+“that’s the sound of cars going over it. Loose planking, hey?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee listened to the rattling of the loose planks as another car
+sped over the unseen structure, little dreaming of the part that bridge
+was destined to play in his young life. The commonplace noise of the
+neglected flooring seemed emphasized by the quiet of the woodland. That
+reminder of human traffic, so near and yet so far and out of tune with
+all the gentler sounds of the valley, presented a strange contrast and
+jarred even Pee-wee’s stout nerves.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There goes another,” Charlie said; “we must be nearer to the highway
+than I thought.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>They had, indeed, inscribed a kind of loop and having passed its
+farthest point from the main road were traveling toward it again and
+would have emerged upon it just beyond the bridge but for the wood
+embowered and sequestered village which was their destination. The
+first sign of this village was a cow standing in the middle of the
+grass-grown road as if to challenge their approach. Perhaps she was
+stationed there as a sort of traffic cop....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chV' class='c008'>CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>ENTER PEPSY</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>It will be seen by a glance at the accompanying sketch that the village
+of Everdoze was about opposite the bridge on the highway. From this
+main road the village could be reached by a trail through the woods. On
+hearing of this, Charlie expressed regret that he had not allowed his
+passenger to make the final stage of the journey on foot.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Well, I <i>never</i> in all my <i>life</i>!” said Aunt Jamsiah as
+Pee-wee stepped out of the car. “In goodness’ name, where’s the rest of
+you? I thought you were a great, tall, strapping boy. I hope your
+appetite’s bigger than your body. And what on earth is that saucepan
+for? Are you going to cook us all alive? Did you ever <i>see</i> such a
+thing!” she added, speaking to Uncle Ebenezer who had stepped forward
+to welcome his nephew.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s all decked out like a carnival! He’s just too killing!” She then
+proceeded to embrace him while his martial paraphernalia clanked and
+rattled.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We won’t need any more brass band,” said a young girl in a gingham
+apron and with brick red hair in long tightly woven braids, who stood
+close by; “he’s a <i>melodeon</i>. I don’t see what they sent such a
+big car for with such a little boy. ’Taint no fit, it ain’t.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee gave this girl a withering look which she boldly returned,
+continuing to stare at him. Her face was covered with freckles and she
+was so unqualifiedly plain and homely in face and attire that she might
+be said to have been attractive on the ground of novelty.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Pepsy,” said Mrs. Quig, addressing her, “you shake hands with Walter
+and tell him you and he are going to be good friends. You come right
+here and do as I say now and no more of those looks.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I ain’t going to kiss him,” the girl said by way of compromising.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You give him a welcome just like Wiggle is doing,” said Aunt Jamsiah,
+“and be ashamed that you have to learn your manners from such as he.
+You do as I say now.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re welcome—and I can beat you running,” the girl said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Girls are afraid of snakes,” Pee-wee retorted. Meanwhile the
+individual who had been cited as a model of social correctness by Aunt
+Jamsiah stood upon the doorstep looking eagerly up into Pee-wee’s face
+and wagging his tail with vigorous and lightning rapidity. Wiggle’s
+tail was easily the fastest thing in Everdoze. His head vibrated in
+unison with it and his look of intentness carried with it all sorts of
+friendly expectations. He fairly shook with excitement and cordiality.
+He followed the sedan car a few yards upon its homeward journey and
+then, by a sudden impulse, deserted it and returned to a position
+directly in front of Pee-wee with wagging tail and questioning gaze.
+Pie seemed to say, “I’m ready for anything, the sky is the limit.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You haven’t had a bite to eat since breakfast and you’re
+<i>starving</i>. I can <i>tell</i> it,” said Aunt Jamsiah. “You come
+right in the kitchen.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I had a lot of frankfurters and things at the places along the
+highway,” Pee-wee said. “I had waffles at one place. I bet they make a
+lot of money along that road selling things. There are shacks all the
+way. All the autoists stop and buy things to eat. You can get tires and
+everything.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, I wouldn’t want to eat tires,” said Pepsy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What are your soldier clothes for?” the girl wanted to know.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“They’re not soldier clothes,” Pee-wee said; “I’m a scout.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I bet you don’t know as much as Miss Bellison does.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I bet I don’t either,” Pee-wee said, “so I win.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“She’s the school teacher here and she knows everything.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Did she know I was coming?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, she didn’t and—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Then she doesn’t know everything,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Smarty, smarty!” the girl retorted, “I came out of an orphan home and
+that’s more than you can say.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You only get one helping of dessert there,” said Pee-wee. “I’d rather
+be a scout than an orphan. I know a feller who was an orphan and he was
+sorry for it afterwards.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Are you going to stay all summer?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Till school opens,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you want me to show you where there’s a woodchuck hole?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>At this point Pee-wee was summoned again to the kitchen where he ate a
+sumptuous repast, after which Pepsy and Wiggle took him about and
+showed him the farm.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee and Pepsy fenced a good deal but seemed to progress in this
+cautious and defensive way toward a friendly understanding. As for
+Wiggle he danced about, following elusive scents that led nowhere,
+carried off and back again by quick impulse, till at last the three
+ended their tour of inspection at a little summer house which had been
+built over a spring by the roadside. Here they drank of the bubbling,
+crystal water, Wiggle doing this as everything else, with erratic
+impulse, drinking a dozen times and not much at any time.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The dying sunlight painted the slopes of the valley with crimson tints
+and the countryside was very still. Through the woods to the west could
+be heard occasionally the discordant noise from the loose flooring of
+the bridge on the highway as an auto sped over it. In the quiet evening
+the sound, with its sudden start, its rattling clamor and its quick
+cessation, made a jarring note in all the surrounding peacefulness.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That’s what wakes me up in the morning, the mail wagon going over,”
+Pepsy said; “I know it’s time to get up then. Those planks can talk,
+they say the same thing every day.</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>You listen to-morrow morning.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“They could never wake <i>me</i> up,” Pee-wee said, which was probably
+true. “What do you mean about their saying you have to go back?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“When Aunt Jamsiah took me, I was a probator. Do you know what that
+means?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s what they do with people’s wills,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It means if I don’t behave I have to go back to the orphan home,” the
+girl said. “And every day I was afraid I’d have to go back—for a long,
+long time, I was. And when I was lying in bed mornings I’d hear the
+planks saying that—</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>just like that, and I’d get good and scared.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You won’t have to go back,” said Pee-wee. “You leave it to me, I’ll
+fix it. Those planks—I’ve known lots of planks—and they can’t tell
+the truth. Don’t you care. I wouldn’t believe what an old plank said.
+Trees are all right, but planks—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t notice it so much now,” Pepsy said; “that was a year ago and
+Aunt Jamsiah says I’m all right and mind good except I’m a tomboy. That
+ain’t so bad, is it? Being a tomboy? A girl and me tried to set the
+orphan home on fire because they licked us, but I’m good here. But I
+wish they’d put a new floor on that bridge. Anyway, Aunt Jamsiah says
+I’m good now.” Pee-wee was about to speak, but noticing that the girl’s
+eyes were fixed upon a crimson patch on the hillside where the sun was
+going down, and seeing that her eyes sparkled strangely (for indeed
+they were not pretty eyes) he said nothing, like the bully little scout
+that he was.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Anyway, one thing, I wouldn’t let an old bridge get my goat, I
+wouldn’t,” he said finally, “and besides, you said you would show me a
+woodchuck hole.”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chVI' class='c008'>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE WAY OF THE SCOUT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pepsy’s right name was Penelope Pepperall and Aunt Jamsiah had taken
+her out of the County Home after the fire episode, by way of saving her
+from the worse influence of a reformatory. She and Uncle Ebenezer had
+agreed to be responsible for the girl, and Pepsy had spent a year of
+joyous freedom at the farm marred only by the threat hanging over her
+that she would be restored to the authorities upon the least suspicion
+of misconduct.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She had done her work faithfully and become a help and a comfort to her
+benefactors. She had a snappy temper and a sharp tongue and was,
+indeed, something of a tomboy. But Aunt Jamsiah, though often annoyed
+and sometimes chagrined, took a charitable view of these shortcomings
+and her generous heart was not likely to confound them with genuine
+misdoing.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So the stern condition of Pepsy’s freedom had become something of a
+dead letter, except in her own fearful fancy, and particularly when
+that discordant voice of the bridge spoke ominously of her peril.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy had been trusted and had proven worthy of the trust. She had
+never known any mother or father, nor any home save the institution
+from which Aunt Jamsiah had rescued her, and she had grown to love her
+kindly guardians and the old farm where she had much work but also much
+freedom. “Chores will keep her out of mischief,” Aunt Jamsiah had said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Wiggle’s ancestry and social standing were quite as much a mystery as
+Pepsy’s; he was not an aristocrat, that is certain, and having no
+particular chores to do was free to devote his undivided time to
+mischief; he concentrated on it, as the saying is, and thereby
+accomplished wonders. He was Pepsy’s steady comrade and the partner of
+all her adventurous escapades.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy was not romantic and imaginative; her freckled face and tightly
+braided red hair and thin legs with wrinkled cotton stockings,
+protested against that. She had a simple mind with a touch of
+superstition. It was a kind of morbid dread of the institution she had
+left which had conjured that ramshackle old bridge up on the highway
+into an ominous voice of warning. She hated the bridge and dreaded it
+as a thing haunted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee soon became close friends with these two, and from a rather
+cautious and defensive beginning Pepsy soon fell victim to the spell of
+the little scout, as indeed every one else did. Pepsy did not surrender
+without a struggle. She showed Pee-wee the woodchuck hole and Pee-wee,
+after a minute’s skillful search, showed her the other hole, or back
+entrance, under a stone wall.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There are always two,” he told her, “and one of them is usually under
+a stone wall. They’re smart, woodchucks are.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Are they as smart as you?” she wanted to know.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Smarter,” Pee-wee admitted, generously; “they’re smarter than skunks
+and even skunks are smarter than I am.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I like you better than skunks,” she said. Wiggle seemed to be of the
+same opinion. “I like all the scouts on account of you,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>No one could be long in Pee-wee’s company
+without hearing about the scouts; he was a walking (or rather a running
+and jumping) advertisement of the organization. He told Pepsy about
+tracking and stalking and signaling and the miracles of cookery which
+his friend Roy Blakeley had performed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can he cook better than you?” Pepsy wanted to know, a bit dubiously.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, but I can eat more than he can,” Pee-wee said. And that seemed to
+relieve her.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I can make a locust come to me,” he added, and suiting the action to
+the word he emitted a buzzing sound which brought a poor deluded locust
+to his very hand. At such wonder-working she could only gape and stare.
+Wiggle appeared to claim the locust as a souvenir of the scout’s magic.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You let it go, Wiggle,” Pee-wee said. “If you want to be a scout you
+can’t kill anything that doesn’t do any harm. But you can kill snakes
+and mosquitoes if you want to.” Evidently it was the dream of Wiggle’s
+life to be a scout for he released the locust to Pee-wee, wagging his
+tail frantically.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You have to be loyal, too,” the young propagandist said; “that’s a rule. You have to be helpful and think up ways
+to help people. No matter what happens you have to be loyal.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you have to be loyal to orphan homes?” Pepsy wanted to know. “If
+they lick you do you have to be loyal to them?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Here was a poser for the scout. But being small Pee-wee was able to
+wriggle out of almost anything. “You have to be loyal where loyalty is
+due,” he said. “That’s what the rule says; it’s Rule Two. But, anyway,
+there’s another rule and that’s Rule Seven and it says you have to be
+kind. You can’t be kind licking people, that’s one sure thing. So it’s
+a teckinality that you don’t have to be loyal to an orphan home. You
+can ask any lawyer because that’s what you call logic.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Deadwood Gamely’s father is a lawyer,” Pepsy said, “and I <i>hate</i>
+Deadwood Gamely and I wouldn’t go to his house to ask his father. He’s
+a smarty and I hit him with a tomato. Have I got a right to do that—if
+he’s a smarty?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Here was another legal technicality, but Pee-wee was equal to the
+occasion. “A—a scout has to be a—he has to have a good aim,” he said.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chVII' class='c008'>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>A BIG IDEA</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>They had been driving the cows home during this learned exposition on
+scouting. Two things were now perfectly clear to Pepsy’s simple mind.
+One, that she would be loyal at any cost, loyal to her new friend, and
+through him to all the scouts. She knew them only through him. They
+were a race of wonder-workers away off in the surging metropolis of
+Bridgeboro. She could not aspire to be one of them, but she could be
+loyal, she could “stick up” for them.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The other matter which was now settled, once and for all, was that it
+was all right to throw a tomato at a person you hated provided only
+that you hit the mark. Aunt Jamsiah had been all wrong in her anger at
+that exploit which had stirred the village. For to throw a tomato at
+the son of Lawyer Gamely was aiming very high.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The son of Lawyer Gamely had a Ford and worked in the bank at Baxter
+City and was a mighty sport who wore white collars and red ties and
+said that “Everdoze was asleep and didn’t have brains enough to lie
+down,” and all such stuff.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee let down the bars while the patient cows waited, and Scout
+Wiggle (knowing that a scout should be helpful) gave the last cow a
+snip on the leg to help her along.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Here, at these rustic bars, ended Pepsy’s chores for the day and in the
+delightful interval before supper she and Pee-wee lolled in the
+wellhouse by the roadside. Wiggle, with characteristic indecision,
+chased the cows a few yards, returned to his companions, darted off to
+chase the cows again, deserted that pastime with erratic suddenness,
+and returned again wagging his tail and looking up intently as if to
+ask, “What next?” Then he lay down panting. Mr. Ellsworth, Pee-wee’s
+scoutmaster, would have said that Wiggle lacked method....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“If I had a lot of money,” Pepsy said, “you could teach me all the
+things that scouts know and I’d pay you ever so much. Once I had forty
+cents but I spent it at the Mammoth Carnival. I paid ten cents to throw
+six balls so I could get a funny doll and I never hit the doll and when
+I only had ten cents left I made believe the doll was Deadwood Gamely
+and I hated and <i>hated</i> with all my might while I threw the ball
+the last six times but I couldn’t hit the doll.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You can’t aim so good when you’re mad,” Pee-wee said, “so if you want
+to hit somebody with a tomato or an egg or anything like that you must
+have kind thoughts about the person that you’re aiming at, only you’re
+not supposed to throw tomatoes and eggs and things because you can have
+more fun eating them. I wouldn’t waste a tomato on that feller because
+anyway you’ve got your tongue.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You can’t sass him,” said Pepsy, “because he uses big words and he’s
+such a smarty and he makes you feel silly and then you begin to cry and
+get mad. When he says I’m an orphan and things—and things—Wiggle
+hates him, too, don’t you, Wiggle?” The girl was almost crying then and
+Pee-wee comforted her.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you think I don’t know any long words?” he said. “I know some of
+the longest words that were ever invented and—and—even I can make
+special ones myself. Once I—don’t you cry—once I was kept in in
+school and Julia Carson was kept in too, because she wriggled in her
+seat—you know how girls do. I had to choose a word and write it a
+hundred times and I didn’t want to get through too soon, because I
+wanted to get out the same time she did. So I chose the word
+incomprehensibility, and I—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Is that girl pretty?” Pepsy wanted to know. “She’s got a wart on her
+finger. It’s the best one I ever saw,” Pee-wee said. “She’s afraid to
+get in a boat, that girl is.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I hate her,” Pepsy said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What for?” Pee-wee inquired. “Because she has a wart? Don’t you know
+it’s good luck to have warts?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Because—because she was bad and had to stay after school,” Pepsy
+said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That shows how much you know about logic,” Pee-wee said, “because I
+had to stay too and I was worse than she was. So there.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“<i>I</i> wouldn’t be afraid to get in a boat,” Pepsy said proudly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I never said she was like you,” Pee-wee declared. “She’s not a
+tomboy.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy seemed comforted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You leave that feller to me,” Pee-wee said. “I can handle Roy Blakeley
+and all his patrol and they’re a lot of jolliers—they think they’re so
+smart.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I like you better than all of them,” Pepsy said. “Sometimes I’m kept
+after school too, you can ask Miss Bellison.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“One thing sure, I like you well enough to be partners with you,”
+Pee-wee said. “Do you want me to tell you something? I thought of a way
+to make a lot of money, and if I do I’m going to buy three new tents
+for our troop. Do you want to go partners with me? We’ll say the tents
+are from both of us and we’ll have a lot of fun.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I had a dollar once and I sent it to the heathens,” Pepsy said, “and
+I’d rather help you than the heathens, because I like you better.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Heathens are all right,” Pee-wee said, “and I’m not saying anything
+against heathens, especially wild ones, but we’re just as wild. You
+ought to go to Temple Camp and see how wild we are.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He did not look very wild as he sat upon the narrow seat with his knees
+drawn up and his scout hat on the back of his head showing his curly
+hair. The girl gazed at his natty khaki attire, the row of merit badges
+on his sleeve, the trophies of his heroic triumphs. She was not the
+first to feel the lure of a uniform. But it was the first uniform she
+had ever seen at close range, for in the wartime she had been in that
+frowning brick structure which still haunted her.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll help you because you can do everything and you know a lot,” she
+said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>In the fullness of her generosity and loyalty to Pee-wee’s prowess she
+never reminded him or even thought of the things she could do which he
+could not. She would not do her little optional chore of milking a cow
+for fear he might perceive her superiority in this little item of
+proficiency. Poor girl, she was a better scout than she knew.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“If you think it up I’ll do all the work, and then we’ll be even,” she
+said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So Pee-wee told her of the colossal scheme which his lively imagination
+had conceived.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It all started with a hot frankfurter,” he said. “If I hadn’t bought
+a hot frankfurter I wouldn’t have thought of it. So
+that shows you how important a frankfurter is—kind of. Maybe a person
+might get to be a millionaire just starting with a frankfurter, you
+never can tell....”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chVIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>MAKING PLANS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>“I bought that frankfurter at a shack up on the highway and while I was
+eating it I just happened to think that as long as there’s lots of
+fruit and things here and as long as you know how to make fudge, we’d
+start a shack right here in this wellhouse and sell lemonade and fruit
+and fudge and cookies and things, and if we make lots of money I’d go
+up to Baxter City and buy some auto accessories like spark plugs and
+tire tape and things and we’d sell those, too. We’d put signs on the
+trees along the road telling people to stop here and I know how to make
+up signs so as to get people good and hungry. You have them say that
+things are <i>hot in the pan</i> and you have to have drinks with names
+like <i>arctic</i> and all like that. I know how to make them hungry
+and thirsty and I’ve got a balloon that I can blow up—see? And we’d
+print something on it and tie it to Wiggle’s tail and make him walk up
+and down the road. What do you say? Isn’t it a peachy scheme? Will you
+help me?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>No dream of Pee-wee’s could be impossible of fulfillment. With him, to
+try was to succeed, according to Pepsy’s simple and unbounded faith.
+The plan <i>must</i> be all right, and wondrous in its possibilities.
+It was an inspiration—born of a frankfurter. It was not for poor Pepsy
+to take issue with this master mind.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Yet she did venture to say, “Not very many autos come down here, only a
+few that go through to Berryville. Licorice Stick—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That’s a dandy name,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He goes by a dozen times a day, but he hasn’t got any money, and Mr.
+Flint goes by but he’s a miser and Doctor Killem goes by in his buggy
+and he says people eat too much—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s crazy!” Pee-wee shouted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“And that’s everybody that goes by except a few when they have the town
+fair in Berryville.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>For a moment Pee-wee paused, balked but not
+beaten. “There’s going to be an Uncle Tom’s Cabin show in Berryville,”
+he said, “and the town fair, that’s two things. Let’s start in and
+maybe later there’ll be some summer boarders in Berryville. We’ll have
+waffles—I can make those. And we’ll have lemonade and fruit and all
+kinds of things and when you’re doing your chores I’ll tend counter.
+We’ll make a lot of money, you see if we don’t.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>In her generous confidence, Pepsy was quite carried away by Pee-wee’s
+enthusiasm. She knew (who better than she?) that strangers never came
+along that lonely by-road. But she believed that somehow they
+<i>would</i> come when the scout waved his magic wand.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“And I’ll make cookies,” she said, “and all the things to eat and you
+can print the signs—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“And shout to the people going by,” Pee-wee concluded enthusiastically.
+“You have to yell ALL HOT! THEY’RE ALL HOT! Just like that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Few could resist this, Pepsy least of all. “Let’s go and ask Aunt
+Jamsiah about it right now,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Let <i>me</i> do it, I know how to handle her,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And Pepsy deferred to the master mind, as usual....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chIX' class='c008'>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Permission to use the wellhouse once secured, preparations for the vast
+enterprise progressed rapidly. The very next day, while Pepsy was at
+her chores, Pee-wee built a counter in the shack and sitting at this he
+printed signs to be displayed along the woody approaches to this
+mouth-watering dispensary.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Neither the gloomy predictions of his uncle nor the laughing skepticism
+of his aunt dimmed his enterprising ardor. The signs which he printed
+with his uncle’s crate stencil, procured from the barn, bespoke the
+variety of tempting offerings which existed so far only in his fertile
+mind.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He was somewhat handicapped in the preparation of these signs by the
+largeness of the perforated letters of the stencil and the limited size
+of the cards. He had preferred cards to paper because they would not
+blow and tear and Aunt Jamsiah had given him a pile of these, uniform
+in size, on one side of which had been printed election notices of the
+previous year. It was impossible, therefore, for Pee-wee to include all
+of each tempting announcement on one card, so he used two cards for
+each reminder to the public. Thus on one card he printed FRANKFURTERS
+and on its mate intended for posting just below, the palate-tickling
+conclusion, SIZZLING HOT.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>FRANKFURTERS</div>
+    <div>SIZZLING HOT ⇾</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>This is how the sign would appear upon some fence or tree. It would be
+a knockout blow to any hungry wayfarer.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Another two-card sign, intended for warmer weather, read:</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>ICE CREAM</div>
+    <div>⇽ COLD AND COOLING</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Other signs originating in Pee-wee’s fertile mind and covering the
+range of food and drink and auto accessories were these:</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>PEANUT TAFFY</div>
+    <div>SWEET AND DELICIOUS ⇾</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>OUR TIRE TAPE</div>
+    <div>⇽ STICKS LIKE GLUE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>NON SKID</div>
+    <div>CHAINS ⇾</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>FRESH</div>
+    <div>⇽ BANANAS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>DRINK</div>
+    <div>SWEET CIDER ⇾</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>MAGIC</div>
+    <div>⇽ CARBON REMOVER</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>There were many others, enough to decorate the road for miles in both
+directions. If Pepsy as chef could live up to Pee-wee’s promises the
+neighborhood would soon become famous. That was her one forlorn hope,
+that the fame of their offerings would get abroad and lure the traffic
+from its wonted path. But Pee-wee’s enthusiasm and energy carried all
+before them like a storming column and she was soon as hopeful and
+confident as he.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>When her chores were finished that afternoon she hurried to their
+refreshment parlor, where Pee-wee sat behind the new counter like a
+stern schoolmaster, cards strewn about him, his round face black with
+stencil ink, still turning out advertising bait for the public.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t care what they say,” she panted; “we’re going to make a lot of
+money and buy the tents. I tripped on the third step in the house just
+now and that means surely we’ll have good luck and I can help just as
+much as if I was a really truly scout, can’t I? Aunt Jamsiah says if I
+make a lot of doughnuts you’ll just eat them all and there won’t be any
+to sell. We mustn’t eat the things ourselves, must we?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That shows how much she knows,” Pee-wee said; “we might have to do
+that to make the people hungry. If they see me eating a doughnut and
+looking very happy, won’t that make them want to buy some? We have
+upkeep expenses, don’t we?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell her
+that,” Pepsy said, “but I never thought of it. You always think of
+things. I’m going to wash the ink off your face, so hold still.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She dipped her gingham apron under the trap-door in the flooring where the clear, cool water was, and taking his
+chin in her coarse little freckly hands, washed the face of her hero
+and partner. And meanwhile Wiggle tugged on her apron as if he thought
+she were inflicting some injury upon the boy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So blinded was Pee-wee by this vigorous bath and so preoccupied the
+others that for the moment none of them noticed the young fellow of
+about twenty who, with hat tilted rakishly on the side of his head and
+cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth, stood in the road
+watching them.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chX' class='c008'>CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Deadwood Gamely was the village sport and enjoyed a certain prestige
+because his father was a lawyer. He was also somewhat of an object of
+awe because he went to Baxter City every day, and worked in the bank
+there.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>His ramshackle Ford roadster was considered an evidence of the terribly
+reckless extravagance of his habits, but it was really nothing more
+than a sort of pocketbook, since all his money went into it, and a very
+shabby one at that. He had a cheap wit and swaggeringly condescending
+air which he practiced on the simple inhabitants of Everdoze, and in
+his banter he was not always kind. Yet notwithstanding that he was
+tawdry both in dress and speech the villagers did not venture much into
+the conversational arena with him because they knew that they were not
+his equals in banter and retort.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hello, little orphan Annie,” he said. “Bungel was telling me the wagon
+is coming for you pretty soon. Over the hill to the poorhouse. Ever
+hear that song? What’s that you’ve got there, a soldier? Watcher doing
+with him? Lucky kid, <i>I’d</i> like to be a soldier.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What were you, a slacker?” Pee-wee shouted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This was not the kind of retort that Deadwood Gamely was accustomed to
+hearing and he gave a quick look at the small stranger in khaki who sat
+behind the counter like a judge on the bench staring straight at him.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t get him riled,” Pepsy whispered. “He likes to get me riled so’s
+just to make me feel silly; it’s—it’s Deadwood Gamely. He’s always
+togged out swell like that,” she added fearfully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“The only thing that’s swell about him is his head,” said Pee-wee in
+his loudest voice. “Don’t you be scared of him, I’m here.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What’s that?” said the young man in a tone intended to be darkly
+menacing.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’d better put your hat on the top of your head or it’ll blow off,”
+said Pee-wee. “I said that I’m here. Let’s hear you deny it. If I was a
+crow I might be afraid of you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Slightly taken aback by his ready retorts, the young man could only
+say, “If you were a crow, hey?” He stepped a little closer to the
+counter but the ominous advance did not alarm Pee-wee in the least. He
+sat behind his card-strewn counter holding the stencil brush like a
+sort of weapon ready to besmear that face of sneering assurance if its
+owner ventured too near.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“So I’m a scarecrow, eh?” Mr. Gamely said with a side glance at Pepsy.
+He was not going to have her witness his discomfiture at the hands of
+this glib little stranger. Moreover, a slur at his personal splendor
+was a very grave matter and not to be overlooked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t like fresh kids,” said Mr. Deadwood Gamely, advancing with an
+air of veiled menace. “Sometimes they get so fresh they have to be
+salted a little. Don’t you think you’d better take that back?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy waited, fearful, breathless.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Sure I will,” said Pee-wee; “the next scarecrow I meet I’ll apologize
+to him.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Deadwood Gamely paused. His usual procedure in an affair of this kind
+would have been to advance quickly, ruffle his victim’s hair in a
+goading kind of swaggerish good humor and send him sprawling. He would
+not really have hurt a youngster like Pee-wee but he would have made
+him look and feel ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But a glance at Pee-wee’s gummy stencil brush reminded Mr. Gamely that
+discretion was the better part of valor. A dexterous dab or two of that
+would have put an end to all his glory. Pee-wee left no doubt about
+this.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“This summer-house is on private land,” he said, “and I’m the boss of
+it. If you try to get fresh with me I’ll paint you blacker—blacker
+than a—than a tomato could—I will. You come ten steps nearer, I
+<i>dare</i> you to.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Gamely paused irresolute, at which Pepsy, under protection of her
+partner’s terrible threat, set up a provoking laugh. Wiggle, appearing
+to sense the situation, began to bark uproariously. There was nothing
+for the baffled village sport to do but retreat as gracefully as he
+could.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can’t you take a joke?” he said weakly. “Do you think I’d hurt you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I <i>know</i> you wouldn’t,” said Pee-wee; “you wouldn’t get the
+chance. You think you’re smart, don’t you, talking about the wagon
+coming to get her and getting her all scared.”</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/illus-072.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic001'>
+<p><span class='small'>MR. GAMELY DECIDES TO KEEP AWAY FROM PEE-WEE’S BRUSH.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Deadwood Gamely broke into a very excessive but false laugh. “No harm
+intended,” he said, vaulting on to the fence and sitting discreetly at
+that distance. “What’s all this going on here? Going to have a circus
+or play store or something?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee was always magnanimous in victory. Abiding enmity was a thing
+he knew not. So now he laid down his stencil brush (within easy reach)
+and said, “We’re going to start a refreshment shack and sell fruit and
+lemonade and waffles and things and maybe auto accessories and
+souvenirs.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy seemed a bit uncomfortable as Pee-wee said this, perhaps just a
+trifle ashamed. She was afraid that this clever, sophisticated young
+fellow would ridicule their enterprise, as indeed there was good reason
+to do. Yet she felt ashamed, too, of her momentary faithlessness to
+Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Maybe some people will pass here when they have the carnival at
+Berryville,” she said, half apologetically.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>To her surprise Deadwood Gamely, instead of emitting an uproarious,
+mocking laugh, appeared to be thinking.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Bully for you,” he finally said, looking all about as if to size up
+the surroundings. “Right on the job, hey? I’d like to buy some stock in
+that enterprise. Whose idea is it? Yours, kiddo?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We’re going to make
+money enough to buy three tents for the scout troop I belong to,”
+Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Visiting here, hey?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I live in Bridgeboro, New Jersey; I’m here for the summer.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Deadwood Gamely sat on the fence still looking about him and whistling.
+Then, instead of bursting forth in derisive merriment as Pepsy dreaded
+he would do, he made an astonishing remark.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “You kids take care of the place
+and furnish the fruit and stuff and I’ll put up the coin for all the
+stuff you have to buy—chewing gum, and accessories, and souvenirs and
+junk that has to be got in the city, and we’ll share even. I’ll put up
+the capital and be a silent partner. How does that strike you?
+You two will be the active partners. We’ll make the thing go big. I
+mean what I say.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What’s a silent partner?” Pee-wee demanded.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, that’s just the fellow that puts up the money and keeps in the
+background sort of, and nobody knows he’s interested.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’d rather be a noisy partner,” Pee-wee said. “I wouldn’t be silent
+for anybody, I wouldn’t.” Deadwood Gamely paused a moment, smiling.
+“No, but you could keep a secret, couldn’t you?” he asked.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXI' class='c008'>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>TWO IS A COMPANY—THREE IS BAD LUCK</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>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.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s a smarty and I <i>hate</i> 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.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t care, I want to have it all alone with you,” she sobbed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>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.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It means what you begin a sentence with,” Pepsy sobbed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You don’t want it to be a success,” he charged scornfully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re a <i>mean thing</i> to say that,” she sobbed, “and I do—I
+do—I <i>do</i> 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
+<i>make believe</i>, and that’s fun.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What do you mean, <i>make believe</i>?” 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 <i>do</i> 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—<i>sure</i>.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>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 <i>pretending</i>. No, not the utmost joy, for
+the utmost joy would be to buy the tents....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“N—no.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Cross your heart.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Her freckly hands went crossways on her heaving breast.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s business just like—like Mr. Drowser’s store. Is it?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She nodded her head.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Say</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>If I cross my heart and don’t mean what I say,</div>
+      <div class='line'>I hope to drop dead the very same day.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>Say that?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So she sobbed out those terrible words. “And you promise not to let him
+come in?” she added, provisionally.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>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.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“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 <i>you</i>—I just did—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She did not say <i>how</i> they were going to do it....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The next morning Pee-wee strode forth and made the magnanimous
+sacrifice heroically. He found Deadwood Gamely in front of Simeon
+Drowser’s village store, talking with two men who sat in an auto.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The auto was so large and handsome that it looked out of place in front
+of Simeon Drowser’s store, and the men who occupied it looked like city
+men. It encouraged Pee-wee (or rather confirmed his assurance of
+success) to see this sumptuous car in Everdoze, for it proved that
+people did come to that sequestered village. He pictured these two
+prosperous looking business men with frankfurters in their hands, their
+mouths dripping with mustard.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee was nothing if not self-possessed, his scout uniform was his
+protection, and he strode up and spoke quite to the point to the young
+fellow who leaned against the car with one foot on the running board.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We decided not to take you in as a partner,” he said, “because we want
+to have it all to ourselves and I came to tell you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Deadwood Gamely seemed rather taken aback, but whether it was because
+of this refusal of his offer, or because Pee-wee’s loud announcement
+embarrassed him before the strangers it would be hard to say. Seeing
+that the diminutive scout no longer held the deadly stencil brush he
+removed Pee-wee’s hat with a swaggering good humor, ruffled his hair,
+and said (rather disconcertedly), “All right, kiddo; so long.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee had anticipated an argument with Gamely and he was surprised at
+the promptness and agreeableness of his dismissal. Two things, one seen
+and one heard, remained in his memory as he trudged back to the farm.
+One was a brief case lying on the back seat of the auto on which was
+printed WALLACE CONSTRUCTION CO. The other was something he heard one
+of the men say after he had returned a little way along the road.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I didn’t think you were such a fool,” the man said, evidently to young
+Gamely. Within a few seconds more the auto was rolling away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It seemed to Pee-wee that Gamely had told the men of his proposal to
+join the big enterprise and that they had denounced his wisdom and
+judgment. But Pee-wee was not the one to be discouraged by that. “Maybe
+they know all about construction,” he said to himself, “but that’s not
+saying they know all about refreshment shacks. I bet they don’t know any more about eats than I do.” Which in all probability was the case.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>On the way back to the farm, Pee-wee noticed in a field the most
+outlandish scarecrow he had ever seen. It was sitting on a stone wall,
+and it must have been a brave crow that would have ventured within a
+mile of that ridiculous bundle of rags. The face was effectually
+concealed by a huge hat as is the case with most scarecrows, and all
+the cast-off clothing of Everdoze for centuries back seemed combined
+here in incongruous array.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>What was Pee-wee’s consternation when he beheld this figure actually
+descend from the fence and come shambling over toward him. If the legs
+were not on stilts they were certainly the longest legs he had ever
+seen, and they must have been suspended by a kind of universal joint
+for they moved in every direction while bringing their burden forward.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Upon this absurd being’s closer approach, Pee-wee perceived it to be a
+negro as thin and tall as a clothespole, and so black that the
+blackness of sin would seem white by comparison and the arctic night
+like the blazing rays of midsummer. This was Licorice Stick whose home
+was nowhere in particular, whose profession was everything and chiefly
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I done seed yer comin’,” he said with a smile a mile long which shone
+in the surrounding darkness like the midnight sun of Norway. His teeth
+were as conspicuous as tombstones, and on close inspection Pee-wee saw
+that his tattered regalia was held together by a system of safety pins
+placed at strategic points. The terrible responsibility of suspenders
+was borne by a single strand consisting of a key ring chain connected
+with a shoe lace and this ran through a harness pin which, if the worst
+came to the worst, would act as a sort of emergency stop. Licorice
+Stick was built in the shape of a right angle, his feet being almost as
+long as his body and they flapped down like carpet beaters when he
+walked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You stayin’ wib Uncle Eb?” he asked. “I seed yer yes’day. I done hear
+yer start a sto.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“A what?” Pee-wee asked, as they walked along together.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“A sto—you sell eats, hey?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, you mean a <i>store</i>,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I help you,” said the lanky stranger; “me’n Pepsy, we good friends.
+She hab to go back to dat workhouse, de bridge it say so. Dat bridge am
+a sperrit.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re crazy,” Pee-wee said. “What’s the use of being scared at an old
+rattly bridge. If you want to help us I’ll tell you how you can do it.
+I made a lot of signs and you can tack them all up on the trees along
+the road for us if you want to. I’ll show you just how to do it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>No one was at the shack when they reached it for Pepsy was about her
+household duties, so she had no knowledge of this new recruit in their
+enterprise. Pee-wee’s conscience was clear in this matter, however, for
+he had enlisted Licorice Stick as an employee, at the staggering salary
+of twenty-five cents a week; there was no thought of his being a partner.
+The willing assistance of his new friend would leave his own time free
+for more important duties, and the advertising work once done, Licorice
+Stick was to devote his time to catching fish for the “sto” and other
+incidental duties.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee now arranged his advertising masterpieces in order for posting.
+The imposing type on the cards impressed Licorice Stick deeply. He
+could not read two words but he seemed to sense the sensational
+announcements, and the arrow which Pee-wee had made on each card to
+indicate the direction of the shack was regarded by him as a sort of
+mystic symbol.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“This is the way you have to do,” Pee-wee said; “now pay attention,
+because it pays to advertise. There are two cards for each sign, see?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Dey’s nice black print,” Licorice Stick said with reverent
+appreciation. “En dey’s de magic sign, too.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That tells them where the place is,” Pee-wee said. “Now, you keep the
+cards just the way I give them to you and always tack them up with the
+arrow pointing <i>this way</i>, see? Here’s a hammer and here’s some tacks.
+When you come to a nice big tree or a wooden
+fence or an old barn, you’re supposed to tack them up, and be sure to
+do it the way I tell you. Now, suppose you’re going to tack up the
+first card—the one on the top of the pile. You tack it up and right
+close under it you tack up the next one, and it will say:</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>FRANKFURTERS</div>
+    <div>SIZZLING HOT ⇾</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Mmm—<i>mm!</i>” exclaimed Licorice Stick, as if a hot frankfurter had
+actually been produced by this ingenious card trick.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Then you go along a little way,” said Pee-wee, “till you come to
+another good place, maybe a fence or something, and you tack up the
+next one and right underneath it you tack up the next one; always take
+the next one off the top of the pile, see?</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>ICE CREAM</div>
+    <div>⇽ COLD AND COOLING</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee repeated, holding the next two cards up. This palate tickling
+sleight-of-hand seemed like a miracle to the smiling, astonished
+messenger.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee seemed a kind of magician summoning up luscious
+concoctions with a magic wand. The fifth and sixth cards were held
+together for a moment and lo, Licorice Stick listened to the
+mouth-watering announcement that peanut taffy was sweet and delicious.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>No “sperrit” of Licorice Stick’s acquaintance had ever cast a spell
+like this. They had called in weird voices but they had never contrived
+a menu before his very eyes.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He went forth armed with the hammer and tacks and a pile of mysterious
+cards, a little proud but trembling a little, too. There was something
+uncanny about this; he would see it through but it was a strange, dark
+business. He shuffled along the road, peering fearfully into the woods
+now and again when suddenly a terrible apparition appeared before him.
+He stood stark still, his eyes bulging out of his head, his hands
+shaking and cold with fear....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>PEPSY’S SECRET</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>“Sally Knapp says we ought to have some barrels to put the money in,”
+said Pepsy as they were decorating their little wayside booth on the
+day of the grand opening. “I don’t care what she says.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She was feeling encouraged and cheerful for indeed the little
+summer-house looked gay and attractive in its bunting drapery and
+flaunting pennants. Failure could not lurk in such festal array, the
+tin dishpan full of greasy doughnuts, the homemade rolls and fresh
+sausages (which were better than any common wayside frankfurters) would
+certainly lure the hungry thither. The world would seek these things
+out. And were not the people of the grand carnival at Berryville to
+pass here that very day, followed, no doubt, by gay pleasure seekers?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>To be sure there were no auto accessories yet, for there was no
+capital, but there was lemonade and candy and cider and homemade ice
+cream and there was Scout Harris wearing a kitchen apron ten times too
+big for him, tied with a wonderful, spreading bow in back, and a paper
+hat spotlessly white.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The advertising department had not reported, but no doubt the woods
+were calling to the wayfarers in glaring red and black, or would as
+soon as the wayfarers put in an appearance. Pepsy wore her Sunday
+gingham dress embellished with a sash of patriotic bunting.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t you care what the girls say,” Pee-wee advised her as he sat on
+the counter eating a piece of peanut taffy by way of testing the stock,
+so that he might the more honestly recommend it. “I wouldn’t let any
+girls jolly <i>me</i>, I wouldn’t. Lots of girls tried to jolly me but
+they never got away with it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Did that girl that was kept after school try to jolly you?” Pepsy
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I wouldn’t let any girls jolly me,” Pee-wee said, ignoring the
+specific question and speaking with difficulty, because of the
+stickiness of the taffy. “They think they’re smart, girls do; I don’t
+mean you, but most of them. I know how to handle them all right. They
+try to make a fool of you and then just giggle, but the last laugh is
+the best, that’s one sure thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I told her she was a freshy,” Pepsy said, “and that she wouldn’t dare
+talk like that in front of you because you’d make a fool of her.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I should worry about girls,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m not worrying about our refreshment shack anyway,” Pepsy said,
+“because now I know it will be lots and lots of a success. And maybe
+you can buy four or five tents and lots of other things. Every night in
+bed I keep saying:</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>It has to succeed,</div>
+      <div class='line'>It has to succeed,</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>and I make believe the floor on the bridge says that instead. But
+sometimes it says I have to go back. When the wind blows this way I can
+hear it loud. I know a secret that I thought of all by myself; I
+thought about it when I was lying in bed listening. And I can make us
+get lots of money, I can make it, oh, lots and lots and <i>lots</i> of
+a success. So I don’t care any more what people say. I told
+Aunt Jamsiah I knew a secret and I could make us get lots of money here
+and she said I should tell her and I wouldn’t.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Will you tell me?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, I wouldn’t tell <i>anybody</i>.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You ought to tell me because we’re partners.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I wouldn’t tell
+anybody,” she said, shaking her head emphatically so that her red
+braids lashed about; “not even if you gave me—as much as a dollar....”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXIV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>SUSPENSE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Soon the gorgeous chariot containing the carnival paraphernalia came
+lumbering along en route for Berryville. It was a vision of red and
+gold with wheels that looked like pinwheels in a fireworks display.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The one discordant note about it was the rather startling projection of
+the heads and legs of animals here and there as if the wagon were
+returning from a hunt in South Africa. But these were only the
+disconnected parts of a merry-go-round.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Upon the white and silver wind organ which arose out of this ghastly
+display sat a personage in cap and bells with face elaborately
+decorated in every color of the rainbow. He was distributing printed
+announcements to the gaping citizens of Everdoze. Not so much as a
+frankfurter or a glass of lemonade did the people of this motley
+caravan buy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It was late in the afternoon and Pee-wee and Pepsy were feeling the
+tedium of waiting when suddenly the sound of merry laughter burst upon
+their ears and somebody said, “Oh, I think it’s perfectly
+<i>adorable</i> to be on the wrong road! I just <i>adore</i> being
+lost! And I <i>never</i> saw anything so <i>perfectly excruciating</i>
+in my life!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s an auto full of girls,” said Pee-wee, adjusting his paper hat
+upon his head; “they come from the city, I can tell; you leave them to
+me.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I <i>never</i> saw anything so <i>adorably funny</i> in all my
+<i>life”</i> the partners now heard. “I just have a headache from
+laughing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know that kind,” said Pee-wee; “they’ve got the giggles. You leave
+them to me.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy was ready enough to defer to the master mind, the more so because
+this approach of their first probable customers gave her a kind of
+stage fright. She was seized with sudden terror and the dishpan full of
+doughnuts shook in her hands as she placed it in full view by Pee-wee’s
+order.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The auto was evidently picking its way along the hubbly road in second
+gear. “We’ll find a place where we can turn around somewhere,” said a
+man’s voice good humoredly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Not till we’ve <i>gorged</i> ourselves with food,” the voice of a girl
+caroled forth.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee gave his white paper cap a final adjustment, stood the pan of
+taffy enticingly in full view and waited as a pugilist waits, for the
+adversary’s next move.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I am going to have a saucerful of ground glass, the latest breakfast
+food,” a female voice sang merrily. At which there was a chorus of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What did she say?” Pepsy asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Girls are crazy,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy fumbled nervously with the several glasses of lemonade which
+stood temptingly ready on the counter and glanced fearfully but
+admiringly at the genius of this magnificent enterprise. It was the
+biggest moment in her poor little life and Pee-wee was a conquering
+hero. She placed the fudge within his reach and waited in terrible
+suspense to see him operate upon this giggling band of lost pilgrims.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Nearer and nearer the car came and now it poked its big nickel-plated
+nose around the bend and advanced slowly, easily, along the narrow,
+grass grown way. It looked singularly out of place in that wild valley.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A low, melodious horn politely reminded Simeon Drowser, who stood
+gaping in the middle of the road, to withdraw to a safer gaping point.
+He retreated to the platform in front of the post office and consulted
+with Beriah Bungel, the village constable, about this sumptuous
+apparition. Only a couple of hundred feet remained now between the
+refreshment parlor and this party of mirthful victims. If Pepsy’s red
+hair had been short enough it would have stood on end; as it was her
+fingers tingled with mingled appeal and confidence in the head of the
+firm.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Would it stop? Oh, would it stop? The suspense was terrible.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“F-r-resh doughnuts!” called Pee-wee in a sonorous voice. “Ice cold
+lemonade! It’s <i>ice cold</i>! Get your fudge here!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy looked admiringly upon her hero. She would
+not have dared to obtrude into the negotiations which seemed at hand.
+She gazed wistfully at a half dozen girls in fresh, colorful, summer
+array as only a little red-headed orphan girl in a gingham dress can
+do. She gazed at the big, palatial touring car with eyes spellbound. It
+was thus that the Indians first gazed upon the ships of Columbus.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/illus-098.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic001'>
+<p><span class='small'>PEE-WEE TRIPPED ON HIS APRON AND WENT SPRAWLING.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hot frankfurters,” shouted Pee-wee from behind his counter. “They’re
+all hot! Here you are! Get your fresh sweet cider! Five a glass!
+Doughnuts six for a dime! All fresh!”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>SIX MERRY MAIDENS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>“What kind of nuts did you say?” called a girl merrily, as the car
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Doughnuts,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We thought maybe everybody here were nuts,” laughed the man who was
+driving.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’d like a nice saucerful of ground glass,” laughed one of the girls.
+“Can you serve carbon remover with it?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, isn’t he just too cute!” another girl said. “Could we get a little
+of your <i>delicious</i> tire tape, we’re so hungry? What are you all
+going to drink, girls? We’ll have six glasses of carbon remover, if you
+please, and, let’s see, we’ll have six plates of ice cream hot out of
+the oven.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you think you can jolly me?” said the head of the firm. “I’ll give
+you some carpet tacks to eat if you’d like them.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, wouldn’t those be <i>too scrumptuous</i>,” another girl said. “Do
+you serve peanut glue with them?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll give you some fried fish-hooks,” Pee-wee shot back with blighting
+sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, but what we’d like most of <i>all</i> is the ground glass,” said
+another girl. “Is it chocolate or vanilla flavor?” At which they all
+giggled, while the man smiled broadly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What flavor glass are you going to have, Esther?” a girl asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, I think I’ll take cathedral glass,” caroled forth another; “I
+think it’s more digestible than window glass, if it’s properly cooked.”
+At which there was another chorus of laughter.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The terrible conqueror, who intended to subdue this bevy of giggling
+maidens and cast a blight upon their levity, stood behind his counter
+like a soldier making a last stand in a third line trench, while Pepsy,
+captivated by the mirthful assailants, laughed uncontrollably.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The head of the firm saw that this was no time for dallying measures,
+his own partner was laughing, and even Wiggle was barking uproariously
+at Pee-wee as if he had shamelessly gone over to the enemy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, it’s just—too <i>excruciatingly funny</i> for anything!” one of
+the girls laughed. “I <i>never</i> in my <i>life</i> heard of such—Oh,
+look at him! <i>Look at him!</i> Hold me or I’ll <i>collapse</i>!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee had come around from behind the counter, tripped on his long
+white apron and gone sprawling on the ground, and the faithless Wiggle,
+taking advantage of this inglorious mishap, started pulling on the
+apron with all his might and main. Loyal Pepsy was only human, and
+tears of laughter streamed down her cheeks, and the neighboring
+woodland echoed to the sound of the unholy mirth in the auto.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A large frying fork which Pee-wee used as a sort of magnet to attract
+trade was still in his hand and by means of this he caught his white
+paper cap as it blew away, piercing it as if it were a fresh doughnut.
+It was indeed the only instance of triumph for him in the tragic
+affair. He arose, with Wiggle still tugging at his apron, his face
+decorated with colorful earth, his eyes glaring defiance.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The driver of the auto, who seemed to be a kindly man, put an end to
+this unequal and hopeless struggle of the scout, by ordering a round of
+lemonade and purchasing fifty cents’ worth of doughnuts. “When you have
+a few minutes to spare,” he said in a companionable undertone, “stroll
+up the road and look about; the scenery is beautiful.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What do you mean?” Pee-wee demanded .</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“And be sure to take some salted spark plugs with you in case you get
+lost in the woods,” one of the girls chirped teasingly as the auto
+started. And the victim distinctly heard another say, as the big car
+rolled away: “It’s a <i>shame</i> to tease him; he’s just too cute for
+anything. I could just <i>kiss</i> him. But it was so excruciatingly
+funny.”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXVI' class='c008'>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>A REVELATION</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>“What are you laughing at?” Pee-wee demanded to know, as soon as he had
+regained his poise and dignity. “You’re as bad as they are.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I couldn’t <i>help</i> laughing,” Pepsy said remorsefully,
+“’specially when you fell down. You said you were going to handle them.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That could happen to the smartest man,” Pee-wee said in scornful
+reproval; “that could happen to—to—to Julius Caesar.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s dead, you ask Miss Bellison,” said Pepsy timidly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That shows how much you know,” said Pee-wee scornfully as he brushed
+off his clothing. “Can’t something be a kind of a thing that could
+happen to somebody who’s dead if he was very smart, only if he wasn’t
+dead? We got a dollar and ten cents from them, didn’t we?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, but—did you—did you—handle them?” Pepsy asked fearfully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There are different ways of handling people,” Pee-wee said; “you can’t
+handle people that are crazy, can you? I can handle scoutmasters even.”
+Pepsy was willing to believe anything of her hero and she said, “They
+were a lot of freshies and I hate them anyway.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee did not trouble himself about what the man had said. His chief
+interest was the dollar and ten cents of working capital which they now
+had and how to invest it. In his enthusiasm he had been rather
+premature in his advertisement of auto accessories and he now purposed
+to make good at least one of these announcements by commissioning
+Simeon Drowser to buy some ten-cent rolls of tire tape for him at
+Baxter City, whither Simeon went daily.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He started along the road to the post office where he hoped to catch
+Simeon before that worthy left for Baxter City. But he did not reach
+the post office. The first interruption to his progress was one of his
+own two-card signs staring him in the face from a roadside tree</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>CHEWING GUM</div>
+    <div>FOR PUNCTURES</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>He paused scowling before this novel announcement.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>His gaze then wandered to a fence on which he read the astounding
+words:</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>PANCAKES FOR</div>
+    <div>HEADLIGHTS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Alas, the ground glass which should have appeared in place of pancakes
+did duty beneath the single word <i>EAT</i> on another tree nearby.
+<i>Eat GROUND GLASS</i> the hungry motorist was blithely advised.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Nor was this the worst. As Pee-wee penetrated deeper into the woods the
+more terrible was the masquerade of his own enticing signs. His
+stenciled cards, deserting their lawful mates, had struck up ghastly
+unions with other cards proclaiming frightful items of refreshment to
+the appalled wayfarer who was reminded of <i>NON-SKID BANANAS</i> and
+advised that <i>OUR PEANUT TAFFY STICKS LIKE GLUE</i>. The faithless
+<i>TIRE TAPE</i> which should have surmounted the <i>STICK LIKE
+GLUE</i> card was nestling under the fatal <i>EAT</i>, while
+<i>FRANKFURTERS COLD AND COOLING</i> and <i>ICE CREAM SIZZLING HOT</i>
+met Pee-wee’s astonished gaze. He stood looking at this awful sequel of
+his handiwork.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Most of the cards were besmeared with mud and one or two in such a
+freakish way as to give a curious turn to their meaning. On one card a
+mischievous little rivulet of mud or wetted ink had ingeniously changed
+a T into a crude R and the travelers read <i>RUBES SOLD HERE</i>.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee contemplated this exhibition with dismay. Wherever he looked,
+on fence or tree, some ridiculous sign stared him in the face. He did
+not continue on to the post office but retraced his steps to the
+refreshment parlor which was the subject of these printed slanders.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He and Pepsy were discussing this miscarriage of their exploitation
+design when a shuffling sound in the distance proclaimed the shambling
+approach of the advertising department. And if Pee-wee had not made
+good his flaunting boast to handle the six merry maidens he at least
+made amends and regained somewhat of his heroic tradition in his
+handling of Licorice Stick.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What did I tell you to do?” he shouted, his face red with terrible
+wrath. “What did I tell you to do? Do you know the way you put those
+cards up? You made fools of us, that’s what you did!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I done gone make no fools ob you, nohow,” Licorice Stick exclaimed. “I
+see a sperrit ’n I shakes like dat, I do. As shu I’m stan’ here I see a
+sperrit in dem woods.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>From a vivid and terrifying narrative the partners made out that while
+Licorice Stick was on his way to embellish the wayside in strict
+accordance with instructions, he had encountered a spirit from the
+other world in the form of the carnival clown whom we have seen pass
+our wayside rest.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The ghostly raiment of this lowly humorist and the motley decoration of
+his face had so frightened Licorice Stick that he had dropped his cards
+and retreated frantically into the woods. When the awful apparition had
+passed he had stealthily shuffled back to the spot and with many
+furtive glances about him had gathered up the cards with trembling
+hands, and proceeded to post them in pairs without regard to their
+proper order.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>After this triumphant exploitation feat (which ought to commend him to
+every lying advertiser in the world) Licorice Stick had shuffled into a
+new path of glory, going to the carnival, where (not finding the
+sperrit in evidence) he had accepted a position to stand behind a piece
+of canvas with his head in an opening and allow people to throw
+baseballs at him.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>On hearing this Pee-wee desisted from any further criticism. For, as he
+told Pepsy, “a scout has to be kind and forgiving, and besides when I
+go to the carnival I can plug him in the face with a baseball two or
+three times and then we’ll be square.”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXVII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>HARD TIMES</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>If many people went to the carnival they must have approached it from
+the other direction. It was a small carnival and probably did not
+attract much interest outside of Berryville. A few stragglers passed
+Mr. Quig’s farm traveling in buck-boards and farm wagons, but they did
+not come from distant parts and evidently were not hungry. Some were so
+unscrupulous as to bring their lunches with them. One reckless farmer,
+indeed, bought a doughnut and exchanged it for another with a smaller
+hole.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Altogether the neighboring carnival did not bring much business to
+Pee-wee and Pepsy. Aunt Jamsiah took their enterprise good-naturedly;
+Uncle Ebenezer said it was a good thing to keep the children out of
+mischief. Miss Bellison, the young school teacher, bought ten cents’
+worth of taffy each day as a matter of duty, and Beriah Bungel, the
+town constable, being a natural born grafter, helped himself to
+everything he wanted free of charge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So the pleasant summer days passed and brought them little business.
+Occasionally some lonely auto would crawl along the foliage-arched
+road, its driver looking for a place to turn around so that he might
+get back out of his mistaken way. Most of these were too disgruntled at
+their mistakes and the quality of the road to heed the voice of the
+tempter who shouted at them, “Lemonade, ice cold! Get your lemonade
+here!” They usually answered by asking how they could get to West
+Baxter. And Pee-wee would answer, “You have to go four miles back, get
+your hot doughnuts here.” Then they would start back but they never,
+<i>never</i> got their hot doughnuts there.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>If Pee-wee’s stout heart was losing hope he did not show it, but Pepsy
+was frankly in despair. In her free hours she sat in their little
+shelter, her thin, freckly hands busy with the worsted masterpiece that
+she was working. Pee-wee, at least, had his appetite to console him,
+but she had no relish for the stale lemonade and melting, oozy taffy
+which stood pathetically on the counter each night.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>One day a lumbering, enclosed auto went by, an undertaker’s car it was,
+and Pepsy was seized with sudden fright lest it be the orphan asylum
+wagon come to get her. The two dominating thoughts of her simple mind
+were the fear that she would have to go back to “that place” and the
+hope that Pee-wee might get the money to buy those precious tents. She
+had learned something of scouting, that scouts camp and live in the
+open, and she had learned something of the good scout laws. She was
+witnessing now an exhibition of scout faith and resolution, of faith
+that was hopeless and resolution that was futile. She was soon to be
+made aware of another scout quality which fairly staggered her and left
+her wondering.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXVIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>One night after dark, Pepsy and Pee-wee were sitting in their little
+roadside pavilion because they preferred it to the lamp-lighted kitchen
+smelling of kerosene where Uncle Ebenezer read the <i>American Farm
+Journal</i>, his arms spread on the red covered table.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A cheery little cricket chirped somewhere in this scene of impending
+failure; nearby a katydid was grinding out her old familiar song as if
+it were the latest popular air. In the barn across the yard the
+discordant sound of the horses kicking the echoing boards sounded clear
+in the still night and seemed a part of the homely music of the
+countryside.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Suddenly a speeding auto, containing perhaps its load of merry, heedless
+joy riders, went rattling over the old bridge along the highway and the
+loose planks called out across the interval of woodland to the little
+red-headed girl in this remote shack along the obscure by-road.</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Little did those speeding riders know of the voice they had called up
+to terrify this unknown child. The rattling, warning voice ceased as
+suddenly as it had begun as the unseen car rolled noiselessly along the
+smooth highway.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t you be scared of it,” Pee-wee said. “You’re as bad as Licorice
+Stick. Those old boards don’t know what they’re talking about. I
+wouldn’t be scared of what anything said unless it was alive, that’s
+sure.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“They voted not to build a new bridge for two years because they’ve got
+to build a new school-house,” said Pepsy. “That’s because this county
+hasn’t got much money. I’ll be glad when they build it; the floor’s
+going to be made out of stone, like.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You mean the bridge?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, and I wish they’d hurry up. Every night I hear that and I know
+boards tell the truth, because if a door squeaks that means you’re going to get married.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All you need is an oil can to keep from getting married then,” said
+Pee-wee, “because if you oil a door it won’t squeak. So there; let’s
+hear you answer that argument.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There was no answer to that argument; keeping single was just a matter
+of lubrication; but just the same that appalling sentence which had
+become fixed in Pepsy’s mind, haunted her, especially when she lay on
+her feather mattress in the yellow painted bed up in her little room.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She was just about to go in when they were aroused by a sound in the
+distance. Pee-wee thought it was an auto and he made ready to deliver
+his usual verbal assault to the travelers. Louder and louder grew the
+sound and suddenly a motorcycle with no headlight went whizzing past in
+the darkness. It was followed by another, also without any headlight,
+but this second rider stopped a little distance beyond the shack and
+got off his machine.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Something, he knew not what, dissuaded Pee-wee from making his
+customary announcements and he stood in the darkness watching this
+second speeder who seemed to be delayed by some trouble with his machine. The
+traveler was certainly too hurried and preoccupied to think of
+doughnuts.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Meanwhile, the first cyclist had covered perhaps fifty yards and was
+still going. The little red tail-light of his machine shone brightly.
+Pee-wee was just wondering why these travelers used no headlights and
+whether the first cyclist would return to assist his friend, when he
+beheld something which caught and held his gaze in rapt concentration.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The little red tail-light went out and on four times in quick
+succession. There followed an appreciable pause, then two quick
+flashes. Pee-wee watched the tiny light, spellbound. It appeared for a
+couple of seconds, then flashed twice with lightning rapidity.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hide,” Pee-wee repeated to himself and motioned with his hand for
+Pepsy not to move.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Now, in such rapid succession that Pee-wee could hardly follow them,
+the flashes appeared, tinier as the cyclist sped further away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“<i>Hide Kelly’s barn</i>,” Pee-wee breathed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Presently the second cyclist was on his machine again, speeding through
+the darkness. Either the first cyclist knew that his friend’s trouble
+was not serious, or time was so precious that he could not pause in any
+case. Indeed, their flight must have been urgent to speed on such a
+road without headlights. The whole thing had a rather sinister look.
+Pee-wee wondered who Kelly was and where his barn was located.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXIX' class='c008'>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE OTHER VOICE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>“What do you mean, hide in Kelly’s barn?” Pepsy whispered, greatly
+agitated.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can you keep still about it?” Pee-wee said. “Girls can’t keep secrets. Can you keep still till I tell you it’s all right to speak?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I can keep a secret and not even tell it to you,” she shot back at him
+in spirited defiance. “I know a secret that will—that will—help us
+<i>sure</i> to make lots and lots of money. And I wouldn’t even tell
+you or Aunt Jamsiah, because she tried to make me. So <i>there</i>, Mr.
+Smarty. And I don’t care whether you tell me or not if I can’t keep a
+secret, but I’ve got a secret all by myself and it’s that much bigger
+than yours,” she said, spreading out her thin, little arms to include a
+vast area. “And besides that, I <i>hate</i> you,” she added, bursting
+into tears and starting for the house. “And you can have that girl who
+was kept in after school for a partner,” he heard her sobbing as she
+crossed the yard.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy did not pause to speak with Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah who were
+sitting in the kitchen, but the latter, seeing her in tears, said
+kindly, “No folks passed by to the carnival to-night, Pepsy?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Looks like rain,” Uncle Eb said consolingly; “to-morrer’ll be the big
+night when they have the wrestlin’ match. I reckon Jeb Collard n’ all
+his summer folks will go up on th’ hay-rig from West Baxter. You wait
+till to-morrer night, Pep. Mamsy’ll make you up a pan of fresh
+doughnuts fer to-morrer night, won’t you, Mamsy? Don’t you take on now,
+Pepsy girl; you jes’ go ter bed n’ ferget yer troubles.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t care about people from West Baxter,” Pepsy said, stamping her
+foot and shaking her head violently, “and I don’t care about the old
+carnival or anything—so <i>now</i>. They’re all too
+stingy—to—to—buy things—they’re too <i>stingy</i>. I—I—I—don’t
+care,” she went on fairly in hysterics, “he says I can’t—I
+can’t—keep—keep—a secret—but I’ve got one and I won’t tell it to
+anybody and I thought it up all myself and it will <i>surely</i> make
+lots and lots and lots of people come and buy—and—and he’ll see if
+girls can do things.” She was crying violently and shaking like a leaf.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What is the secret, Pepsy?” Aunt Jamsiah asked gently; “maybe I can
+help you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I won’t tell—I won’t tell <i>anybody</i>,” Pepsy sobbed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>They were accustomed to these outbursts of her tense little nature and
+said no more.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy went up to her little room under the eaves, catching each breath
+and trembling. No wonder they had not understood her at that big brick
+orphan home. No wonder she had hated it. Little as she was, she was too
+big for it.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She was in a mood to torment herself that night and she lay awake to
+listen for that dread voice from across the woods. She lay on her left
+side so they would have good luck next day. She was greatly overwrought
+and when at last she did hear the sound, loud and heartless with its
+sudden beginning and sudden end, it startled and terrorized her as if
+it were indeed that gloomy, windowless equipage of the State Orphan Home, coming to take her away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She pushed her little fingers into her ears so that she could not hear
+it....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXX' class='c008'>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>AN OFFICIAL REBUKE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>As for Pee-wee, his trouble was quite of another character. The dubious
+outlook for their great enterprise did not submerge his buoyant spirit.
+He had been the genius of many colossal enterprises, most of them
+falling short of his glowing predictions, and his ingenious mind passed
+from one thing to another with no lingering regrets.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He usually invested so much enthusiasm in organization that he had none
+left for maintenance. He did not stick at anything long enough to be
+disappointed in it; there were too many other worlds to be conquered.
+His heart was no longer in the refreshment parlor and he was already
+finding solace in becoming his own solitary customer, by eating the
+taffy which he could not sell.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There had been so few things in Pepsy’s poor little life that she had
+put her whole intense little heart and soul in this and was resolved
+that this hero from the great world of Bridgeboro should buy the tents
+which in plain fact he had already forgotten about.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So it happened that while Pepsy was lying on her left side (one of
+Licorice Stick’s prescriptions) to insure good luck for the morrow,
+Pee-wee was dangling his legs from the counter eating a doughnut.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>What concerned him now was this mystery of the speeding cyclists. That
+was the big thing in his young life. He believed them to be fugitives.
+Their reckless speed, and the fact that they used no headlights, gave
+color to this delightful supposition. Little had they thought that this
+diminutive scout, unseen in the darkness, had read that message in the
+Morse Code with perfect ease. <i>Hide Kelly’s Barn</i>. What did that
+mean?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>If Pee-wee had liked Beriah Bungel, the Everdoze constable, he would
+have gone to him with this information. But he disliked Beriah Bungel
+with true scout thoroughness; he knew him to be officious, and swelling
+with self-importance and he was not going to put business in such a
+creature’s way.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But the next morning something happened which showed Scout Harris in a
+new light. Going to the post office early in the morning, he saw a sign
+posted on the bulletin board and he read it with lively interest.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c017'>
+    <div><span class='large'>$250.00 REWARD</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c012'>for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves who
+stole two motorcycles from the yard of Chandlers Motorcycle Repair Shop
+in Baxter City.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>The machines are Indian models bearing license plates 2570 and 92632.
+Both machines are comparatively new.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Communicate with Austin Sawyer, County prosecutor, County of Borden,
+Baxter City.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This notice had evidently been brought down by the mail driver early in
+the morning and several distinguished citizens of Everdoze were
+gathered about commenting on it. It seemed certain that none of the
+Everdoze dozers had heard the motorcycles and surely no one in the
+village would have been any the wiser for seeing those quick, tiny
+flashes, which told so much to the scout.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I heerd somethin’ but ’twan’t no motorcycles,” said Nathaniel Knapp;
+“’twas a auto or I’m crazy.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then spoke Beriah Bungel, sticking his thumbs into his suspenders so
+that his rusty-colored coat flapped open showing his imposing badge,
+“They wouldn’ never come this way, they wouldn’, when they got th’
+highway ter go on. They hit inter th’ highway from Baxter, that’s what
+they done. Them fellers hez con-federates waitin’ across th’ state line
+with Noo York license plates. They made th’ line last night; them
+fellers gits as fur as they kin on the first go off. Waal, haow’s
+<i>re</i>-freshments?” he added, turning upon Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You ought to know,” Pee-wee piped up; “you took enough of them.” Which
+caused a laugh among the store loungers.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“When I wuz a youngster if I sassed my elders I got the hickory stick,”
+Beriah said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, and when you grew up you got the peppermint sticks and doughnuts
+and things,” Pee-wee shot back.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>At this Darius Dragg and Nathaniel Knapp laughed uproariously.
+Constable Bungel saw but one way out of his rather embarrassing
+situation and that was the old approved device of a box on the ears. The official
+slap sounded loud in the little post office and left Pee-wee’s cheek
+and ear tingling.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll learn yer haow to answer back yer superiors,” said Constable
+Bungel. “We daon’t relish sass from city youngsters daown here, you
+mind that. Naow yer git along aouter here n’ tell yer uncle ter learn
+yer some manners n’ <i>re</i>-spect fer th’ law.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee faced him, his cheek flushed, his eyes blazing. “You’re
+a—you’re a—coward—and a <i>thief</i>—that’s what you are,” he
+shouted. “You—you—haven’t got brains enough to find two—two
+—motorcycles—you haven’t—all you can do is stand around and eat
+things that other people are trying to sell! You’re a coward and a—a
+fool—and you owe us as much as—a—a dollar. You’d better button your
+coat up or you’ll—you’ll be stealing your own watch—you—you
+<i>coward</i>!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>With this rebuke, which left Beriah gaping, Pee-wee started home,
+holding a hand to his cheek. He was trying hard not to cry, not from
+pain, but from the indignity he had suffered. He had never known
+such a thing in all his life before. He felt shamed, humiliated.
+His whole sturdy little form trembled at the thought of such
+degradation at the hands of a stranger....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXI' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Perhaps you will say that Pee-wee was not a good scout to speak with
+such impudent assurance to his elders. But you are to remember what I
+told you about Pee-wee, that everything about him was tremendous except
+his size. He was not always the ideal scout in little things. He was a
+true scout in the big things.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>When he reached the shack he found Pepsy waiting for him and he poured
+forth his grievance into her sympathetic ears. “I’ll fix him all
+right,” he said; “he’s a coward, that’s what he is, and he needn’t
+think I’m afraid of him. I’ll get even with him all right. Whenever I
+make up my mind to do a thing I do it, that’s one thing sure.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Only we didn’t make a success of our refreshment parlor,” Pepsy
+ventured to say, “but just the same we’re going to because—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What do <i>I</i> care about it?” Pee-wee vociferated. “I know a way to
+get two hundred and fifty dollars and that’s more money than we’d ever
+make in this old place. And I’ll have you for my partner just the same.
+I’m going to get two hundred and fifty dollars all at once.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can I see it when you get it?” Pepsy asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You can have half of it
+because we’re partners,” Pee-wee said, recovering something of his
+former spirits as this new prospect opened before him.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can’t we have the refreshment parlor any more?” Pepsy asked wistfully.
+“Because, honest and true, we’re going to make lots and lots of money
+in it; I know a way—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Listen, Pepsy,” Pee-wee said. “Do you know what the Morse Code is?
+It’s the language they use when they telegraph. Scouts have to know all
+about that. Do you remember when I said <i>hide Kelly’s barn</i> last
+night? That’s what that first feller said to the other one who was
+stuck. Didn’t you notice how his little red light kept flashing away up
+the road? That’s what it meant. They’re hiding in Kelly’s barn and
+nobody knows it.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There’s a sign in the post office and it says they’ll give two hundred
+and fifty dollars to anybody who tells where they are. Do you think I’d
+tell Beriah Bungel?” he added contemptuously. “I’m going to tell a man
+named Sawyer, he’s the county prosecutor, he lives in Baxter City. Only
+we have to go right away. I’m going back with the mail car to Baxter.
+Do you want to go? If you do you have to hurry up.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The last time that Pepsy had appeared before an official-of-the-law she
+had been sent to the big brick building and she was naturally wary of
+prosecutors, judges and such people. Suppose Mr. Sawyer should order
+herself and Pee-wee to the gallows for meddling in these dark,
+mysterious matters. Pee-wee read this in her face.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t be scared,” he said manfully; “I wouldn’t let anybody hurt you.
+My father knows a man that’s a judge and he tells jokes and has two
+helpings of dessert and everything just like other people. Prosecutors
+aren’t so bad, gee whiz, they’re better than poison-ivy; they’re better
+than school principals anyway, that’s sure. You see, I’ll handle him
+all right.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy’s thoughts wandered to the six merry maidens whom Pee-wee had
+“handled” with such astounding skill. “Can’t we have our refreshment
+parlor any more?” she asked, with a note of homesickness for the little
+place they had decorated with such high hope. “If you’ll wait, if
+you’ll wait as much as—two weeks—lots and lots and lots and lots of
+people will come—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But Pee-wee was not to be deterred by sentiment and false hope. “Don’t
+you want us to have two hundred and fifty dollars?” he asked scornfully.
+“Don’t you want us to buy those tents?” This was too much for
+Pepsy. She grasped Pee-wee’s hand, following him reluctantly, as she
+gave a wistful look back at their little wayside shelter. The “stock”
+had not been set out for the day and the bare counter made the place
+look forlorn and deserted as they went away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s a blamed sight easier than running a refreshment parlor,” Pee-wee
+said; “it’s just like picking the money up in the street. All we have
+to do is to go to Mr. Sawyer’s office and tell him and—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You have to go in first,” said Pepsy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee’s enthusiasm was contagious and Pepsy was soon keyed up to the
+new enterprise, even to the point of facing Mr. Sawyer. She had
+cautiously resolved, however, to remain close to the door of his
+office, so that she might effect a precipitate retreat at the first
+mention of an orphan asylum.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Whatever Pee-wee did must be right and she saw now that two hundred and
+fifty dollars won in the twinkling of an eye was better than life spent
+in the retail trade. Yet she could not help thinking wistfully and
+fondly of their little enterprise and its cosy headquarters.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>They sat on a rock by the roadside waiting for the mailman’s auto to
+come along. Once in that Pepsy felt that her fate would be sealed. She
+had never been away from Everdoze since she had first been taken there.
+Baxter City was a vast place which she had seen in her dreams, a place
+where people were arrested and run over and where the constables were
+dressed up like soldiers. She clung tight to Pee-wee’s hand.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I hate him, too,” she said, referring to Beriah Bungel, “and it will
+serve him right if Whitie dies and I just hope he does, because his
+father hit you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Who’s Whitie?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s Mr. Bungel’s little boy and he’s all white because he’s sick, and
+they can’t take him to a great big place in the city so they can make
+him all well again and it
+just serves him right and I’m glad they haven’t got any money.
+Everybody says he’s going to die and Licorice Stick knows he’s going to
+die in a rainstorm on a Friday, that’s what he said.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This information about a little boy who was so pale that they called
+him Whitie, and who was going to die in a rainstorm on a Friday was all
+new to Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Licorice Stick is crazy,” he said. “What does he know about dying? He
+never died, did he?” This brilliant argument appeared to impress Pepsy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“If they took him to a hospital in New York then he wouldn’t have to
+die because they could fix him,” Pepsy said. “I heard Aunt Jamsiah say
+so. There are doctors there that can fix people all well again.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I bet I’m as good a fixer as they are,” Pee-wee said; “I fixed lots of
+people; I fixed a whole patrol once.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“So they wouldn’t die?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“They thought they were smart but I fixed them.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Fixing smarties is different,” said Pepsy. “If people have something
+the matter with their hips you can’t fix them. Because, anyway, if
+they’re going to die on a Friday even snail water won’t fix them.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Snail water, what’s that?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s medicine made from snails; Licorice Stick knows how to make it.
+You have to stir it with a willow stick and then you get well quick.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“How can you get well quick when snails are slow?” Pee-wee asked. “That
+shows that Licorice Stick is crazy. It would be better to make it with
+lightning-bugs.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Lightning-bugs mean there are ghosts around,” said Pepsy; “the
+lightning-bugs are their eyes. But anyway, just the same, nobody can
+fix Whitie Bungel, because the doctor from Baxter said so, and he knows
+because he’s got an automobile.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Automobiles don’t prove you know a
+lot,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Just the same Whitie is going to die,” said Pepsy, “and then you’ll
+see, because when my mother didn’t have any money <i>she</i> died, so
+there.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee did not answer; he appeared to be thinking. And so the
+minutes passed as they sat there on the rock by the roadside, waiting
+for the mailman’s auto to take them to Baxter City.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you say I can’t fix it?” he finally demanded. “Maybe you think
+scouts can’t fix things. They know first aid, scouts do. I can fix that
+little feller; maybe you think I can’t. You come with me, I’ll show
+you. Scouts—scouts can do things—they’re better than snails and
+lightning-bugs. I’ll show you what they can do; you come with me.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Ain’t you going to wait for the mailman?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, I’m not. You come with me.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This apparent desertion of another cherished enterprise all in the one
+day, took poor Pepsy quite by storm. She did not understand the
+workings of Pee-wee’s active and fickle mind. But she followed his
+sturdy little form dutifully as he trudged up the road and into a
+certain lane.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>On he went, like a redoubtable conqueror with Pepsy after him. To her
+consternation he went straight up to the kitchen door, yes, of
+Constable Beriah Bungel’s humble abode! Pepsy stood behind him in a
+kind of daze and heard his resounding knock as in a dream. Then
+suddenly to her dismay and terror she saw Beriah Bungel himself standing in the open doorway looking fiercely down at the
+little khaki-clad scout.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Mr. Bungel,” she heard as she stood gaping and listening and ready to
+run at the terrible official’s first move, “Mr. Bungel, if you want to
+know where those two fellers are that stole the motorcycles, they’re
+hiding in Kelly’s barn and I guess they’ll stay there till dark. So if
+you want to go and get them you’ll get two hundred and fifty dollars as
+long as you don’t say who told you where they are.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Without another word he turned and trudged away along the path, Pepsy
+following after him, too astonished to speak.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>FATE IS JUST</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>On that very morning Constable Bungel performed the stupendous feat
+which sent his name ringing through Borden County and established him
+definitely as the Sherlock Holmes of Everdoze.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Followed by the local citizenry, who marveled at his deductive skill,
+he advanced against Kelly’s barn in the outskirts of Berryville. Here,
+perceiving evidences of occupation, he demanded admittance and on being
+ignored he forced an entrance and courageously arrested two young
+fellows who were hiding there waiting for the night to come.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It is painful to relate that in process of being captured one of these
+youthful fugitives delivered a devastating blow upon the long nose of
+the constable thereby unconsciously doing a good turn like a true scout
+and repaying him in kind for his treatment of Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Thus it will be seen that fate is just for, as Pee-wee explained to
+Pepsy, “He got everything I wanted him to get, a punch in the nose and
+two hundred and fifty dollars. And that shows how I got paid back for
+doing a good turn, because if I hadn’t given up that two hundred and
+fifty dollars he wouldn’t have got punched, so you see it pays to be
+generous and kind like it says in the handbook.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The official pride of Beriah Bungel as he led his captives back to
+Everdoze to await transportation to Baxter City was somewhat chilled by
+the inglorious appearance of his face. There can be no pomp and dignity
+in company with a wounded nose and Beriah Bungel’s nose was the largest
+thing about him except his official prowess.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t tell anybody I told him,” Pee-wee whispered to Pepsy, “or you’ll
+spoil it all and they won’t give him the money.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Suppose he tells himself,” Pepsy said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But Officer Bungel did not tell of the keen eyes and scout skill which
+had put him in the way of profit and glory. For he was like the whole
+race of Beriah Bungels the world over, officious, ignorant,
+contemptible, grafting, shaming human nature and making thieving fugitives look manly by comparison.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Everdoze was greatly aroused by this epoch-making incident. Even a few
+stragglers from Berryville followed the crowd back as far as Uncle
+Ebenezer’s farm and Pee-wee tried to tempt them into the ways of the
+spendthrift with taffy and other delights which cause the reckless to
+fall. But it was of no use.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I bet if there was a murder we could sell a lot,” he said. “Motorcycle
+thief crowds aren’t very big. If the town hall burned down I bet we’d
+do a lot of business. I wish the school-house would burn down, hey?
+Murders and fires, those are the best, especially murders, because lots
+of people come.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I like fires better,” Pepsy said. “Lots and lots and lots of people go
+to fires.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, and they get thirsty watching them, too,” said Pee-wee. “That’s
+the time to shout, ice cold lemonade.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There was one person in Everdoze, and only one, who neither followed
+nor witnessed this triumphal march, which had something of the nature
+of a pageant. This was a little lame boy, very pale, who sat in a wheel chair on the back porch of the lowly
+Bungel homestead.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The house was up a secluded lane and did not command a view of the
+weeds and rocks of the main thoroughfare. This frail little boy, whose
+blue veins you could follow like a trail, had never seen or heard of
+Pee-wee Harris, scout of the first class (if ever there was one) and
+mascot of the Raven Patrol. He had indeed heard his father speak of
+“cuffing a sassy little city urchin on the ear,” but how should
+<i>he</i> know that this same sassy little urchin had thrown away two
+hundred and fifty dollars?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Thrown it away? Well, let us hope not. Let us hope that those wonder
+workers in the big city succeeded in “fixing” him, as indeed they must
+have done, if they were as good fixers as Scout Harris. Let us hope
+that Licorice Stick had gotten things wrong (as we have seen him do
+once before) and that little Whitie Bungel did not die in a rainstorm
+on a Friday.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>To translate some little red flashes of light and read a secret in them
+was utterly beyond the comprehension of poor Pepsy. Here was a miracle
+indeed, compared with which the prophecies and spooky adventures of
+Licorice Stick were as nothing. And to win two hundred and fifty
+dollars by such a supernatural feat was staggering to her simple mind.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Licorice Stick’s encounters with “sperrits” had never brought him a
+cent. But deliberately to sacrifice this fabulous sum in the interest
+of a poor little invalid that he had never seen, made Pee-wee not only
+a prophet but a saint to poor Pepsy. If scouts did things like this
+they were certainly extraordinary creatures. To give two hundred and
+fifty dollars to a person who has boxed your ears and then to go
+merrily upon your way in quest of new triumphs, that Pepsy could not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The whole business had transpired so quickly that Pepsy had only seen
+the two hundred and fifty dollars flying in the air, as it were, and
+now they were poor again, even before they had realized their riches.
+And there was Pee-wee sitting on the counter of their unprofitable
+little roadside rest, with his knees drawn up, sucking a lemon stick
+(which apparently no one else wanted) and discoursing on the subject of
+good turns generally. There seemed to be nothing in his life now but
+the lemon stick.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You think girls can’t do good turns, don’t you?” Pepsy queried
+wistfully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee removed the lemon stick from his mouth, critically inspecting
+the sharp point which he had sucked it to. By a sort of vacuum process
+he could sharpen a stick of candy till it rivaled a stenographer’s
+pencil.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you know what reciprical means?” he asked with an air of concealing
+some staggering bit of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s a kind of a church,” Pepsy ventured.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That’s Episcopal,” Pee-wee said with withering superiority, placing
+the lemon stick carefully
+in his mouth again. This action was followed by a sudden depression of
+both cheeks, like rubber balls from which the air has escaped. He then
+removed the dagger-like lemon stick again to observe it.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“If you have an apple and I have an apple and you give me yours, that’s
+a good turn, isn’t it? And if I give you mine that’s another good turn,
+isn’t it? And we’re both just as well off as we were before. That’s
+recip—” He had to pause to lick some trickling lemon juice from his
+chubby chin, “rical.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy seemed greatly impressed, and Pee-wee continued his edifying
+lecture. “I should worry about two hundred and fifty dollars because
+you saw how people always get paid back only sometimes it isn’t so soon
+like with the apples. Everything always comes out all right,” continued
+the little optimist between tremendous sucks, “and if you’re going to
+get a punch in the nose you get it, and you can see how Mr. Bungel got
+paid back auto—what d’you call it?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Automobile?” Pepsy ventured.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Automatically,” Pee-wee blurted out,
+catching a fugitive drop of lemon juice as it was about to leave his chin. “Good
+turns are the same as bad turns, only different. Do you see? I bet you
+can’t say <i>automatically</i> while you’re sucking a lemon stick.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Is it a—a scout stunt?” Pepsy asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee performed this astounding feat for her edification, catching
+the liquid by-product with true scout agility. Whether from scout
+gallantry or scout appetite, he did not put Pepsy to the test.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m glad of it, anyway,” she said, “because now we can stay here and
+have our store and there isn’t anybody like that pros—like that Mr.
+Sawyer to be afraid of.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you think I’m afraid of prosecutors?” Pee-wee demanded to know.
+“I’m not afraid of them any more than I’m afraid of June-bugs; I bet
+you’re afraid of June-bugs.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m <i>not</i>,” she vociferated, tossing her red braids and looking
+very brave.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Then why should you be afraid of prosecutors? I wouldn’t be afraid of
+anything that doesn’t sting.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy said nothing, only thought. And Pee-wee said nothing, only sucked
+the lemon stick, observing it from time to time, as its point became
+more deadly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Maybe I’m not as brave as you are and can’t do things and I’m scared
+of Baxter City, but I bet you I can think up as good turns as you can,
+so there! And if you promise to stay here I’ll make it so lots of
+people will come and you can buy the tents and that will be a good
+turn, won’t it? You said if you make up your mind to do a thing you can
+do it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I wouldn’t take back what I said,” said Pee-wee, finishing the lemon
+stick by a terrible sudden assault with his teeth.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Well, then, <i>so there</i>, Mr. Smarty,” she said with an air of
+triumph, “I’m going to do a good turn, you see, because I made up my
+mind to it good and hard, and we’ll make lots and lots of money. So do
+you promise to stay here and keep on being partners? Do you cross your
+heart you will?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>If Pee-wee had been as observant of Pepsy as he was used to being of
+signs along a trail he might have noticed that her eyes were all ablaze
+and that her little, thin, freckly wrist trembled. But how should he
+know that his own carelessly uttered words had burned themselves into
+her very soul? “<i>If you make up your mind to do a thing you can do
+it.</i>”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXIV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>PEPSY’S ENTERPRISE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pepsy knew the scouts only through Pee-wee. She knew they could do
+things that girls could not do. She must have been deaf if she did not
+hear this. She knew they walked with dauntless courage in great cities,
+and that they were not afraid of prosecutors.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>They were strange, wonderful things to her. They possessed all the
+manly arts and some of the womanly arts as well. They could track,
+swim, dive, read strange messages in flashes of light, sacrifice
+appalling riches and think nothing of it. They could cook, sew, imitate
+birds, and read things in the stars. Pee-wee had not left Pepsy in the
+dark about any of these matters.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy knew that she could not aspire to be a scout. The young
+propagandist had forgotten to tell her of the Girl Scouts who can do a
+few things, if you please. But one thing Pepsy could do; she could
+worship at the feet of his heroic legion.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>If all there was to doing things was making up your mind to do them,
+then could she not do a good turn as well as a boy? Surely Scout
+Harris, the wonder worker, could not be mistaken about anything. He had
+shown Pepsy, conclusively, how good turns (to say nothing of bad ones)
+are always paid back by an inexorable law. Punches on the nose, or
+kindly acts of charity and sweet sacrifice, it was always the same....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy had no money invested in their unprofitable enterprise, for she
+had had no money to invest. Neither had she any capital of scout
+experience to draw upon. But one little nest egg she had. She had once
+made a small deposit in this staunch institution of reciprocal
+kindness. All by herself, and long before she had known of Pee-wee and
+the scouts, she had done a good turn.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>According to the inevitable rule, which she did not doubt, the
+principal and interest of this could now be drawn. Why not? Somewhere,
+and she knew where, there was a good turn standing to her credit. It
+would be paid her just as surely as that splendid punch in the nose was
+paid to Beriah Bungel. And, using this good turn that was standing to
+her credit, she would be the instrument which fate would choose, to pay
+Scout Harris back for his great sacrifice of two hundred and fifty
+dollars. You see how nicely everything was going to work out.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The person who would now do Pepsy the good turn which would bring
+success and fortune to their little enterprise and enable Scout Harris
+to buy three tents, was Mr. Ira Jensen who lived in the big red house
+up the road. A very mighty man was Mr. Ira Jensen, almost as terrible
+in worldly grandeur and official power as a prosecutor. Not quite, but
+almost. At all events, Pepsy could muster up courage to go and face
+him, and that she was now resolved to do.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Indeed, this had been her secret.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>AN ACCIDENT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Mr. Ira Jensen sometimes wore a white collar and he was deacon in the
+church and he was the one who selected the Everdoze school teacher, and
+he was president of the Borden County Agricultural Association and he
+had a khaki-colored swinging-seat on his porch and muslin curtains in
+his windows. So you may judge from all this what a mighty man he was.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Such a man is not to be approached except upon a well-considered plan.
+It required almost another week of idling in the refreshment parlor, of
+vain hopes, and ebbing interest on the part of the scout partner, to
+bring Pepsy to the state of desperation needed for her terrible
+enterprise. A sudden and alarming turn of Pee-wee’s fickle mind
+precipitated her action.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Let’s eat up all the stuff and make the summer-house into a gymnasium,
+and we can give magic lantern shows in it, too. What do you say?”
+Pee-wee inquired in his most enthusiastic manner. “We can charge five
+cents to get in.” He did not explain whence the audiences would come.
+He had found an old magic lantern in the attic and that was enough. The
+only stock now on hand was what might be called the permanent stock (if
+any stock could be called permanent where Pee-wee was). No longer did
+the fresh, greasy doughnut and the cooling lemonade grace the forlorn
+little counter.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, I won’t!” Pepsy said, tossing those red braids. “I won’t eat the
+things because we started here and I love them, so there!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“If you love them I should think you’d want to eat them,” said Pee-wee.
+“That shows how much you know about logic.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I don’t care, I’m just going to stay here and if you promise to wait
+we’ll get lots and lots of money,” she said. “You promised me you’d
+wait,” she added wistfully, “you crossed your heart. Won’t you please
+wait till—till—five days—maybe? Won’t you, <i>please</i>? Maybe that
+will be a good turn, maybe?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He did not refuse. Instead he helped himself
+to some gumdrops out of a glass jar, and appeared to be content. But
+Pepsy knew better than to trust the fickle heart of man and that night
+she played the poor little card that she had been holding.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>After Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah had gone to bed and while the curly
+head of Scout Harris was reposing in sweet oblivion upon his pillow,
+Pepsy crept cautiously down the squeaky, boxed-in stairs and paused, in
+suspense, in the kitchen. The ticking of the big clock there seemed
+very loud, almost accusing, and Pepsy’s heart seemed to keep time with
+it as it thumped in her little breast.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>How different the familiar kitchen seemed, deserted and in darkness!
+The two stove lids were laid a little off their places to check the
+banked fire, leaving two bright crescent lines like a pair of eyes
+staring up at her. This light, reflected in one of the milk pails
+standing inverted on a high shelf, made a sort of ghostly mirror in
+which Pepsy saw herself better than in that crinkly, outlandish mirror
+in her little room.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>For a moment she was afraid to move lest she make a noise, and so she
+paused, almost terrified, looking at her own homely little face, on the
+most fateful night of her life. Then she tiptoed out through the pantry
+where the familiar smell of fresh butter reassured her. It seemed
+companionable, in the strange darkness and awful stillness, this smell
+of fresh butter. She crept across the side porch where the churn stood
+like a ghost, a dish-towel on its tall handle and crossed the weedy
+lawn, where the beehives seemed to be watching her, and headed for the
+dark, open road.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But here her courage failed. Some thought of doing her errand in the
+morning occurred to her, but she could not go then without saying where
+and why she was going. And in case of failure no one must ever know
+about this....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So she screwed up her courage and returned to the side porch to get a
+lantern. She shook it and found it empty. There was nothing to do now
+but brave the darkness or go down into the cellar and fill the lantern
+from the big kerosene can. She paused in the darkness before those
+sepulchral stone steps, then in a sudden impulse of determination she
+tightened her little hand upon the lantern till her nails dug into her
+palms and went down, down.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She groped her way to the kerosene can and finally came upon it and
+felt its surface. Yes, it was the kerosene can. Her trembling little
+hand fumbled for the tiny faucet. How queer it felt in the dark when
+she could not see it! It seemed to have a little knob or something on
+it....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Her hand was shaking but she held the little tank of the lantern under
+the faucet and was about to turn the handle when something—something
+soft and wet and silent—touched her other hand. She drew a quick
+breath, her heart was in her mouth, her hands were icy cold. Still she
+had presence of mind enough not to scream.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But as she rose in panic terror from her stooping posture, the lantern
+pulled upward against the faucet, toppling the big can off its skids.
+There was no plug in the can and the kerosene flowed out upon the
+terror-stricken child, wetting her shoes and stockings, and made a
+great puddle on the stone floor. She stood in the darkness, seeing none
+of this, which made the catastrophe the more terrible.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And then, as she stood in terror, wet and bewildered, waiting for
+whatever terrible sequel might come, she felt again that something soft
+and wet and silent on her hand. She moved her hand a little and felt of
+something soft—soft in a different way. Soft but not wet.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Wiggle,” she sobbed in a whisper; “why—why—didn’t you—you—tell me
+it was you—Wiggle?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But he only licked her hand again as if to say, “If there is anything
+on for to-night, I’m with you. Cheer up. Adventures are my middle
+name....”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXVI' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>PEPSY’S INVESTMENT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>For a few seconds Pepsy stood in suspense amid the spreading, dripping
+havoc she had caused, listening for some sound above. But the seconds
+piled up into a full minute and no approaching step was heard. The
+danger seemed over.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But the very air was redolent of kerosene; she stood in a puddle of it,
+and one of her stockings and both of her plain little buttoned shoes
+were thoroughly wet. When she moved her toes she could feel the soppy
+liquid. Oh, for a light! It would lessen her terror if she could just
+<i>see</i> what had happened and how she looked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She groped her way to the small oblong of lesser darkness which
+indicated the open bulk-head doors, and felt better when she was in the
+free open darkness of outdoors. Wiggle, seeming to know that something
+unusual was happening, kept close to her heels.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She reëntered the kitchen, where those accusing, ghostly, red slits of
+eyes in the stove seemed to watch her. She fumbled nervously on the
+shelf above the stove and got some matches, spilling a number of them
+on the floor. She could not pause to gather them up while those red
+eyes stared.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She had planned her poor little enterprise with a view to secrecy, but
+in the emergency and with the minutes passing, she did not now pause to
+think or consider. Near the flour barrel hung several goodly pudding
+bags, luscious reminders of Thanksgiving. Aunt Jamsiah had promised to
+make a plum-pudding for Pee-wee in the largest one of these and he had
+spent some time in measuring them and computing their capacity, with
+the purpose of selecting the most capacious. Pepsy now hurriedly took
+all of these and a kitchen apron along with them, and descended again
+into the cellar.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>By the dim lantern light she lifted the fallen tank and replaced it on
+its skids. Then she wiped up the floor as best she could with the
+makeshift mop which had been intended to serve a better purpose. She
+wiped off her soggy shoes and tried to clean that clinging oiliness
+from her hands. It seemed to her as if the whole world were nothing but
+kerosene.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She did not know what to do with the drenched rags, so she took them
+with her when she started again for the dark road, this time with her
+two cheery companions, the lantern and Wiggle. She soon found the
+dripping rags a burden and cast them from her as she passed the well.
+Wiggle turned back and inspected the smelly, soggy mass, found that he
+did not like it, took a hasty drink from the puddle under the well
+spout, and rejoined his companion.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It must have been close to ten o’clock when Mr. Ira Jensen, enjoying a
+last smoke on his porch before retiring, saw the lantern light swinging
+up his roadway. The next thing that he was aware of was the pungent
+odor of kerosene borne upon the freshening night breeze. And then the
+little delegation stood revealed before him, Wiggle, wagging his tail,
+the lantern sputtering, and Pepsy’s head jerking nervously as if she
+were trying to shake out what she had to say.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It took Pepsy a few moments to key herself up to the speaking point.
+Then she spoke tremulously but with a kind of jerky readiness
+suggesting many lonely rehearsals.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Mr. Jensen,” she said, “I have to do a good turn and so I came to ask
+you if you’ll help me and the reason I smell like kerosene is because I
+tipped over the kerosene can.” This last was not in her studied part,
+but she threw it in in answer to an audible sniff from Mr. Jensen.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You said when I came here and stayed nights when Mrs. Jensen was sick
+with the flu and everybody else was sick and you couldn’t get anybody
+to do—to nurse her—you remember?” She did not give him time to answer
+for she knew that if she paused she could not go on. Her momentum kept
+her going. “You said then—just before I went home—you’d—you said I
+was—you said you’d do me a good turn some day, because I helped you.
+So now a boy that’s staying with us—we have a refreshment parlor and
+nobody comes to buy anything—and he wants to buy some tents and we
+have to make a lot of money so will you please have them have the
+County Fair in Berryville this year so lots of people will go past our
+summer-house?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We have lemonade and he calls to the people and tells them, only there
+ain’t any people. But lots and lots and lots of people come to the
+County Fair from all over, don’t they? So now I’d like it for you to do
+me that good turn if you want to pay me back.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Thus Pepsy, standing tremulously but still boldly, her thin little hand
+clutching the lantern, played her one card for the sake of Pee-wee
+Harris, Scout. Standing there in her oil soaked gingham dress, she made
+demand upon this staunch bank of known probity, for principal and
+interest in the matter of the one great good turn she had done before
+she had ever known of Scout Harris. It never occurred to her as she
+looked with frank expectancy at Mr. Jensen that her naive request was
+quite preposterous.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>To his credit be it said, Mr. Jensen did not deny her too abruptly.
+Instead he spread his knees and arms and, smiling genially, beckoned
+her to him.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I can’t, I’m all kerosene,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Never you mind,” he said. “You come and stand right here while I tell
+you how it is.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So she set down the lantern and stepped forward and stood between his
+knees and then he lifted her into his lap. “Well, well, well, you’re
+quite a girl; you’re quite a little girl, ain’t you, huh? So you came
+all the way in the dark to ask me that! Here, you sit right where you
+are and never you mind about kerosene; if you ain’t scared of the dark
+I reckon I ain’t scared of kerosene. Now, I want you should listen
+’cause I’m going to tell you jes’ how it is n’ then you’ll understand.
+Because I call you a little kind of a—a herro-ine, that’s what I
+call you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He wasn’t half wrong about that, either....</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXVII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>SEEN IN THE DARK</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>So then he told her how it was about the County Fair, which shortly
+would open. He told her very gently and kindly how Northvale had been
+chosen because it was the county seat and how he was powerless to
+change the plans.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He looked around into her sober face, and sometimes lifted it to his,
+and at almost every hope-blighting sentence, asked her if she did not
+understand. He told her all about how county fairs are big things,
+planned by many men, months and months in advance. And at each pause
+and each gently asked question she nodded silently, as if it was all
+quite clear and plausible, but her heart was breaking.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“But I’m not going to forget that good turn I owe you, no, siree,” he
+added finally as he set her down on the porch, much to Wiggle’s relief.
+“And I’m coming down the road to pay you a visit n’ look over that
+refreshment store of yours n’ see if I can’t make some suggestions
+maybe. Now, what do you say to that?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy nodded soberly, her thoughts far away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’ll see me along there,” Mr. Jensen added cheerily, as he patted
+her little shoulder, “n’ I give you fair warning I’m the champion
+doughnut eater of Borden County.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She smiled, still wistfully, and gulped, oh ever so little.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That’s what I am,” he added with another genial pat. “So now you cheer
+up and run back home and go to bed n’ don’t you lie awake crying. You
+tell that little scout feller I’m coming to make you a visit n’ that I
+usually drink nine glasses of lemonade. Now you run along and get to
+bed quick.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Thanks,” she said, her voice trembling.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So Pepsy took her way silently along the dark road. Her bank had
+failed, she could do nothing more. This was a strange sequel to follow
+Pee-wee’s glowing representations about good turns. She did not
+understand it. And now that she had failed, the catastrophe in the
+cellar loomed larger, and she saw her nocturnal truancy as a serious
+thing. What would Aunt Jamsiah think of this? Pepsy had been forbidden
+to go away from the farm at night, except to weekly prayer meeting.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The crickets sang cheerily as she returned along the dark road, a
+disconsolate little figure, swinging her lantern. She was weary—weary
+from exertion and disappointment and foreboding. Her good scout
+enterprise was suddenly changed into an act of sneaking disobedience.
+The physical exhaustion which follows nervous strain was upon her now
+and her little feet lagged in their soaking shoes and once or twice she
+stumbled with fatigue. For what burden is heavier than a heavy heart?
+The soothing voices of insect life which soften the darkness and cheer
+the wayfarer in the countryside seemed only to mock her with their
+myriad care-free songs. And to make matters worse there suddenly rang
+in her ears from far over to the west the loud clatter of those loose
+planks on the old bridge along the highway, as a car sped over it:</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then the noise ceased suddenly, and there was no sound but the calling
+of a screech-owl somewhere in the intervening woods.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy sat down on a rock by the roadside partly to rest and partly
+because she did not want to go home. She knew, or she ought to have
+known, that Aunt Jamsiah was pretty sure to be lenient about a harmless
+transgression with so generous a motive. But the warning voice from
+that unseen bridge disconcerted her. It was not long after she was
+seated that her head hung down and soon the gentle comforter of sleep
+came to her and she lay there, pillowing her head on her little thin
+arm.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But the comforter did not stay long, for Pepsy dreamed a dream. She
+dreamed that all the people of the village, Simeon Drowser, Nathaniel
+Knapp, Darius Dragg, the sneering Deadwood Gamely, and even the
+faithless Arabella Bellison, the school teacher, were pointing fingers
+a yard long at her and saying, “You have to go back to the big brick
+building. You have to go back, you have to go back.” On the big
+doughnut jar in the “refreshment parlor” sat Licorice Stick saying,
+“You have to go back the next time it thunders.” She shook her fist at
+Licorice Stick and called
+him a Smarty and said she would <i>not</i> go back, but they all
+laughed and sang:</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Miss Bellison was the worst of all....</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“You have to go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to—”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>With a sudden start Pepsy sat up on the rock, wide awake,</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“—go back,</div>
+      <div class='line'>You have to go back.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>She still heard.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Her forehead throbbed and her face felt very hot. There was a ringing
+in her ears. She was feverish, but she did not know that. All she knew
+was that everybody was against her and that the bridge had put them up
+to it. She was dizzy and had to put her hand on the rock to steady
+herself.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The lantern light was extinguished but she did not remember the
+lantern, or Wiggle. She felt very strange and wanted a drink of water.
+Her hand trembled and her little arm with which she braced herself
+against the rock, felt weak. And her head throbbed, throbbed....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Where were all those people? She felt around for them. Then she heard
+the voice again, far off through the woods, up along that highway. It
+was just an innocent automobile,</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“You have to go back.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy rose to her feet with a start, reeled, reached for a tree, and
+clutched it. “I’ll stop it, I’ll—I’ll make it—it stop—I’ll tear
+it—I’ll pull them off,” she said. “I—I <i>won’t</i>—go back—I
+<i>won’t</i>, I <i>won’t</i>, I <i>won’t</i>!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Staggering across the road she entered the woods. Each tree there
+seemed like two trees. She groped her way among them, dizzy, almost
+falling. Sometimes the woods seemed to be moving. Perhaps it was by the
+merest chance that she stumbled into the trail which led through the
+woods to the highway, ending close to the old bridge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But once in the familiar path she ran in a kind of frenzy. No doubt the
+fever gave her a kind of temporary, artificial strength, as indeed it
+gave her the crazy resolve somehow to still that haunting voice
+forever. Crazed and reeling she stumbled and ran along, pausing now and
+again to press her throbbing head, then running on again like one
+possessed.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>At last she came out of the woods suddenly on to the broad, smooth
+highway. There was the bridge, silent and—no, not dark. For there was
+a bright spot somewhere underneath it and gray smoke wriggling up
+through those cracks between the planks. And there, yes, there,
+crawling away in the darkness was a black figure. A silent, stealthy
+figure, stealing away.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>To the dazed, feverish girl, the figure seemed to have two pairs of
+arms. She tried to call but could not. Her scream of delirious fright
+died away into a murmur as she staggered and fell prone upon the ground
+and knew no more.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But never again—never, <i>never</i> would those cruel planks taunt her
+with their heartless prediction. Never would they frighten the poor,
+sensitive, fearful little red-headed orphan girl any more.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXVIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>STOCK ON HAND</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>It was Joey Burnside, the burliest and heartiest of the volunteer
+firemen, who carried Pepsy back through the woods to the farm while
+still the conflagration was at its height.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There was not timber enough left from the old bridge to kindle a scout
+camp-fire. A few charred remnants had gone floating down the stream and
+these fugitive remnants drifting into tiny coves and lodging in the
+river’s bends were shown by the riverside dwellers as memorials of the
+event which had stirred the countryside more than any other item of
+neighborhood history. Under the gaping space of disconnected road the
+stream flowed placidly, uninterrupted by all the recent hubbub above
+it. The straight highway looked strange without the bridge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy had a fever all that night, but toward morning she fell asleep,
+and Aunt Jamsiah, who had watched her through the night, tiptoed into
+the little room under the eaves and out again to tell Pee-wee that he
+had better wait, that all Pepsy needed now was rest.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can’t I just look at her?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So he was allowed to stand in the doorway and see his partner as she
+lay there sleeping the good sleep of utter exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“When she wakes up,” Aunt Jamsiah said pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee knew the circumstances of her being found at the burning bridge
+and brought home, but he asked no questions and Aunt Jamsiah said
+nothing of the events of that momentous night. It seemed to be
+generally understood that this matter was in Aunt Jamsiah’s hands for
+thorough consideration later.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Meanwhile Pee-wee went across the lawn and down the road to the scene
+of their hapless enterprise. The roadside rest could boast now of but
+two jars, one of peppermint sticks and one of gumdrops (both in rapid
+process of consumption) and a number of spools of tire tape. But the
+absence of doughnuts and sausages and lemonade, this was nothing. It
+was the absence of Pepsy that counted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee took his customary eye-opener, consisting of a gumdrop. He had
+to shake the jar to get a red one, that being the kind he preferred.
+Then he drew his legs up on the counter and proceeded to work upon the
+willow whistle he was making.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>His handiwork soon reached that stage of manufacture where it was
+necessary to soak the willow bark in water, so as to cause it to swell.
+He thereupon distributed the remaining gumdrops impartially between his
+mouth and his trousers’ pocket and filled the empty jar with water,
+dropping his handiwork into it. Thus by gradual stages and without any
+sensational “closing out sales” the refreshment business was steadily
+going into a state of liquidation, even the lemon sticks being reduced
+to a liquid. There was no stock on hand now but two peppermint sticks
+and some tire tape.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Suddenly a most astonishing thing happened. The sound of an automobile
+horn was heard in the distance. A deep, melodious, dignified horn. Not
+since the passing of the six merry maidens had such welcome music
+sounded in Pee-wee’s enraptured ears.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The signs had all been made right, the ice cream
+had been made cold, the sausages hot, and the ground glass had been put
+where it belonged. No longer did “our taffy stick like glue.” Indeed,
+there was no taffy of any kind on hand, notwithstanding these blatant
+announcements.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Along came the automobile, an eight-cylinder Super Junkster. And, yes,
+it was followed by another, and still another! Pee-wee could see the
+imposing procession as far down as the bend.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Some detour,” a good-natured voice said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Detour? <i>Detour</i>?” Pee-wee whispered in sudden and terrible
+excitement. Then, as the full purport of the staggering truth burst
+upon him he issued forth from the roadside rest and contemplated the
+approaching pageant with joy bubbling up like soda water in his heart.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Never mind,” said another voice, “we can get some eats in this jungle,
+thank goodness. What I won’t do to a couple of hot frankfurters!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A sudden chill cooled the fresh enthusiasm of Scout Harris.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll buy every blamed doughnut they’ve got in the place,” somebody
+shouted. “We won’t leave a thing for the rest of the cars that have to
+plow through this jungle. I suppose this is what motorists will be up against for six months. What do you know about that?
+This eats merchant ought to clear a couple of million. I’ll dicker with
+him for everything hot that he’s got, I’m starving.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Same here!” another shouted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Frantically, like a soldier waving his country’s emblem in the last
+desperate moment of forlorn hope, Scout Harris clambered over the
+counter and grasped the jar containing two peppermint sticks.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Peppermint sticks! Peppermint sticks!” he shouted at the advancing
+column. “Get your peppermint sticks! They quench thirst and—and—and
+satisfy your hunger! They’re filling! They warm you up! Peppermint is
+hot! <i>Oh</i>, get your peppermint sticks here!”</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXIX' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pee-wee emerged safely, if not triumphantly, from this ordeal amid much
+laughter, and was just congratulating himself upon his skillful
+handling of “the trade” in a period of acute shortage when he received
+a knockout blow. In depositing the trifling price of the peppermint
+sticks in his trousers pocket, he discovered there four gumdrops glued
+together and clinging so affectionately that nothing could part
+them.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>At the moment of this discovery, Scout Harris, thus driven into a
+corner and standing at bay with nothing but one huge, consolidated
+gumdrop for defense, heard the unmistakable sound of another car
+crawling over the rocks and hubbles of that outlandish road in second
+gear. On, on, on, it came like some horrible British tank.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And now again he heard voices, “We can eat about twenty of them in my
+patrol; y-mm. Are we hungry? Oh, no! Hot frankfurters! Oh, <i>boy</i>,
+lead me to them. I could even eat the sign, I’m so hungry. Put her in
+high. What do we care about the road?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee listened and waited in terrible suspense. Scouts! He knew
+something about the scout capacity. Then, upon the fresh morning air
+there floated another voice calling a sentence which he knew too well;
+it was the good scout motto.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hey there, you, whoever you are, Mr. Refreshment Man? <i>Be
+Prepared!</i> We’re s-c-o-u-t-s, we are, and we’re h-u-n-g-r-e-e! We
+haven’t had anything since breakfast at four-thirty. We had to come
+around through this rocky tour or detour or whatever you call it.
+Somebody ate the bridge last night. Are there any scouts down in this
+South African backyard?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>If Pee-wee had not heard that familiar motto “Be Prepared,” he would
+have known the approaching caravan to be scouts by their talk and
+banter.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'><i>Be Prepared.</i> Pee-wee glanced at the bare counter and the empty
+jars and the shiny dishpan which held nothing but Pepsy’s ball of
+worsted and the terrible ornamental thing that she was knitting. There
+they were, just as she had laid them the day before. Poor little
+Pepsy....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then they descended upon him as only hungry scouts can descend.
+Pee-wee’s glowing promises which decorated the woods (and which he
+could not fulfill) had brought the party to a state of distraction. It
+was a big Crackerjack touring car overflowing with scouts and driven by
+a smiling scoutmaster. It seemed as if they ought to have been pressed
+in and down with a shovel, like ice cream in a quart box.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“For the love of—” one of them began.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Look what’s here, it’s a <i>scout</i>.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That?” shouted another. “Let’s have the magnifying glass, will you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee straightened himself up to his full height. The big Crackerjack
+touring car stopped.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“<i>Some</i> detour,” the scoutmaster said with an air of infinite
+relief.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do they have scouts down here?” a member of the party asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m only staying here, I belong in Bridgeboro, New Jersey,” Pee-wee
+said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t talk about bridges,” another scout said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Talk about something pleasant. A scout is supposed to save life,
+scout law number six; let’s have a couple of thousand hot dogs, will
+you? We’re dying. And forty-eleven dozen doughnuts with the holes
+removed.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you—I—eh—do you—need any tire tape?” Pee-wee stammered,
+playing for time.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Tire tape! What do you take us for? A lot of blow-outs? Let’s have
+some eats and <i>we’ll</i> take care of the blow-out.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Come on, hurry up, a scout is supposed to be prepared,” piped up a
+natty scout wearing the bronze cross.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Where’s all the food?” the scoutmaster asked, glancing at the empty
+counter. “We were led to suppose—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t you know what a shortage is?” Pee-wee piped up in sheer
+desperation.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We know what a <i>shorty</i> is,” one of the party shot back.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You don’t expect us to eat a shortage, do you?” another said. “Come
+ahead, hurry up, a scout isn’t supposed to be cruel. You can always
+depend on scout signs that you find in the woods. A scout that puts
+scout signs—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Those are different kinds of signs!” Pee-wee shouted. “Those are trail
+signs. You think you’re so smart! That shows how much you know
+about—about—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Three strikes out,” one of the scouts shouted. “About—about
+industrial conditions,” Pee-wee concluded. “Don’t you know what
+a—a—what d’you call it—a—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, that’s what you call it,” a scout laughed. “Don’t you know what a
+reconstruction period is?” Pee-wee fairly yelled, amid uncontrollable
+laughter. “If something happens like a war—or a—a bridge burning
+down—or something—or other—that makes business conditions—what
+d’you call it—it makes them all kind of upside down, doesn’t it?
+Sometimes—kind of—things are hard to get. Everybody knows that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We can see it,” a scout said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>By this time the scoutmaster was laughing heartily but with the
+greatest good humor. Pee-wee continued bravely, to the great amusement
+of the party.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Gee whiz, nobody ever came along this road. You admit that scouts are
+hungry, don’t you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We <i>proclaim</i> it,” said the scoutmaster.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I ate a lot of the stuff and my aunt wouldn’t cook any more stuff for
+us because nobody ever came and it got stale and I ate too much of it,
+that’s what she said. So now, anyway, we’re going to start in again
+because the business world—and we’re—we’re going to speed up
+production.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All right, speed up the auto and good luck to you,” the scout with the
+bronze cross said. He seemed to be a patrol leader.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>There was a little fraternal chat before this boisterous troop moved on
+and all seemed interested in Pee-wee and his enterprise. They were on
+their way to camp somewhere down the line.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’ll succeed all right,” they called back to him, “only be sure to
+have plenty of stuff on hand when we come back in a couple of weeks or
+we’ll kill you.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you like waffles and honey?” the proprietor shouted after them.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We’ve got the bees working overtime for us,” a scout called back.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll have a lot of those—ten cents each,” Pee-wee announced. “Do you
+like clam chowder?” he called, raising his voice to cover the
+increasing distance.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t you make us hungry,” one called back. “Good luck to
+you, you’ll make it a go all right.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m lucky, I always have good luck,” the
+small optimist screamed at the top of his voice. “Do you like peanut
+taffy? Do you like hot corn,” he added, fairly yelling this sudden
+inspiration after the departing sufferers; “with butter and pepper on
+it; do you like that? I’ll have some!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>These were the last words they heard as the big car moved slowly over
+the rocky, grass-grown road. They are good words to end a chapter
+with—hot corn with pepper and butter on it....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Oh, boy!</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXX' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>PAID IN FULL</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pee-wee was just about to make a frantic rush to the house when he saw
+another automobile coming along the road, brushing the projecting
+foliage aside as some stealthily advancing creature might do. Not far
+behind it he could hear other cars grinding along that impossible road
+in second gear.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The world seemed to be making a pathway, or rather a highway, to
+Pee-wee’s door. The sequestered, overgrown road, with its intertwined
+and overarching boughs, was become a surging thoroughfare. The birds,
+formally unmolested in their wonted haunts, complained to one another
+of this sudden intrusion into their domains.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Away back where this obscure road branched off the highway to furnish
+the unfrequented access to Everdoze and Berryville, a sign had been
+placed that morning with an arrow pointing toward the depths of the
+Everdoze jungle.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>DETOUR ⇾</div>
+    <div>HIGHWAY CLOSED. FOLLOW</div>
+    <div>YELLOW ARROWS.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>These yellow arrows appeared at intervals along the Everdoze road, thus
+guiding the motorist back to the highway at a point a mile or two below
+the gap where the bridge had been. Everdoze was on the map now in dead
+earnest. The little hamlet nestling in its wooded valley was destined
+to review such a procession of Pierce-Arrows, and Packards, and
+Cadillacs, aye and Fords and jitney busses, as it had never dreamed of
+in all its humble career.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Who was responsible for this? Or was accident responsible? Who, if
+anyone, by the mere touching of a match had started a blaze which would
+illuminate poor little Everdoze? Everdoze had gone to bed (at eight P.
+M.) in obscurity. It had awakened to find itself dragged into the light
+of day. Already Constable Bungel was devising a formidable code of
+“traffic regulations”—traps and snares to catch the prosperous and
+make them pay tribute as they passed along.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>As early as seven o’clock that vigilant agent of the peace had placed a
+sign in front of the post office (where he was wont to loiter) reading,
+“NO PARKING HERE.” But all the while he hoped that the unwary would
+park there and pay the three dollars and costs.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But of all the signs which appeared in Everdoze on that day when fate,
+like an alarm clock, had awakened it out of its slumber, there was one
+which thrilled the soul of Pee-wee Harris and caused consternation to
+everybody else. This appeared in front of the “Taown Hall” and at a
+number of other strategic places in and out of the village.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Come and read it! <i>Come and read it!</i>” shouted little Silas Knapp
+as he madly intercepted Pee-wee who, as I have said, was about to run
+to the house. “It’s a monolopy or somethin’ like that—Mr. Browser
+says so! Come and read it!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So before going to the house Pee-wee went and read it. He did not know
+that the stern phraseology had been penned ever so tenderly and with a
+twinkle in the eye of the writer. He did not know that it was a tribute
+(or shall we say the repayment of a good turn?) to the little
+red-headed girl, who, all unaware of this hubbub, was sleeping in her
+little bedroom under the eaves. Strange that such a little girl could
+thus shake her fist by proxy at the grasping villagers!</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c017'>
+    <div>NOTICE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c013'>The property on both sides of the road from two miles north of the
+Everdoze line to the boundary of Ebenezer Quig’s farm, is of private
+ownership.</p>
+
+<p class='c013'>Any one attempting to sell or vend or who erects any tent or shack for
+such purpose upon said property will be prosecuted to the full extent
+of the law.</p>
+
+<div class='c018'>Ira C. Jensen.</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>So Pepsy had kept her word after all, her one poor little investment of
+kindness had paid a hundred percent dividend, and the partners were the
+owners of a <i>monopoly</i>, or a monolopy, whichever you choose to
+call it.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXXI' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Along the road and over the stone wall and straight across the bed of
+tiger-lilies sped Pee-wee, using his own particular mode of scout pace,
+patent not applied for. Across the side porch and into the kitchen he
+went, pell-mell, shouting in a voice to crack the heavens.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It’s a monolopy—I mean a monopoly! We’ve got a monopoly! Where’s
+everybody? Hey, Aunt Jamsiah, where are you? Where’s Uncle Eb? Hurry up
+and make some doughnuts? There’s a detour! Cars—hundreds of cars—from
+the highway—they’re coming along the road. You ought to see. Where’s
+the ice-pick? Can I have some lemons? Are there any cookies left? I
+left two on the plate last night. Where’s the sugar so I can—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He paused in his frenzy of haste and enthusiasm as Aunt Jamsiah opened
+the sitting room door, very quietly and seriously.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Shh, come in here, Walter,” she said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Her manner, kind, gentle, but serious, disconcerted Pee-wee and chilled
+his enthusiasm. The very fact that he was summoned into the sitting
+room seemed ominous for that holy of holies was never used; not more
+than once or twice in Pee-wee’s recollection had his own dusty shoes
+stood upon that sacred oval-shaped rag carpet. Never before had he
+found himself within reaching distance of that plush album that stood
+on its wire holder on the marble table.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This solemn apartment was the only room in the house that had a floor
+covering and the fact that Pee-wee could not hear his own foot-falls
+agitated him strangely. Uncle Eb sat in the corner near the melodeon
+looking strangely out of place in his ticking overalls.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Is—is she—dead?” Pee-wee whispered fearfully.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Sit down, Walter,” said Aunt Jamsiah; “no, she isn’t dead, she’s
+better.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Uncle Eb said nothing, only watched Pee-wee keenly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee seated himself, feeling very uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Walter,” said his aunt, “something very serious has happened and I’m
+going to ask one or two questions. You will tell me the truth, won’t
+you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’ll answer fer him doin’ that,” said Uncle Eb.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Sure I will,” said Pee-wee proudly.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Walter, do you know what Pepsy’s secret was? You remember she said she
+had a secret that would make lots and lots of people come and buy
+things from you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Girls are—” Pee-wee began. He was going to say they were crazy, but
+remembering the one that lay upstairs he caught himself up and said,
+“they’re kind of—they think they have big ideas when they haven’t. I
+should worry about their secrets.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“But some of Pepsy’s ideas and plans have been very big, Walter,” his
+aunt said ruefully. “You see we know her better than you do. She’s
+very, <i>very</i> queer; I’m afraid no one understands her.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I understand her,” said Pee-wee. “She believes in bad luck days.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Aunt Jamsiah paused a moment, considering; then she went straight to
+the point. “Pepsy wants to do right, dear, but she will do wrong in
+order to do right—sometimes. We have always been a little fearful of
+her for that reason. She—she can’t argue in her own mind and consider
+things as—as you do.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know lots of dandy arguments,” Pee-wee announced.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You know, Walter, her father was a—he was a—not a very good man. And
+Pepsy is—queer. Last night she made a dreadful mess in the cellar. She
+was at the kerosene; oh, it makes me just sick to think of it. She had
+some rags soaked with kerosene. Some of them were found out by the
+well. The others—” Aunt Jamsiah lifted her handkerchief to her eyes
+and wept for a moment, silently.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What others?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“The ones that were used to set fire to the bridge, dear. Oh, it’s
+terrible to think of it. Poor, <i>poor</i> Pepsy. That is what is
+bringing <i>lots and lots</i> of people along our road to-day, Walter.
+Pepsy was found lying unconscious near the bridge. She had kerosene all
+over her. One charred rag was found over there. It just makes me—it
+makes me—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee arose and laid one hand on the back of the hair-cloth chair.
+He, too, was concerned now.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You—you didn’t tell her—you didn’t blame—accuse her—did you?” he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, I didn’t,” his aunt breathed worriedly. “I asked her to tell me
+all about last night and she would tell me nothing. She said that the
+planks on the bridge tormented her. To almost everything I asked her
+she said, ‘I won’t tell.’ She is very, <i>very</i> stubborn; she was
+always so.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Because, anyway,” Pee-wee said, alluding to his former query, “if
+anybody says she burned down the bridge on purpose it’s a lie. I don’t
+care who says it, it’s a lie. She’s—she’s my partner—and it’s a lie.
+If—even—if the minister says it, it’s a lie!”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Listen, my dear boy,” said his aunt kindly. “I’m not angry with Pepsy, poor
+child. I’m not accusing her, and you mustn’t talk about the Rev. Mr. Gloomer
+telling lies. Pepsy tried to burn down the orphan home once, for some trifling
+grievance. We can’t take the responsibility of the poor child any longer. I’m
+afraid that any minute Beriah Bungel will want to take her—arrest her. I know
+she’s your partner, dear, but it would be better for us to send her back to the
+state home where she will probably be kept than to let her be arrested. I don’t
+think she knew what she was doing, poor, poor child—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Aunt Jamsiah broke down completely, crying in her handkerchief. So
+Uncle Eb finished what little there was to say.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We had to send fer ’em, Walter,” said he. “She’ll be better off there
+fer a spell, I reckon. I ain’t so sure about her doin’ it, though it
+looks bad. Leastways, she didn’t know what she was doing. But don’t you
+worry—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee did not wait to hear more. He just could not stand there.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“When—when are they—coming?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I reckon to-morrow, boy. Now, you look here—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But Pee-wee had gone.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Up the narrow, boxed-in stairs he went, never asking permission. He
+could see nothing but a big enclosed wagon, dark inside, with Pepsy
+inside it. He had no more idea what he was going to do that day than
+the man in the moon. But he knew what he was going to do that very
+minute. When a scout makes up his mind to do a thing....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Into the little room under the eaves he strode, his eyes glistening,
+but his heart staunch and his resolve indomitable. And she smiled when
+she saw him. She was sitting up and she looked ever so little in her
+nightclothes and ever so plain with her tightly braided red hair. But
+her eyes were clear and she smiled when she looked at him....</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I won’t tell anybody where I went,” she said, “because I was a smarty
+and I thought I could make somebody do a good turn ever so—<i>ever
+so big</i>. And they’d only laugh at me if I told them what it was. So
+I’m not going to be a tell-tale cat.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Pep,” he said, “it shows that you’re right because lots and lots of
+automobiles are coming along our road since the old bridge burned down
+and it’s a detour and that means hundreds and hundreds of them have to
+go past our refreshment place and we’re going to make lots of money.
+And I thought of a dandy idea, it’s what they call an inspiration.
+We’re going to name the place Pepsy Rest, because Pepsy will remind
+people to buy chewing gum, because that has pepsin in it and as soon as
+you’re all well we’ll start in and keep on being partners, because we
+have a monopoly. Do you know what that is? It’s when you can sell all
+you want of something and nobody else can sell it. See?</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Mr. Jensen, he put up a sign, and he said no one should sell things on
+his property and he owns all the property along the road, and you bet
+everybody is scared of <i>him</i>. So now we’re going to have a great
+big business and we began as poor boys, I mean girls, I mean a boy and
+a girl. So don’t you believe anything that anybody tells you, not
+even—not even Aunt Jamsiah. Because you know how I told you I was a
+good fixer and I’m always lucky, you have to admit that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can I be the one to count the money?” Pepsy asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Sure, and I’ll be the one to eat what’s left of the things that won’t
+keep,” said Pee-wee. “Only don’t you worry no matter what you hear—”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>She was on the point of telling him how Mr. Jensen had done his good
+turn after all, and all about what she remembered of the previous
+night. But she decided that she was not going to have a boy laughing at
+her and put it within his power to call her a tell-tale cat some day.
+So instead she threw her arms around him and said, “<i>Oh goody, goody!</i>”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>You know how girls do.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXXII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXXII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE CLEW</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pee-wee never knew until now how much he cared about his little
+companion of the summer and how little he cared about their roadside
+enterprise except so far as she was concerned in it.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>All morning the almost continuous procession passed along the road
+reviewed by a gaping assemblage on the platform in front of the post
+office. Many motorists who read the enticing promises along the way
+paused for refreshment only to find the little rustic shelter bare and
+deserted.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But they were not the only ones to be disappointed. Upon the front
+porch of Doctor Killem’s house there sat in a wheel chair the queerest
+little figure ever seen outside of a soup advertisement. He was of the
+kewpie type, all head and eyes, and he had a kind of ridiculous air of
+stern authority about him as he sat all bundled up in blankets soberly
+reviewing the passing cars. So odd and gnomelike was he that he might
+have stepped out of the pages of “Alice in Wonderland.” He would have
+made a good radiator ornament on an automobile.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>This, you will know, was little Whitie Bungel, who seemed not at all
+disconcerted at being elsewhere than in his own home. He had been moved
+about so much without any exertion on his own part that he was quite at
+home anywhere.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Though Pee-wee had spoken in high hope to Pepsy about their unexpected
+and glowing prospects, he was haunted by thoughts of the terrible thing
+which was to happen on the morrow. Pepsy was to be taken away, back to
+the big brick building which she hated, just as the planks of the old
+bridge had foretold.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee’s loyalty was so staunch that he did not even consider the
+things his aunt had said. He was going to save Pepsy from that place
+and make her the sharer of the fortune that was within their grasp. He
+made this resolve with the same generous impulse as that which had
+caused him to put two hundred and fifty dollars within the reach of Mr.
+Bungel who had boxed his ears.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m lucky,” he said to himself as he trudged down to the post office;
+“I’ll fix things all right. I’ll show them; I don’t care, I’ll show
+them. They won’t take her back to that place, not while I’m around.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He did not know how he was going to prevent this but he had unbounded
+faith in his capacity to fix things and in his good luck.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So, as he trudged along, stepping out of the way of many cars, he came
+to the home of Doctor Killem.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Hello, soldier,” piped up a little thin voice upon the porch.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I’m not a soldier,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“My father can arrest people,” said the little gnome, looking straight
+ahead of him.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That doesn’t prove I’m a soldier,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’ve got a uniform,” said the gnome. “I’m not afraid of soldiers. My
+father’s got a lot of money, he’s got two hundred and fifty dollars and
+I’m not going to get dead.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Where’s your father?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s up the road and he’s going to catch people and put them in jail.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Is he?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Why do you say ‘Is he?’ I didn’t go to the hospital last night. Do
+you want to know why?” He asked questions as if they were riddles.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, why?” Pee-wee asked, half interested.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Because the bridge burned down. Do you like bridges?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It isn’t a question of whether a person likes them or not,” Pee-wee
+said, preoccupied with his own sorrow and worry, yet amused in spite of
+himself at this queer little fellow.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes it is,” said Whitie Bungel.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All right then, it is,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Why did you say it wasn’t?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, I don’t know, I guess I was thinking of something else.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“What were you thinking of?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, I don’t know—nothing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Why did you say you were?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You didn’t tell me about why you didn’t go to the hospital last
+night.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I can see things that other folks can’t see,” Whitie announced.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re like Licorice Stick,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He’s black,” Whitie said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know he is.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Then how am I like him? I’m white. My name is Whitie.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee felt like a prisoner at the bar of justice with this little
+personage swathed in blankets, staring down at him. His wrappings
+covered his neck and all that could be seen of him was his face,
+perfectly motionless. Finally he said as if he were pronouncing
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Doctor Killem took me in his auto. We had to turn around and come back
+when we came to the bridge burning down. He’s going to take me another
+way. I saw a man getting dead.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Where?” Pee-wee asked, his interest somewhat aroused.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Will you give me that tin thing if I tell you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“That isn’t a tin
+thing, it’s a compass, it tells you which way to go.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Can it talk?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, it can’t talk.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Then how can it tell you?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It points its finger.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re crazy.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All right,” Pee-wee laughed in spite of himself. “You tell me about
+the man getting dead and I’ll give you the tin thing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“He was lying down in the bushes and wriggling.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Where? Near the bridge?” Pee-wee asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Doctor Killem didn’t see him and he laughed at me. He said I was
+seeing things. Can you wriggle? I looked back out of the window and saw
+him.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Did you tell your father about it?” Pee-wee asked, hardly knowing what
+to think of this information.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“My mother made him give her the two hundred and fifty dollars so I
+wouldn’t get dead. Do you know what I’m going to be when I grow up?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No; what?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“A giant.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Well, you’d better hurry up about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Do you know where my father got that two hundred and fifty dollars?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Where?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“It was a prize for catching thieves. <i>You</i> can’t catch thieves.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“I know it,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Are you going to be a thief when you grow up?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“No, I guess not,” said Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You can have three guesses.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“All right, I guess not three times. Now, tell me if you told your
+father about seeing that man getting dead.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Yes, and he said I’m always seeing things; everybody says that. Maybe
+I’ll get dead when it rains.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Don’t you believe it,” Pee-wee said; “Licorice Stick’s been telling
+you that. Didn’t you say you were going to be a giant first?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“You’re not a giant.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Alas, Pee-wee knew this only too well. He knew too that it would be
+quite impossible to get anything in the way of a connected narrative
+out of this stern little autocrat. Whether he had actually been “seeing
+things” or had only seen something in his queer little inner life, who
+should say? Evidently no one took him very seriously. And this fact did
+not seem to trouble him at all.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Removing the compass cord from about his neck, Pee-wee advanced to
+proffer his second gift to the Bungel family. Little did that stiff,
+serious little figure know that the much-needed money which Mrs. Bungel
+had been wise enough to take from her husband, had come from the same
+source. Pee-wee searched in vain for any sign of hands in those
+enveloping blankets. There were no hands, there seemed to be no body
+even; just two eyes looking straight ahead as if their owner were not
+going to assist at all in the transfer of the little gift. So Pee-wee
+laid the compass on the porch rail.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There you are,” he said; “that needle always points to the north.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The two severe eyes stared down at the compass on the rail but their
+owner made no attempt to reach it as Pee-wee started off. If Pee-wee
+had not been so worried and preoccupied he would have thought that he
+had never seen anything so absurdly amusing in all his life.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Come back and say good-by,” the little voice commanded.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee returned and stood in the exact spot where he had stood before
+and said, “Good-by.” Although the little pale face did not turn the
+fraction of an inch, the staring eyes followed Pee-wee as he went along
+the road.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXXIII' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE TRAMPLED TRAIL</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Pee-wee felt as if he were emerging from some enchanted spot in the
+“Arabian Nights,” abounding with giants and men “getting dead.” He had
+no more belief in what this imperious little imp had told him than he
+had in the predictions of Licorice Stick, or the homely superstitions
+of Pepsy.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Indeed, if he had thought seriously of these erratic snapshot bits of
+information about figures wriggling in the dark and “getting dead” he
+would never have mentioned these things to Licorice Stick whom he ran
+plunk into as that aggregation of rags and nonsense sat upon a stone
+wall up the road engaged in the profitable occupation of watching the
+passing cars. Licorice Stick’s business was contemplating the world and
+he always attended strictly to business.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Lordy me!” he said, rolling his eyes, “you don’ go nowheres that kid
+’e tell you. Dat wrigglin’ man, he no man, he a sperrit. Don’ you go
+near dat bridge, you get a spell. Yo keep away f’m dat bridge.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>How much this had to do with Pee-wee’s actually going to the scene of
+the fire it would be hard to say. If he had not talked with Whitie he
+probably would not have gone. At all events, he had nothing else to do
+and he wanted to think. So he followed the trail through the woods to
+the highway.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>It seemed quite probable that Whitie’s jerky sentences were about true,
+that the doctor had been compelled to turn back by reason of the
+burning bridge. The fact that Whitie was holding his imperial court on
+the doctor’s porch made this part of his story seem true.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Perhaps it would be about right to say that little Whitie’s spasmodic
+announcements directed Pee-wee in his idle wanderings on that morning
+when he was fearful and sick at heart.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Long afterwards he remembered with interest that it was little Whitie
+Bungel (for whose recovery he had sacrificed two hundred and fifty
+dollars and not a little glory) who put him in the way of the terrible
+discovery that he made on that fateful day. And the funny thing about
+it was that the little gnome had given the clew to his benefactor and
+not his father who knew nothing about the frightful revelation of that
+morning until it was all over.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So perhaps there is a little god of good turns after all, who, all
+unseen, administers punches in the nose and pays back two hundred and
+fifty dollar gifts and so forth, and has the time of his life watching
+how these things work out. Or a “pay back sperrit” as Licorice Stick
+might have called him....</p>
+
+<hr class='c011' />
+
+<p class='c002'>As Pee-wee approached the scene of the fire he saw in the bushes
+something which caught his eye. This was a torn fragment of clothing.
+The bushes were trampled down at the spot. It was not hard for the
+scout to follow this line of trampled brush which was so disordered
+that he thought it could not have been caused by a walking or fleeing
+person. It was well away from the area where the men had fought the
+flames.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Here and there something brown and sticky on the leaves caught the
+scout’s eye. Some one had crawled stealthily through here. Or else—
+<i>dragged</i> himself through. Pee-wee shuddered at this thought. He
+examined the trampled channel more carefully. And from this examination
+he was satisfied of one fact which made him uneasy, apprehensive.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>The weight which had crushed the bush down had been a prone, dead
+weight. At intervals of perhaps three or four feet were gathered
+wounded strands of the tall grass, as if some groping hand had reached
+ahead, gathering and pulling on them. Pulling a helpless weight.
+Pee-wee knew this for he saw with the eyes of a scout.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXXIV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>THE TRAIL’S END</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>This trampled channel petered out in a comparatively bare area across
+which was more brush. Almost hidden in this was a tumbled-down shack,
+hardly bigger than a closet, in which boys who had been wont to dive
+from the old bridge had donned their bathing suits. It had been thrown
+together as a storage place for fishing tackle and crab nets and these
+latter, rotten and gray with age, still hung in the dank, musty place.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pee-wee paused a moment, irresolute, nervous. He had a strange feeling,
+a feeling of apprehension which amounted to a certainty. And as he
+paused two charred bits of timber from the old bridge, still held
+together by a rusty brace, creaked, and the creaking seemed loud in the
+stillness of desolation.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>A rusty can, the discarded receptacle of bait, lay at his feet, and in
+his hesitation and transient fear, he kicked it, and followed it,
+kicking it again.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Then, banishing such cracked-up excuses for delay he put aside his
+fears and went around the tiny shelter to where the rotted door hung
+loose upon one broken hinge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Within lay a human figure. The hair was wet and matted and prickly
+leaves were stuck in it. The face was streaked with blood, the clothes
+were torn. One of the legs lay in a very unnatural attitude. The eyes
+were wide open and staring with a glassy look at some rough fishing
+rods which lay across the rafters above. One of the arms was
+outstretched and the hand lay open as if its owner were saying, “Here I
+am, you see.” There was something very appalling about that dumb
+attitude of speech and welcome when the voice and the eyes could not
+speak. For he had “got dead,” this poor troubled creature; “got dead”
+after committing one hideous crime to hide another.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/illus-212.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic001'>
+<p><span class='small'>PEE-WEE SUMMONED THE NEAREST PEOPLE TO THE OLD SHACK.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c002'>The people in the nearest house along the now deserted highway came at
+Pee-wee’s breathless summons and gazed down silently but would not
+touch the figure with outstretched arm and opened hand that seemed to
+say, “Step in, you’re welcome, here I am.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>So they called the coroner and the body of Deadwood Gamely was borne
+away and it was soon known that he had died from injuries received in
+falling down the embankment which he was scrambling up after setting
+fire to one of the supports of the old bridge.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>He had not done this horrible thing willfully, at least not for money
+to spend. That very day a warrant was issued for his arrest in Baxter
+City for embezzlement of funds which he had stolen from the bank in
+which he had been employed. But the angel of death had traveled faster
+than the law.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>That the contractors, or one of them, who wished to benefit the county
+with a modern bridge had offered Gamely pay to do this dreadful deed of
+arson seemed certain. But it seemed equally certain that the wretched
+boy had balked at this frightful enterprise, putting it off from day to
+day, until discovery and arrest for his other crime stared him in the
+face. He had waited till the very night before the day on which his
+petty thefts would be revealed. Then in frantic desperation he had
+taken this only means of acquiring a sum of money quickly. No one could
+say this for a certainty.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But in a story where we have witnessed so many good turns may we not
+dismiss poor Deadwood Gamely and his tragic end from our thoughts with
+the hope, nay, even the confidence, that his second crime was not a
+deed of willing choice? There was more money misappropriated by Tom,
+Dick and Harry, before the new steel bridge was up than ever poor
+Deadwood Gamely, with his silly clothes and hat, would have dared to
+steal. And so the tax rate went up and Commissioner Somebody-or-other
+got a new automobile and County Engineer Grabson built a big house and
+so on, and so on, and so on.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But before the new million-dollar bridge was finished the Pepsy
+Roadside Rest was flourishing as the only real “monolopy” in Everdoze.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='chXXXV' class='c008'>CHAPTER XXXV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c009'>
+    <div>EXIT</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>So it befell that the big black wagon belonging to the brick orphan
+home came and turned around and went back again. It got in the way of
+all the automobiles that were headed for The Home of Fresh Doughnuts (a
+new sign) and was a nuisance generally. The men who drove it didn’t buy
+so much as a gumdrop.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>But what cared the partners? For such a business were they doing as
+would make the Standard Oil Company turn green with envy. Their
+financial rating was so high that you couldn’t see it without a
+telescope. Every time there was a strike over at the new bridge the
+partners reaped a profit from the delay. Thus labor unconsciously put
+business in the way of monopolies.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And so the great enterprise prospered. The advertising department had
+now two steady employees—Licorice Stick and Wiggle. Licorice Stick
+covered the road up as far as Berryville with a huge placard hung from
+his neck. Wiggle proudly flew an inflated balloon from his tail bearing
+the appropriate reminder HOT DOGS AT THE PEPSY REST.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>One evening, oh, it must have been about six o’clock, the weary
+partners were closing up their little shack for the night. Pepsy was
+counting the money and Pee-wee was eating the cookies that were left
+over. For he was conscientious and must open shop with a fresh supply
+each day. Sometimes he would have a dozen or more to eat, but he did it
+bravely—from a sense of duty. A scout is dutiful.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Presently there hove in sight a large figure, walking.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Oh, it’s Mr. Jensen,” said Pepsy; “hurry up and finish the cookies or
+he’ll want them; he always does that.”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Mr. Jensen came up mopping his forehead. “Any lemonade left?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“There’s about one glass,” Pee-wee said.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>In accordance with his invariable daily custom, Mr. Jensen bought up
+the remainder of stock, drank several glasses of cider, and chatted
+with the partners.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Ain’t heard of any rivals, have you?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“We’ve got the whole detour eating out of our hands,” said Pee-wee,
+which was literally true.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>“Makin’ money fast, huh? You takin’ good care of this little gal of
+mine?”</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>Pepsy smiled at him and he put his arm around her and kissed her and
+said, “If he don’t take good care of you, you just come and let me
+know.” Then he winked at Pee-wee.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>When he was gone something reminded Pee-wee to look into the big
+lemonade cooler and make sure that it was empty. It was not quite
+empty, there being about ten lemon pits, a slice of rind, and a small
+piece of ice left in the bottom of it. But this was worth going after
+and Pee-wee went after it. With all his strength he raised the goodly
+cooler to a position above his head and tilted it to his mouth. His
+arms trembled under its weight, and his hands slipped upon its cold,
+beady sides. The several drops of highly diluted lemonade trickled down
+into his mouth but the flavory pits and rind remained at bay at the
+bottom of the cooler.</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>They would not roll but they might fall. Pee-wee held the cooler up to
+a perfectly perpendicular position above his upturned face. Then, oh,
+horrors! The wet cooler slipped through his hands and the curly head of
+Pee-wee Harris disappeared within it. If the postman who found him
+wrestling valiantly with a banana and clinging with the other hand,
+could only have seen him in this new and terrible predicament!</p>
+
+<p class='c002'>And thus the curly head and terribly frowning countenance of Scout
+Harris disappears out of our story into a new realm of joy....</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>THE END</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57c (with regex) on 2019-05-26 14:40:31 GMT -->
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pee-Wee Harris, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+#2 in our series by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
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+
+Title: Pee-Wee Harris
+
+Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9833]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 22, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE HARRIS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by James Eager
+
+
+
+
+                               PEE-WEE HARRIS
+
+                                     By
+
+                            PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
+
+
+                                 Author of
+
+                            THE TOM SLADE BOOKS
+                           THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
+
+                       Published with the approval of
+                          THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
+
+                                 MCMXXII.
+
+
+CHAPTER       CONTENTS
+
+I             THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA
+II            A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT
+III           AN INVITATION
+IV            HE GOES TO CONQUER
+V             ENTER PEPSY
+VI            THE WAY OF THE SCOUT
+VII           A BIG IDEA
+VIII          MAKING PLANS
+IX            IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
+X             DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS
+XI            TWO IS A COMPANY--THREE IS BAD LUCK
+XII           THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
+XIII          PEPSY'S SECRET
+XIV           SUSPENSE
+XV            SIX MERRY MAIDENS
+XVI           A REVELATION
+XVII          HARD TIMES
+XVIII         THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT
+XIX           THE OTHER VOICE
+XX            AN OFFICIAL REBUKE
+XXI           SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT
+XXII          FATE IS JUST
+XXIII         WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY
+XXIV          PEPSY'S ENTERPRISE
+XXV           AN ACCIDENT
+XXVI          PEPSY'S INVESTMENT
+XXVII         SEEN IN THE DARK
+XXVIII        STOCK ON HAND
+XXIX          INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
+XXX           PAID IN FULL
+XXXI          CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+XXXII         THE CLEW
+XXXIII        THE TRAMPLED TRAIL
+XXXIV         THE TRAIL'S END
+XXXV          EXIT
+
+
+                             PEE-WEE HARRIS
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I
+
+                        THE BATTLE OF THE BANANA
+
+PEE-WEE HARRIS, mascot of the Raven Patrol, First Bridgeboro Troop,
+sat upon the lowest limb of the tree in front of his home eating a banana.
+To maintain his balance it was necessary for him to keep a tight hold with
+one hand on a knotty projection of the trunk while with the other he
+clutched his luscious refreshment.
+
+The safety of his small form as he sat on the shaky limb depended
+upon his hold of the trunk, while the tremendous responsibility of
+holding his banana devolved upon the other hand.
+
+Pee-Wee was so much smaller than he should have been and the banana
+so much larger than it should have been that they might almost be said to
+have been of the same size.
+
+The slender limb on which Pee-Wee sat trembled and creaked with each
+enormous bite that he took. The bright morning sunlight, wriggling through
+the foliage overhead, picked out the round face and curly hair of our
+young hero and showed him in all his pristine glory, frowning a terrible
+frown, clinging for dear life with one hand and engaged in his customary
+occupation of eating.
+
+He had ascended to this leafy throne with the banana in his pocket
+but he could not restore it to his pocket now even if he wished to.
+However, he did not wish to. In a military sense he was in a predicament,
+both arms were in bad strategic position and his center exposed to
+assault. His leafy throne was like many another throne in these eventful
+times--extremely shaky.
+
+But the commissary department was in fine shape....
+
+Suddenly the expeditionary forces of Uncle Sam appeared in the form of
+the postman, who paused on his way across the lawn to the house.
+
+"Hello, up there," he said, suddenly discovering Pee-Wee.
+
+"Hello yourself and see how you like it," the mascot of the Ravens
+called down.
+
+"I saw a banana up there and I thought maybe you were behind it,"
+the postman called, as he looked among the pack of letters he held in
+his hand.
+
+"It's only half a banana," Pee-Wee shouted.
+
+"Well, you're only half a scout," the postman said; "you'd better
+drop it, here's a letter for you."
+
+"For me?"
+
+"For you."
+
+Steadying himself, Pee-Wee took an enormous bite, considerably
+reducing the length of the banana. "Wait a minute till I finish it,"
+he said as best he could with his mouth full. "Waaer--mint."
+
+"Can't wait," the postman said, heartlessly moving away.
+
+"Waymnt," Pee-Wee yelled, frantically taking another bite;
+"wayermntdyehear, waymnt!"
+
+"Do you think the government can wait for you to finish a banana?"
+the postman demanded with a wicked grin upon his face. "You got two hands;
+here, take the letter if you want it; here it is," he added, reaching up.
+
+Pee-Wee tried to dispatch the remainder of the banana by one gigantic
+and triumphant bite but the desperate expedient did not work; his mouth
+with all its long practice, could not keep up with his hand; it became
+clogged while yet a considerable length of banana projected out of the
+gracefully drooping rind.
+
+"Here, take it," the postman said in a tone of ruthless finality.
+
+Chewing frantically and waving the remainder of banana menacingly
+like a club, the baffled hero uttered some incomprehensible, imploring
+jumble of suffocated words while the postman moved away a step or two,
+repressing a fiendish smile.
+
+"Throwaway the banana," he said.
+
+By this time Pee-Wee was able to speak and while his chewing
+apparatus was momentarily disengaged he demanded to know if the
+postman thought he was crazy. The postman, resolved not to miss the
+fun of the situation, was not going to let Pee-Wee take another bite;
+time was precious, and two more bites of the sort that Pee-Wee took
+might leave his hand free.
+
+"Take the letter," he said with an air of cold determination,
+"or I'll leave it at the house. Here, take it quick; I've no time to
+waste."
+
+"Do you want me to waste a banana," Pee-Wee yelled imploringly;
+"a scout is supposed--"
+
+"Here, take it", the postman said.
+
+There followed the most terrible moment in the life of Pee-Wee Harris,
+Scout. He knew that one more bite would be fatal, that the postman would
+not wait.  In two bites, or in three at most, he could finish the banana
+and his hand would be free.
+
+How could a postman, who brings joy to the lonely, words of love from
+far away, cheer to those who wait, comfort from across the seas, Boys'
+Life Magazine--how could such a being be so relentless and cruel? If that
+letter were left at the house, Pee-Wee would have to go to the house and
+get it, and there his mother was lying in ambush waiting to pounce upon
+him and make him mow the lawn, Why would not the postman wait for just
+two bites? Maybe he could do it in one, he had consumed a peach in one
+bite and a ham sandwich in four--his star record.
+
+He made a movement with his hand, and simultaneously the postman
+retreated a step or two toward the house. Pee-Wee tried releasing his
+hold upon the trunk with the other hand and almost lost his balance on
+the shaky limb.
+
+"Here," said the postman, unyielding, "chuck the banana and take the
+letter or you'll find it waiting for you in the front hall. It's an
+important letter, it feels as if it had a couple of cookies in it."
+The postman knew Pee-Wee. "Here you go," the torturer said grimly,
+"take it or not, suit yourself."
+
+"Can't you see both hands are busy?" the victim pled. "Two bites--a
+scout is supposed not to waste anything--he's supposed--he's supposed--wait
+a minute--he's supposed if he starts a thing to finish it--wait, I'm not
+going to take a bite, I'm only giving you an argument--can't you wait--"
+
+"Here you go, last chance, take it," the postman said, a faint smile
+hovering at the corner of his mouth, "one, two,"
+
+Out of Pee-Wee's wrath and anguish came an inspiration.
+
+"Stick the letter in the banana," he said, holding the banana down.
+
+"I don't know about that," the postman said, ruefully.
+
+"I know about it," Pee-Wee thundered down at him. "You said I had to
+take it or not; that letter belongs to me and you, have to deliver it.
+This banana, it's--it's the same as a mail box--you stick the letter in
+the banana. You think you're so smart, you thought you'd make me throw
+away the banana, naaah, didn't you? I wouldn't do that, not even
+for--for--secretary--for the postmaster--general, I wouldn't! A scout has
+resource."
+
+"All right, you win," said the postman, good humoredly, "only look
+out you don't fall; here you go, hold on tight."
+
+Clutching to the knotty projection of trunk, Pee-Wee reached the
+other hand as low as he could and the postman, smiling, stuck the
+corner of the coveted letter into the mealy substance of the banana.
+
+"You win," the postman repeated laughingly; "it shows what Scout
+Harris can do with food."
+
+"Food will win the war," Pee-Wee shouted. "You thought you could
+make me throwaway my banana but you couldn't. I knew a man that died
+from not eating a banana, I did."
+
+"Explain all that," the postman said.
+
+"He threw a banana away on his porch instead of eating it and later
+he stepped on it and slid down the steps and broke his leg and they took
+him to the hospital and compilations set in and he got pneumonia and
+died from not eating that banana. So there."
+
+"That's a very fine argument." the postman said as he went away.
+
+"I know better ones than that." Pee-Wee shouted after him.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II
+
+                        A TRAGIC PREDICAMENT
+
+So there he sat upon his precarious perch trying to reassume the
+posture which insured a good balance, clinging to the trunk with one
+hand and to the banana with the other.
+
+And now that the encounter which had almost resulted in a tragic
+sacrifice was over, and while our scout hero pauses triumphant, it
+may be fitting to apologize to the reader for introducing our hero
+in the act of eating.  But indeed it was a question of introducing
+him in the act of eating or of not introducing him at all.
+
+   For a story of Pee-Wee Harris is necessarily more or less a story
+of food. And this is a story abounding in cake and pie and waffles
+and crullers and cookies and hot frankfurters. There will be found
+in it also ice cream cones and jaw breakers and coconut bars and
+potatoes roasted on sticks. Heroes of stories may have starved on
+desert islands but there is to be none of that here.
+
+In this tale, if you follow the adventures of our scout hero
+(who now at last appears before you as a star), you shall find
+lemonade side by side with first aid, and all the characters shall
+receive their just desserts, some of them (not to mention any names)
+two helpings.
+
+So there he sat upon the branch, the mascot of the Raven Patrol,
+with an interior like the Mammoth Cave and a voice like the
+whisperings of the battle zone in France. Take a good look at him
+while he is quiet for ten seconds hand running. Everything about him
+is tremendous--except his size. He is built to withstand banter,
+ridicule and jollying; his sturdy nature is guaranteed proof against
+the battering assaults of unholy mirth from other scouts; his round
+face and curly hair are the delight of the girls of Bridgeboro; his
+loyalty is as the mighty rock of Gibraltar. A bully little scout he
+is--a sort of human Ford.
+
+The question of removing the letter from the banana and getting
+rid of the banana (in the proper way) now presented itself to him.
+He took a bite of the banana and the letter almost fell. He then
+tried releasing his hold upon the trunk but that would not do. He
+then extracted the letter with his teeth which effectually prevented
+him from eating the banana.
+
+What to do?
+
+Steadying himself with one hand (he could not let go the trunk
+for so much as a moment), he brought the banana to his lips, held
+it between his teeth and took the letter in his unoccupied hand. As
+he bit into the banana the part remaining trembled and hung as on a
+thread; another moment and it would drop. The predicament was tragic.
+Slowly, but surely and steadily, the remainder of the banana broke away
+and fell--into the hand that held the letter.
+
+Holding both letter and banana in the one perspiring palm, Pee-Wee
+devoured first the one and then the other. Both were delicious, the
+letter particularly. It had one advantage over the banana, for he
+could only devour the banana once, whereas he devoured the contents
+of the letter several times. He wished that bananas and doughnuts
+were like letters.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER III
+
+                           AN INVITATION
+
+The envelope was postmarked Everdoze which, with its one thousand two
+hundred and fifty--seven inhabitants, was the cosmopolitan center of
+Long Valley which ran ( if anything in that neighborhood could be said
+to run) from Baxter City down below the vicinity of the bridge on the
+highway. That is, Long Valley bordered the highway on its western side
+for a distance of about ten miles. The valley was, roughly speaking,
+a couple of miles wide, very deep in places, and thickly wooded. It
+was altogether a very sequestered and romantic region. Through it,
+paralleling the highway, was a road, consisting mostly of two wagon
+ruts with a strip of grass and weeds between them. To traverse Long
+Valley one turned into this road where it left the highway at Baxters,
+and in the course of time the wayfarer would emerge out of this dim
+tract into the light of day where the unfrequented road came into the
+highway again below the bridge.
+
+About midway of this lonely road was Everdoze, and in a pleasant
+old-fashioned white house in Everdoze lived Ebenezer Quig who once
+upon a time had married Pee-Wee's Aunt Jamsiah. Pee-Wee remembered his
+Aunt Jamsiah when she had come to make a visit in Bridgeboro and,
+though he had never seen her since, he had always borne her tenderly
+in mind because as a little (a very little) boy her name had always
+reminded him of jam. The letter, as has been said, bore the postmark
+of Everdoze and had been stamped by the very hand of Simeon Drowser,
+the local postmaster.
+
+This is what the letter said:
+
+          DEAR WALTER:
+
+          Your uncle has been pestering me to write to you
+          but Pepsy has been using the pen for her school
+          exercise and I couldn't get hold of it till today
+          when she went away with Wiggle, perch fishing.
+          Licorice Stick says they're running in the brook
+          most wonderful but you can't believe half what he
+          says. Seems as if the perch know when school closes,
+          least ways that's what your uncle says.
+
+Pee-Wee reread these enchanting words. Pepsy! Wiggle! Perch fishing!
+Licorice Stick! And school closing! And perch that knew about it. That
+was the sort of perch for Pee-Wee. He read on:
+
+          I told your uncle I reckoned you wouldn't care to
+          come here being you live in such a lively place but he
+          said this summer you would like to come for there will
+          be plenty for you to do because there is going to be a
+          spelling match in the town hall and an Uncle Tom's
+          Cabin show in August.
+
+          You can have plenty of milk and fresh eggs and Miss
+          Arabella Bellison who has the school is staying this
+          summer and she will let you in the schoolhouse where
+          there is a library of more than forty books but some of
+          the pages are gone Pepsy says.
+
+          She says to tell you she will show you where she cut
+          her initials but I tell her not to put such ideas in
+          your head and she knows how to climb in even if the door
+          is locked, such goings on as she and Wiggle have, they
+          will be the death of me.
+
+          Well, Walter, you will be welcome if you can come
+          and spend the summer with us. I suppose you're a great
+          big boy by now; your mother was always tall for her age.
+          There are boys here who would like to be scout boys and
+          your uncle says you can teach them. We will do all we can
+          so that you have a pleasant summer if you come and tell
+          your mother we will be real glad to see you and will take
+          good care of you.
+
+          I can't write more now because I am putting up
+          preserves, one hundred jars already. The apples will be
+          rotting on the trees, it's a shame. You will think we are
+          very old-fashioned, I'm afraid.
+
+Pee-Wee paused and smacked his lips and nearly fell backward off the
+limb. One hundred jars of preserves and more coming, Apples rotting on
+the trees! All that remained to complete his happiness was a bush laden
+with ice cream cones growing wild. He read the concluding sentences:
+
+          Your uncle would be glad to go and bring you in the
+          buckboard but it would take very long and he is busy
+          haying so if you don't mind the bad road it would be
+          better for your father to send you in the automobile. Be
+          sure to turn off the highway to the right just above
+          Baxters. The road goes through the woods.
+
+                                               Your loving
+
+                                               AUNT JAMSIAH.
+
+Steadying himself with one hand, Pee-Wee took the letter between
+his teeth as if he were about to eat it. Then he cautiously let himself
+down so that he hung by his knees, then clutched the limb with his
+hands, hung for a moment with his legs dangling, and let go. In one
+sense he was upon earth but in another sense he was walking on air. ...
+
+
+                            CHAPTER IV
+
+                        HE GOES TO CONQUER
+
+Thus it befell that on the second day after the receipt of this
+letter Pee-Wee Harris was sitting beside Charlie, the chauffeur, in
+the fine sedan car belonging to Doctor Harris, advancing against poor,
+helpless Everdoze.
+
+He traveled in all the martial splendor of his full scout regalia,
+his duffel bag stuffed to capacity with his aluminum cooking set and
+two extra scout suits. His diminutive but compact and sturdy little
+form was decorated with his scout jackknife hanging from his belt, his
+compass dangling from his neck, and his belt ax dragging down his belt
+in back.
+
+A suggestive little dash of the culinary phase of scouting was to
+be seen in a small saucepan stuck in his belt like a deadly dagger. Thus
+if danger came he might confront his enemy with a sample of scout
+cookery and kill him on the spot.
+
+His sleeves were bedecked with merit badges; from the end of his
+scout staff waved the flaunting emblem of the Raven Patrol; his
+stalking camera was swung over his shoulder like a knapsack; his
+nickel-plated scout whistle jangled against the saucepan and in his
+trousers pockets were a magnifying glass, three jaw breakers, a
+chocolate bar, a few inches of electric wiring, and a rubber balloon
+in a state of collapse.
+
+The highway from Bridgeboro was a broad, smooth road, a
+temptation and a delight to speeders, where motorcycle cops lurked
+in the bushes hardly waiting for cars with New York licenses.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when they reached Baxter City and
+here they turned into such a road as Charlie vowed he had never seen
+before.
+
+Scarcely had they gone a mile over rocks and ruts when the dim
+woods closed in on either side, imparting a strange coolness. It was
+almost like going through a leafy tunnel projecting branches brushed
+the top of the car and mischievously grazed and tickled their faces.
+The voices of the birds, clear in the stillness, seemed to complain
+at this intrusion into their domain.
+
+"I'd like to know how I'm going to get back through this jungle
+after dark," Charlie said. "I wonder what anybody wanted to start a
+village down here for?"
+
+"Maybe--maybe they did it kind of absentmindedly," Pee-Wee said.
+"I never started a village so I don't know."
+
+"Well, you'll startle one anyway," Charlie said.
+
+"I guess the village isn't much bigger than you are."
+
+The road took them southward through the valley. They were not far
+west of the highway but the low country and the thick woods obscured
+it from view. They could hear the tooting of auto horns over that way
+and sometimes human voices sounding strange across the intervening
+solitude.
+
+"I don't see why they didn't set the village down over at the
+highway; it's not more than a mile or so," Charlie said. "Maybe they
+were afraid the autos would run over it; safety first, hey? Nobody'll
+run over it here, that's one sure thing."
+
+Pee-Wee took the last bite of a hot frankfurter he had bought at a
+roadside shack on the highway and was now more free to talk.
+
+"Listen," he said, "what's that?"
+
+It was a distant rattling sound which began suddenly and ended
+suddenly. They both listened.
+
+"There must be a bridge up there along the highway," Charlie said,
+"that's the sound of cars going over it. Loose planking, hey?"
+
+Pee-Wee listened to the rattling of the loose planks as another
+car sped over the unseen structure, little dreaming of the part that
+bridge was destined to play in his young life. The commonplace noise
+of the neglected flooring seemed emphasized by the quiet of the
+woodland. That reminder of human traffic, so near and yet so far and
+out of tune with all the gentler sounds of the valley, presented a
+strange contrast and jarred even Pee-Wee's stout nerves.
+
+"There goes another," Charlie said; "we must be nearer to the
+highway than I thought."
+
+They had, indeed, inscribed a kind of loop and having passed its
+farthest point from the main road were traveling toward it again and
+would have emerged upon it just beyond the bridge but for the wood
+embowered and sequestered village which was their destination. The
+first sign of this village was a cow standing in the middle of the
+grass-grown road as if to challenge their approach. Perhaps she was
+stationed there as a sort of traffic cop.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER V
+
+                            ENTER PEPSY
+
+It will be seen by a glance at the accompanying sketch that the village
+of Everdoze was about opposite the bridge on the highway. From this main
+road the village could be reached by a trail through the woods. On
+hearing of this, Charlie expressed regret that he had not allowed his
+passenger to make the final stage of the journey on foot.
+
+"Well, I never in all my life !" said Aunt Jamsiah as Pee-Wee stepped
+out of the car. "In goodness' name, where's the rest of you? I thought
+you were a great, tall, strapping boy. I hope your appetite's bigger
+than your body. And what on earth is that saucepan for? Are you going
+to cook us all alive? Did you ever see such a thing?" she added,
+speaking to Uncle Ebenezer who had stepped forward to welcome his nephew.
+
+"He's all decked out like a carnival! He's just too killing!" She
+then proceeded to embrace him while his martial paraphernalia clanked
+and rattled.
+
+"We won't need any more brass band," said a young girl in a gingham
+apron and with brick red hair in long tightly woven braids, who stood
+close by; "he's a melodeon. I don't see what they sent such a big car
+for with such a little boy. 'Taint no fit, it ain't."
+
+Pee-Wee gave this girl a withering look which she boldly returned,
+continuing to stare at him. Her face was covered with freckles and she
+was so unqualifiedly plain and homely in face and attire that she might
+be said to have been attractive on the ground of novelty.
+
+"Pepsy," said Mrs. Quig, addressing her, "you shake hands with
+Walter and tell him you and he are going to be good friends. You
+come right here and do as I say now and no more of those looks."
+
+"I ain't going to kiss him," the girl said by way of compromising.
+
+"You give him a welcome just like Wiggle is doing," said Aunt
+Jamsiah, "and be ashamed that you have to learn your manners from
+such as he. You do as I say now."
+
+"You're welcome--and I can beat you running," the girl said.
+
+"Girls are afraid of snakes," Pee-Wee retorted.
+
+Meanwhile the individual who had been cited as a model of social
+correctness by Aunt Jamsiah stood upon the doorstep looking eagerly
+up into Pee-Wee's face and wagging his tail with vigorous and
+lightning rapidity. Wiggle's tail was easily the fastest thing in
+Everdoze. His head vibrated in unison with it and his look of
+intentness carried with it all sorts of friendly expectations. He
+fairly shook with excitement and cordiality. He followed the sedan
+car a few yards upon its homeward journey and then, by a sudden
+impulse, deserted it and returned to a position directly in front of
+Pee-Wee with wagging tail and questioning gaze. He seemed to say,
+"I'm ready for anything, the sky is the limit."
+
+"You haven't had a bite to eat since breakfast and you're starving.
+I can tell it," said Aunt Jamsiah. "You come right in the kitchen."
+
+"I had a lot of frankfurters and things at the places along the
+highway," Pee-Wee said. "I had waffles at one place. I bet they make
+a lot of money along that road selling things. There are shacks all
+the way. All the autoists stop and buy things to eat. You can get
+tires and everything."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to eat tires," said Pepsy.
+
+"You think you're smart, don't you?" Pee-Wee said.
+
+"What are your soldier clothes for?" the girl wanted to know.
+
+"They're not soldier clothes," Pee-Wee said;
+
+"I'm a scout."
+
+"I bet you don't know as much as Miss Bellson does."
+
+"I bet I don't either," Pee-Wee said, "so I win."
+
+"She's the school teacher here and she knows everything."
+
+"Did she know I was coming?"
+
+"No she didn't and--"
+
+"Then she doesn't know everything," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Smarty, smarty!" the girl retorted, "I came out of an orphan home
+and that's more than you can say.".
+
+"You only get one helping of dessert there," said Pee-Wee. "I'd
+rather be a scout than an orphan. I know a feller who was an orphan
+and he was sorry for it afterwards."
+
+"Are you going to stay all summer?"
+
+"Till school opens," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Do you want me to show you where there's a woodchuck hole?"
+
+At this point Pee-Wee was summoned again to the kitchen where he
+ate a sumptuous repast, after which Pepsy and Wiggle took him about
+and showed him the farm.
+
+Pee-Wee and Pepsy fenced a good deal but seemed to progress in this
+cautious and defensive way toward a friendly understanding. As for
+Wiggle, he danced about, following elusive scents that led nowhere,
+carried off and back again by quick impulse, till at last the three
+ended their tour of inspection at a little summer house which had been
+built over a spring by the roadside.
+
+Here they drank of the bubbling, crystal water. Wiggle doing this
+as everything else, with erratic impulse, drinking a dozen times and
+not much at any time.
+
+The dying sunlight painted the slopes of the valley with crimson
+tints and the countryside was very still. Through the woods to the
+west could be heard occasionally the discordant noise from the loose
+flooring of the bridge on the highway as an auto sped over it. In the
+quiet evening the sound, with its sudden start, its rattling clamor and
+its quick cessation, made a jarring note in all the surrounding
+peacefulness.
+
+"That's what wakes me up in the morning, the mail wagon going
+over," Pepsy said; "I know it's time to get up then. Those planks can
+talk, they say the same thing every day."
+
+                        You have to go back,
+                        You have to go back,
+                        You have to go back.
+
+You listen to-morrow morning."
+
+"They could never wake me up," Pee-Wee said, which was probably
+true. "What do you mean about their saying you have to go back?"
+
+"When Aunt Jamsiah took me, I was a probator. Do you know what
+that means?"
+
+"It's what they do with people's wills," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"It means if I don't behave I have to go back to the orphan home,"
+the girl said. "And every day I was afraid I'd have to go back--for a
+long, long time, I was. And when I was lying in bed mornings I'd hear
+the planks saying that--
+
+                        You have to go back,
+                        You have to go back.
+
+just like that, and I'd get good and scared."
+
+"You won't have to go back," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"You leave it to me, I'll fix it. Those planks--I've known lots of
+planks--and they can't tell the truth. Don't you care. I wouldn't believe
+what an old plank said. Trees are all right, but planks--"
+
+"I don't notice it so much now," Pepsy said; "that was a year ago
+and Aunt Jamsiah says I'm all right and mind good except I'm a tomboy.
+That ain't so bad, is it? Being a tomboy? A girl and me tried to set
+the orphan home on fire because they licked us, but I'm good here. But
+I wish they'd put a new floor on that bridge. Anyway, Aunt Jamsiah says
+I'm good now."
+
+Pee-Wee was about to speak, but noticing that the girl's eyes were
+fixed upon a crimson patch on the hillside where the sun was going down,
+and seeing that her eyes sparkled strangely (for indeed they were not
+pretty eyes) he said nothing, like the bully little scout that he was.
+
+"Anyway, one thing, I wouldn't let an old bridge get my goat, I
+wouldn't," he said finally, "and besides, you said you would show me
+a woodchuck hole."
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VI
+
+                       THE WAY OF THE SCOUT
+
+Pepsy's right name was Penelope Pepperall and Aunt Jamsiah had
+taken her out of the County Home after the fire episode, by way of
+saving her from the worse influence of a reformatory. She and Uncle
+Ebenezer had agreed to be responsible for the girl, and Pepsy had
+spent a year of joyous freedom at the farm marred only by the threat
+hanging over her that she would be restored to the authorities upon
+the least suspicion of misconduct.
+
+She had done her work faithfully and become a help and a comfort
+to her benefactors. She had a snappy temper and a sharp tongue and was,
+indeed, something of a tomboy. But Aunt Jamsiah, though often annoyed
+and sometimes chagrined, took a charitable view of these shortcomings
+and her generous heart was not likely to confound them with genuine
+misdoing.
+
+So the stern condition of Pepsy's freedom had become something of
+a dead letter, except in her own fearful fancy, and particularly when
+that discordant voice of the bridge spoke ominously of her peril.
+
+Pepsy had been trusted and had proven worthy of the trust. She had
+never known any mother or father, nor any home save the institution
+from which Aunt Jamsiah had rescued her, and she had grown to love her
+kindly guardians and the old farm where she had much work but also much
+freedom. "Chores will keep her out of mischief," Aunt Jamsiah had said.
+
+Wiggle's ancestry and social standing were quite as much a mystery
+as Pepsy's; he was not an aristocrat, that is certain, and having no
+particular chores to do was free to devote his undivided time to
+mischief; he concentrated on it, as the saying is, and thereby
+accomplished wonders. He was Pepsy's steady comrade and the partner
+of all her adventurous escapades.
+
+Pepsy was not romantic and imaginative, her freckled face and tightly
+braided red hair and thin legs with wrinkled cotton stockings, protested
+against that. She had a simple mind with a touch of superstition. It was
+a kind of morbid dread of the institution she had left which had conjured
+that ramshackle old bridge up on the highway into an ominous voice of
+warning, She hated the bridge and dreaded it as a thing haunted.
+
+Pee-Wee soon became close friends with these two, and from a rather
+cautious and defensive beginning Pepsy soon fell victim to the spell of
+the little scout, as indeed everyone else did. Pepsy did not surrender
+without a struggle. She showed Pee-Wee the woodchuck hole and Pee-Wee,
+after a minute's skillful search, showed her the other hole, or back
+entrance, under a stone wall.
+
+"There are always two," he told her, "and one of them is usually
+under a stone wall. They're smart, woodchucks are."
+
+"Are they as smart as you?" she wanted to know.
+
+"Smarter," Pee-Wee admitted, generously; "they're smarter than
+skunks and even skunks are smarter than I am."
+
+"I like you better than skunks," she said. Wiggle seemed to be of
+the same opinion. "I like all the scouts on account of you," she said.
+
+No one could be long in Pee-Wee's company without hearing about
+the scouts; he was a walking (or rather a running and jumping)
+advertisement of the organization. He told Pepsy about tracking
+and stalking and signaling and the miracles of cookery which his
+friend Roy Blakeley had performed.
+
+"Can he cook better than you?" Pepsy wanted to know, a bit dubiously.
+
+"Yes, but I can eat more than he can," Pee-Wee said. And that seemed
+to relieve her.
+
+"I can make a locust come to me," he added, and suiting the action
+to the word he emitted a buzzing sound which brought a poor deluded
+locust to his very hand. At such wonder-working she could only gape
+and stare. Wiggle appeared to claim the locust as a souvenir of the
+scout's magic.
+
+"You let it go, Wiggle," Pee-Wee said. "If you want to be a scout
+you can't kill anything that doesn't do any harm. But you can kill
+snakes and mosquitoes if you want to." Evidently it was the dream of
+Wiggle's life to be a scout for he released the locust to Pee-Wee,
+wagging his tail frantically.
+
+"You have to be loyal, too," the young propagandist said; "that's
+a rule. You have to be helpful and think up ways to help people. No
+matter what happens you have to be loyal."
+
+"Do you have to be loyal to orphan homes?" Pepsy wanted to know.
+"If they lick you do you have to be loyal to them?"
+
+Here was a poser for the scout. But being small Pee-Wee was able
+to wriggle out of almost anything. "You have to be loyal where
+loyalty is due," he said. "That's what the rule says; it's Rule Two.
+But, anyway, there's another rule and that's Rule Seven and it says
+you have to be kind. You can't be kind licking people, that's one sure
+thing. So it's a technicality that you don't have to be loyal to an
+orphan home. You can ask any lawyer because that's what you call logic."
+
+"Deadwood Gamely's father is a lawyer," Pepsy said, "and I hate
+Deadwood Gamely and I wouldn't go to his house to ask his father.
+He's a smarty and I hit him with a tomato. Have I got a right to
+do that--if he's a smarty?"
+
+Here was another legal technicality, but Pee-Wee was equal to the
+occasion. "A--a scout has to be a--he has to have a good aim," he said.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VII
+
+                            A BIG IDEA
+
+They had been driving the cows home during this learned
+exposition on scouting. Two things were now perfectly clear
+to Pepsy's simple mind. One, that she would be loyal at any
+cost, loyal to her new friend, and through him to all the
+scouts. She knew them only through him. They were a race of
+wonder-workers away off in the surging metropolis of Bridgeboro.
+She could not aspire to be one of them, but she could be loyal,
+she could "stick up" for them.
+
+The other matter which was now settled, once and for all, was that
+it was all right to throw a tomato at a person you hated provided only
+that you hit the mark. Aunt Jamsiah had been all wrong in her anger at
+that exploit which had stirred the village. For to throw a tomato at
+the son of Lawyer Gamely was aiming very high.
+
+The son of Lawyer Gamely had a Ford and worked in the bank at
+Baxter City and was a mighty sport who wore white collars and red
+ties and said that "Everdoze was asleep and didn't have brains
+enough to lie down," and all such stuff.
+
+Pee-Wee let down the bars while the patient cows waited, and Scout
+Wiggle (knowing that a scout should be helpful) gave the last cow a
+snip on the leg to help her along.
+
+Here, at these rustic bars, ended Pepsy's chores for the day and in
+the delightful interval before supper she and Pee-Wee lolled in the well
+house by the roadside. Wiggle, with characteristic indecision, chased
+the cows a few yards, returned to his companions, darted off to chase
+the cows again, deserted that pastime with erratic suddenness, and
+returned again wagging his tail and looking up intently as if to ask,
+"What next?" Then he lay down panting. Mr. Ellsworth, Pee-Wee's
+scoutmaster, would have said that Wiggle lacked method. ...
+
+"If I had a lot of money," Pepsy said, "you could teach me all
+the things that scouts know and I'd pay you ever so much. Once I
+had forty cents but I spent it at the Mammoth Carnival. I paid ten
+cents to throw six balls so I could get a funny doll and I never hit
+the doll and when I only had ten cents left I made believe the doll
+was Deadwood Gamely and I hated and hated with all my might while I
+threw the ball the last six times but I couldn't hit the doll."
+
+"You can't aim so good when you're mad," Pee-Wee said, "so if you
+want to hit somebody with a tomato or an egg or anything like that you
+just have kind thoughts about the person that you're aiming at, only
+you're not supposed to throw tomatoes and eggs and things because you
+can have more fun eating them. I wouldn't waste a tomato on that
+feller because anyway you've got your tongue."
+
+"You can't sass him," said Pepsy, "because he uses big words and
+he's such a smarty and he makes you feel silly and then you begin to
+cry and get mad. When he says I'm an orphan and things--and things--Wiggle
+hates him, too, don't you, Wiggle?" The girl was almost crying then and
+Pee-Wee comforted her.
+
+"Do you think I don't know any long words?" he said. "I know some
+of the longest words that were ever invented and--and--even I can make
+special ones myself. Once I--don't you cry--once I was kept in school
+and Julia Carson was kept in too, because she wriggled in her seat--you
+know how girls do. I had to choose a word and write it a hundred times
+and I didn't want to get through too soon, because I wanted to get out
+the same time she did. So I chose the word incomprehensibility, and I--"
+
+"Is that girl pretty?" Pepsy wanted to know.
+
+"She's got a wart on her finger. It's the best one I ever saw,"
+Pee-Wee said. "She's afraid to get in a boat, that girl is."
+
+"I hate her," Pepsy said.
+
+"What for?" Pee-Wee inquired. "Because she has a wart? Don't you
+know it's good luck to have warts?"
+
+"Because--because she was bad and had to stay after school," Pepsy
+said.
+
+"That shows how much you know about logic," Pee-Wee said, "because
+I had to stay too and I was worse than she was. So there."
+
+"I wouldn't be afraid to get in a boat," Pepsy said proudly.
+
+"I never said she was like you," Pee-Wee declared. "She's not a
+tomboy."
+
+Pepsy seemed comforted.
+
+"You leave that feller to me," Pee-Wee said. "I can handle Roy
+Blakeley and all his patrol and they're a lot of jolliers--they think
+they're so smart."
+
+"I like you better than all of them," Pepsy said. "Sometimes I'm
+kept after school too, you can ask Miss Bellison."
+
+"One thing sure, I like you well enough to be partners with you,"
+Pee-Wee said. "Do you want me to tell you something? I thought of a way
+to make a lot of money, and if I do I'm going to buy three new tents
+for our troop. Do you want to go partners with me? We'll say the tents
+are from both of us and we'll have a lot of fun."
+
+"I had a dollar once and I sent it to the heathens," Pepsy said,
+"and I'd rather help you than the heathens, because I like you better."
+
+"Heathens are all right," Pee-Wee said, "and I'm not saying anything
+against heathens, especially wild ones, but we're just as wild. You
+ought to go to Temple Camp and see how wild we are."
+
+He did not look very wild as he sat upon the narrow seat with his
+knees drawn up and his scout hat on the back of his head showing his
+curly hair.
+
+The girl gazed at his natty khaki attire, the row of merit badges
+on his sleeve, the trophies of his heroic triumphs. She was not the
+first to feel the lure of a uniform. But it was the first uniform she
+had ever seen at close range, for in the wartime she had been in that
+frowning brick structure which still haunted her.
+
+"I'll help you because you can do everything and you know a lot,"
+she said.
+
+In the fullness of her generosity and loyalty to Pee-Wee's prowess
+she never reminded him or even thought of the things she could do
+which he could not. She would not do her little optional chore of
+milking a cow for fear he might perceive her superiority in this
+little item of proficiency. Poor girl, she was a better scout than she
+knew.
+
+"If you think it up I'll do all the work, and then we'll be even,"
+she said.
+
+So Pee-Wee told her of the colossal scheme which his lively
+imagination had conceived.
+
+"It all started with a hot frankfurter," he said. "If I hadn't
+bought a hot frankfurter I wouldn't have thought of it. So that
+shows you how important a frankfurter is--kind of. Maybe a person
+might get to be a millionaire just starting with a frankfurter,
+you never can tell. ..."
+
+
+                           CHAPTER VIII
+
+                           MAKING PLANS
+
+"I bought that frankfurter at a shack up on the highway and while I
+was eating it I just happened to think that as long as there's lots of
+fruit and things here and as long as you know how to make fudge, we'd
+start a shack right here in this well house and sell lemonade and fruit
+and fudge and cookies and things, and if we make lots of money I'd go
+up to Baxter City and buy some auto accessories like spark plugs and
+tire tape and things and we'd sell those, too. We'd put signs on the
+trees along the road telling people to stop here and I know how to
+make up signs so as to get people good and hungry. You have them say
+that things are hot in the pan and you have to have drinks with names
+like arctic and all like that. I know how to make them hungry and
+thirsty and I've got a balloon that I can blow up--see? And we'd print
+something on it and tie it to Wiggle's tail and make him walk up and
+down the road. What do you say? Isn't it a peachy scheme? Will you
+help me?"
+
+No dream of Pee-Wee's could be impossible of fulfillment. With him,
+to try was to succeed, according to Pepsy's simple and unbounded faith.
+The plan must be all right, and wondrous in its possibilities. It was
+all inspiration--born of a frankfurter. It was not for poor Pepsy to
+take issue with this master mind.
+
+Yet she did venture to say, "Not very many autos come down here,
+only a few that go through to Berryville. Licorice Stick--"
+
+"That's a dandy name," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"He goes by a dozen times a day, but he hasn't got any money, and
+Mr. Flint goes by but he's a miser and Doctor Killem goes by in his
+buggy and he says people eat too much--"
+
+"He's crazy!" Pee-Wee shouted.
+
+"And that's everybody that goes by except a few when they have the
+town fair in Berryville."
+
+For a moment Pee-Wee paused, balked but not beaten. "There's going
+to be an Uncle Tom's Cabin show in Berryville," he said, "and the town
+fair, that's two things. Let's start in and maybe later there'll be
+some summer boarders in Berryville. We'll have waffles--I can make
+those. And we'll have lemonade and fruit and all kinds of things and
+when you're doing your chores I'll tend counter. We'll make a lot of
+money, you see if we don't."
+
+In her generous confidence, Pepsy was quite carried away by
+Pee-Wee's enthusiasm. She knew (who better than she?) that strangers
+never came along that lonely by-road. But she believed that somehow
+they would come when the scout waved his magic wand.
+
+"And I'll make cookies," she said, "and all the things to eat and
+you can print the signs--"
+
+"And shout to the people going by," Pee-Wee concluded
+enthusiastically. "You have to yell ALL HOT! THEY'RE ALL HOT! Just
+like that."
+
+Few could resist this, Pepsy least of all. "Let's go and ask Aunt
+Jamsiah about it right now," she said.
+
+"Let me do it, I know how to handle her," said Pee-Wee.
+
+And Pepsy deferred to the master mind, as usual.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER IX
+
+                       IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
+
+Permission to use the well house once secured, preparations for
+the vast enterprise progressed rapidly. The very next day, while
+Pepsy was at her chores, Pee-Wee built a counter in the shack and
+sitting at this he printed signs to be displayed along the woody
+approaches to this mouth-watering dispensary.
+
+Neither the gloomy predictions of his uncle nor the laughing
+skepticism of his aunt dimmed his enterprising ardor. The signs
+which he printed with his uncle's crate stencil, procured from
+the barn, bespoke the variety of tempting offerings which existed
+so far only in his fertile mind.
+
+He was somewhat handicapped in the preparation of these signs
+by the largeness of the perforated letters of the stencil and the
+limited size of the cards. He had preferred cards to paper because
+they would not blow and tear and Aunt Jamsiah had given him a pile
+of these, uniform in size, on one side of which had been printed
+election notices of the previous year. It was impossible,
+therefore, for Pee-Wee to include all of each tempting announcement
+on one card, so he used two cards for each reminder to the public.
+Thus on one card he printed FRANKFURTERS and on its mate intended
+for posting just below, the palate-tickling conclusion, SIZZLING HOT.
+
+                           FRANKFURTERS
+                           SIZZLING HOT -->
+
+This is how the sign would appear upon some fence or tree. It
+would be a knockout blow to any hungry wayfarer.
+
+Another two--card sign, intended for warmer weather, read:
+
+                             ICE CREAM
+                       <-- COLD AND COOLING
+
+Other signs originating in Pee-Wee's fertile mind and covering
+the range of food and drink and auto accessories were these:
+
+                           PEANUT TAFFY
+                        SWEET AND DELICIOUS -->
+
+                          OUR TIRE TAPE
+                      <-- STICKS LIKE GLUE
+
+                             NON SKID
+                              CHAINS -->
+
+                              FRESH
+                          <-- BANANAS
+
+                              DRINK
+                           SWEET CIDER -->
+
+                              MAGIC
+                       <-- CARBON REMOVER
+
+There were many others, enough to decorate the road for miles in
+both directions. If Pepsy as chef could live up to Pee-Wee's promises
+the neighborhood would soon become famous. That was her one forlorn
+hope, that the fame of their offerings would get abroad and lure the
+traffic from its wonted path. But Pee-Wee's enthusiasm and energy
+carried all before them like a storming column and she was soon as
+hopeful and confident as he.
+
+When her chores were finished that afternoon she hurried to their
+refreshment parlor, where Pee-Wee sat behind the new counter like a
+stern schoolmaster, cards strewn about him, his round face black with
+stencil ink, still turning out advertising bait for the public.
+
+"I don't care what they say," she panted; "we're going to make a
+lot of money and buy the tents. I tripped on the third step in the
+house just now and that means surely we'll have good luck and I can
+help just as much as if I was a really truly scout, can't I? Aunt
+Jamsiah says if I make a lot of doughnuts you'll just eat them all
+and there won't be any to sell. We mustn't eat the things ourselves,
+must we?"
+
+"That shows how much she knows," Pee-Wee said; "we might have to
+do that to make the people hungry. If they see me eating a doughnut
+and looking very happy, won't that make them want to buy some? We
+have upkeep expenses, don't we?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm sorry I didn't tell her that," Pepsy said, "but I
+never thought of it. You always think of things. I'm going to wash
+the ink off your face, so hold still."
+
+She dipped her gingham apron under the trapdoor in the flooring
+where the clear, cool water was, and taking his chin in her coarse
+little freckly hands, washed the face of her hero and partner. And
+meanwhile Wiggle tugged on her apron as if he thought she were
+inflicting some injury upon the boy.
+
+So blinded was Pee-Wee by this vigorous bath and so preoccupied
+the others that for the moment none of them noticed the young fellow
+of about twenty who, with hat tilted rakishly on the side of his head
+and cigarette drooping from the corner of his mouth, stood in the
+road watching them.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER X
+
+                  DEADWOOD GAMELY TALKS BUSINESS
+
+Deadwood Gamely was the village sport and enjoyed a certain prestige
+because his father was a lawyer. He was also somewhat of an object of
+awe because he went to Baxter City every day, and worked in the bank
+there.
+
+His ramshackle Ford roadster was considered an evidence of the
+terribly reckless extravagance of his habits, but it was really
+nothing more than a sort of pocketbook, since all his money went
+into it, and a very shabby one at that. He had a cheap wit and
+swaggeringly condescending air which he practiced on the simple
+inhabitants of Everdoze, and in his banter he was not always kind.
+Yet notwithstanding that he was tawdry both in dress and speech the
+villagers did not venture much into the conversational arena with
+him because they knew that they were not his equals in banter and
+retort.
+
+"Hello, little orphan Annie," he said. "Bungel was telling me the
+wagon is coming for you pretty soon. Over the hill to the poorhouse.
+Ever hear that song? What's that you've got there, a soldier? Watcher
+doing with him? Lucky kid, I'd like to be a soldier."
+
+"What were you, a slacker?" Pee-Wee shouted.
+
+This was not the kind of retort that Deadwood Gamely was accustomed
+to hearing and he gave a quick look at the small stranger in khaki who
+sat behind the counter like a judge on the bench staring straight at him.
+
+"Don't get him riled," Pepsy whispered. "He likes to get me riled
+so's just to make me feel silly; it's--it's Deadwood Gamely. He's always
+togged out swell like that," she added fearfully.
+
+"The only thing that's swell about him is his head," said Pee-Wee in
+his loudest voice. "Don't you be scared of him, I'm here."
+
+"What's that?" said the young man in a tone intended to be darkly
+menacing.
+
+"You'd better put your hat on the top of your head or it'll blow
+off," said Pee-Wee. "I said that I'm here. Let's hear you deny it. If
+I was a crow I might be afraid of you."
+
+Slightly taken aback by his ready retorts, the young man could only
+say, "If you were a crow, hey?" He stepped a little closer to the
+counter but the ominous advance did not alarm Pee-Wee in the least. He
+sat behind his card-strewn counter holding the stencil brush like a sort
+of weapon ready to besmear that face of sneering assurance if its owner
+ventured too near.
+
+"So I'm a scarecrow, eh?" Mr. Gamely said with a side glance at
+Pepsy. He was not going to have her witness his discomfiture at the
+hands of this glib little stranger. Moreover, a slur at his personal
+splendor was a very grave matter and not to be overlooked.
+
+"I don't like fresh kids," said Mr. Deadwood Gamely, advancing with
+an air of veiled menace.
+
+"Sometimes they get so fresh they have to be salted a little. Don't
+you think you'd better take that back?"
+
+Pepsy waited, fearful, breathless.
+
+"Sure I will," said Pee-Wee; "the next scarecrow I meet I'll
+apologize to him."
+
+Deadwood Gamely paused. His usual procedure in an affair of this
+kind would have been to advance quickly, ruffle his victim's hair in
+a goading kind of swaggerish good humor and send him sprawling. He
+would not really have hurt a youngster like Pee-Wee but he would have
+made him look and feel ridiculous.
+
+But a glance at Pee-Wee's gummy stencil brush reminded Mr. Gamely
+that discretion was the better part of valor. A dexterous dab or two
+of that would have put an end to all his glory. Pee-Wee left no doubt
+about this.
+
+"This summer-house is on private land," he said, "and I'm the boss
+of it. If you try to get fresh with me I'll paint you blacker--blacker
+than a--than a tomato could--I will. You come ten steps nearer, I dare
+you to."
+
+Gamely paused irresolute, at which Pepsy, under protection of her
+partner's terrible threat, set up a provoking laugh. Wiggle,
+appearing to sense the situation, began to bark up-roariously. There
+was nothing for the baffled village sport to do but retreat as
+gracefully as he could.
+
+"Can't you take a joke?" he said weakly. "Do you think I'd hurt you?"
+
+"I know you wouldn't," said Pee-Wee; "you wouldn't get the chance.
+You think you're smart, don't you, talking about the wagon coming to
+get her and getting her all scared."
+
+Deadwood Gamely broke into a very excessive but false laugh. "No
+harm intended," he said, vaulting on to the fence and sitting
+discreetly at that distance. "What's all this going on here? Going to
+have a circus or play store or something?"
+
+Pee-Wee was always magnanimous in victory. Abiding enmity was a
+thing he knew not. So now he laid down his stencil brush (within easy
+reach) and said, "We're going to start a refreshment shack and sell
+fruit and lemonade and waffles and things and maybe auto accessories
+and souvenirs."
+
+Pepsy seemed a bit uncomfortable as Pee-Wee said this, perhaps just
+a trifle ashamed. She was afraid that this clever, sophisticated young
+fellow would ridicule their enterprise, as indeed there was good reason
+to do. Yet she felt ashamed, too, of her momentary faithlessness to
+Pee-Wee.
+
+"Maybe some people will pass here when they have the carnival at
+Berryville," she said, half apologetically.
+
+To her surprise Deadwood Gamely, instead of emitting an uproarious,
+mocking laugh, appeared to be thinking.
+
+"Bully for you," he finally said, looking all about as if to size up
+the surroundings. "Right on the job, hey? I'd like to buy some stock in
+that enterprise. Whose idea is it? Yours, kiddo?"
+
+"We're going to make money enough to buy three tents for the scout
+troop I belong to," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Visiting here, hey?"
+
+"I live in Bridgeboro, New Jersey; I'm here for the summer."
+
+Deadwood Gamely sat on the fence still looking, about him and
+whistling. Then, instead of bursting forth in derisive merriment as
+Pepsy dreaded he would do, he made an astonishing remark.
+
+"I tell you what I'll do," he said. "You kids take care of the
+place and furnish the fruit and stuff and I'll put up the coin for
+all the stuff you have to buy--chewing gum, and accessories, and
+souvenirs and junk that has to be got in the city, and we'll share
+even. I'll put up the capital and be a silent partner. How does that
+strike you? You two will be the active partners. We'll make the thing
+go big. I mean what I say."
+
+"What's a silent partner?" Pee-Wee demanded.
+
+"Oh, that's just the fellow that puts up the money and keeps in the
+background sort of, and nobody knows he's interested."
+
+"I'd rather be a noisy partner," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"I wouldn't be silent for anybody, I wouldn't." Deadwood Gamely
+paused a moment, smiling.
+
+"No, but you could keep a secret, couldn't you?" he asked.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XI
+
+                 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 jaw breakers 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 would 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.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XII
+
+                     THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
+
+The next morning Pee-Wee strode forth and made the magnanimous
+sacrifice heroically. He found Deadwood Gamely in front of Simeon
+Drowser's village store, talking with two men who sat in an auto.
+
+The auto was so large and handsome that it looked out of place in
+front of Simeon Drowser's store, and the men who occupied it looked
+like city men. It encouraged Pee-Wee ( or rather confirmed his
+assurance of success) to see this sumptuous car in Everdoze, for it
+proved that people did come to that sequestered village. He pictured
+these two prosperous looking business men with frankfurters in their
+hands, their mouths dripping with mustard.
+
+Pee-Wee was nothing if not self-possessed, his scout uniform was
+his protection, and he strode up and spoke quite to the point to the
+young fellow who leaned against the car with one foot on the running
+board.
+
+"We decided not to take you in as a partner," he said, "because
+we want to have it all to ourselves and I came to tell you."
+
+Deadwood Gamely seemed rather taken aback, but whether it was
+because of this refusal of his offer, or because Pee-Wee's loud
+announcement embarrassed him before the strangers it would be hard
+to say. Seeing that the diminutive scout no longer held the deadly
+stencil brush he removed Pee-Wee's hat with a swaggering good humor,
+ruffled his hair, and said (rather disconcertedly), "All right, kiddo;
+so long."
+
+Pee-Wee had anticipated an argument with Gamely and he was surprised
+at the promptness and agreeableness of his dismissal. Two things, one
+seen and one heard, remained in his memory as he trudged back to the
+farm. One was a brief case lying on the back seat of the auto on which
+was printed WALLACE CONSTRUCTION CO. The other was something he heard
+one of the men say after he had returned a little way along the road.
+
+"I didn't think you were such a fool," the man said, evidently to
+young Gamely. Within a few seconds more the auto was rolling away.
+
+It seemed to Pee-Wee that Gamely had told the men of his proposal
+to join the big enterprise and that they had denounced his wisdom and
+judgment.
+
+But Pee-Wee was not the one to be discouraged by that. "Maybe they
+know all about construction," he said to himself, "but that's not
+saying they know all about refreshment shacks. I bet they don't know
+any more about eats than I do." Which in all probability was the case.
+
+On the way back to the farm, Pee-Wee noticed in a field the most
+outlandish scarecrow he had ever seen. It was sitting on a stone wall,
+and it must have been a brave crow that would have ventured within a
+mile of that ridiculous bundle of rags. The face was effectually
+concealed by a huge hat as is the case with most scarecrows, and all
+the cast-off clothing of Everdoze for centuries back seemed combined
+here in incongruous array.
+
+What was Pee-Wee's consternation when he beheld this figure actually
+descend from the fence and come shambling over toward him. If the legs
+were not on stilts they were certainly the longest legs he had ever
+seen, and they must have been suspended by a kind of universal joint
+for they moved in every direction while bringing their burden forward.
+
+Upon this absurd being's closer approach, Pee-Wee perceived it to be
+a negro as thin and tall as a clothes pole, and so black that the
+blackness of sin would seem white by comparison and the arctic night
+like the blazing rays of midsummer. This was Licorice Stick whose home
+was nowhere in particular, whose profession was everything and chiefly
+nothing.
+
+"I done seed yer comin'," he said with a smile a mile long which
+shone in the surrounding darkness like the midnight sun of Norway.
+His teeth were as conspicuous as tombstones, and on close inspection
+Pee-Wee saw that his tattered regalia was held together by a system
+of safety pins placed at strategic points. The terrible responsibility
+of suspenders was borne by a single strand consisting of a key ring
+chain connected with a shoe lace and this ran through a harness pin
+which, if the worst came to the worst, would act as a sort of emergency
+stop. Licorice Stick was built in the shape of a right angle, his feet
+being almost as long as his body and they flapped down like carpet
+beaters when he walked.
+
+"You stayin' wib Uncle Eb?" he asked. "I seed yer yes' day. I done
+hear yer start a sto."
+
+"A what?" Pee-Wee asked, as they walked along together.
+
+"A sto-- you sell eats, hey?"
+
+"Oh, you mean a store," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"I help you," said the lanky stranger; "me'n Pepsy, we good friends.
+She hab to go back to dat workhouse, de bridge it say so. Dat bridge am
+a sperrit."
+
+"You're crazy," Pee-Wee said. "What's the use of being scared at an
+old rattly bridge. If you want to help us I'll tell you how you can do
+it. I made a lot of signs and you can tack them all up on the trees
+along the road for us if you want to. I'll show you just how to do it."
+
+No one was at the shack when they reached it for Pepsy was about
+her household duties, so she had no knowledge of this new recruit in
+their enterprise. Pee-Wee's conscience was clear in this matter,
+however, for he had enlisted Licorice Stick as an employee, at the
+staggering salary of twenty-five cents a week; there was no thought
+of his being a partner. The willing assistance of his new friend would
+leave his own time free for more important duties, and the advertising
+work once done, Licorice Stick was to devote his time to catching fish
+for the "sto" and other incidental duties.
+
+Pee-Wee now arranged his advertising masterpieces in order for
+posting. The imposing type on the cards impressed Licorice Stick deeply.
+He could not read two words but he seemed to sense the sensational
+announcements, and the arrow which Pee-Wee had made on each card to
+indicate the direction of the shack was regarded by him as a sort of
+mystic symbol.
+
+"This is the way you have to do," Pee-Wee said; "now pay attention,
+because it pays to advertise. There are two cards for each sign, see?"
+
+"Dey's nice black print," Licorice Stick said with reverent
+appreciation. "En dey's de magic sign, too."
+
+"That tells them where the place is," Pee-Wee said. "Now, you keep
+the cards just the way I give them to you and always tack them up with
+the arrow pointing this way see? Here's a hammer and here's some tacks.
+When you come to a nice big tree or a wooden fence or an old barn,
+you're supposed to tack them up; and be sure to do it the way I tell
+you. Now, suppose you're going to tack up the first card--the one on
+the top of the pile. You tack it up and right close under it you tack
+up the next one, and it will say:"
+
+                           FRANKFURTERS
+                           SIZZLING HOT -->
+
+"Mmm--mm!" exclaimed Licorice Stick, as if a hot frankfurter had
+actually been produced by this ingenious card trick.
+
+"Then you go along a little way," said Pee-Wee, "till you come to
+another good place, maybe a fence or something, and you tack up the
+next one and right underneath it you tack up the next one; always take
+the next one off the top of the pile, see."
+
+                             ICE CREAM
+                       <-- COLD AND COOLING
+
+Pee-Wee repeated, holding the next two cards up. This palate
+tickling sleight-of-hand seemed like a miracle to the smiling,
+astonished messenger. Pee-Wee seemed a kind of magician summoning
+up luscious concoctions with a magic wand. The fifth and sixth cards
+were held together for a moment and lo, Licorice Stick listened to the
+mouth-watering announcement that peanut taffy was sweet and delicious.
+
+No "sperrit" of Licorice Stick's acquaintance had ever cast a spell
+like this. They had called in weird voices but they had never contrived
+a menu before his very eyes.
+
+He went forth armed with the hammer and tacks and a pile of
+mysterious cards, a little proud but trembling a little, too. There
+was something uncanny about this; he would see it through but it was
+a strange, dark business. He shuffled along the road, peering fearfully
+into the woods now and again when suddenly a terrible apparition
+appeared before him. He stood stark still, his eyes bulging out of his
+head, his hands shaking and cold with fear. ...
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XIII
+
+                          PEPSY'S SECRET
+
+"Sally Knapp says we ought to have some barrels to put the money
+in," said Pepsy as they were decorating their little wayside booth on
+the day of the grand opening. "I don't care what she says."
+
+She was feeling encouraged, and cheerful for indeed the little
+summer-house looked gay and attractive in its bunting drapery and
+flaunting pennants. Failure could not lurk in such festal array, the
+tin dishpan full of greasy doughnuts, the homemade rolls and fresh
+sausages (which were better than any common wayside frankfurters) would
+certainly lure the hungry thither. The world would seek these things
+out. And were not the people of the grand carnival at Berryville to
+pass here that very day, followed, no doubt, by gay pleasure seekers?
+
+To be sure there were no auto accessories yet, for there was no
+capital, but there was lemonade and candy and cider and homemade ice
+cream and there was Scout Harris wearing a kitchen apron ten times too
+big for him, tied with a wonderful, spreading bow in back, and a paper
+hat spotlessly white.
+
+The advertising department had not reported but no doubt the woods
+were calling to the wayfarers in glaring red and black, or would as
+soon as the wayfarers put in an appearance. Pepsy wore her Sunday
+gingham dress embellished with a sash of patriotic bunting.
+
+"Don't you care what the girls say," Pee-Wee advised her as he sat
+on the counter eating a piece of peanut taffy by way of testing the
+stock, so that he might the more honestly recommend it. "I wouldn't
+let any girls jolly me, I wouldn't. Lots of girls tried to jolly me
+but they never got away with it."
+
+"Did that girl that was kept after school try to jolly you?" Pepsy
+asked.
+
+"I wouldn't let any girls jolly me," Pee-Wee said, ignoring the
+specific question and speaking with difficulty, because of the
+stickiness of the taffy. "They think they're smart, girls do; I don't
+mean you, but most of them. I know how to handle them all right. They
+try to make a fool of you and then just giggle, but the last laugh is
+the best, that's one sure thing."
+
+"I told her she was a freshy," Pepsy said, "and that she wouldn't
+dare talk like that in front of you because you'd make a fool of her."
+
+"I should worry about girls," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"I'm not worrying about our refreshment shack anyway," Pepsy said,
+"because now I know it will be lots and lots of a success. And maybe
+you can buy four or five tents and lots of other things. Every night
+in bed I keep saying:
+
+         It has to succeed,
+         It has to succeed,
+
+and I make believe the floor on the bridge says that instead. But
+sometimes it says I have to go back. When the wind blows this way
+I can hear it loud. I know a secret that I thought of all by myself;
+I thought about it when I was lying in bed listening. And I can make
+us get lots of money, I can make it, oh, lots and lots and lots of a
+success. So I don't care any more what people say. I told Aunt
+Jamsiah I knew a secret and I could make us get lots of money here
+and she said I should tell her and I wouldn't."
+
+"Till you tell me?" Pee-Wee asked.
+
+"No, I wouldn't tell anybody."
+
+"You ought to tell me because we're partners." "I wouldn't tell
+anybody," she said, shaking her head emphatically so that her red
+braids lashed about; "not even if you gave me--as much as a dollar. ..."
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIV
+
+                              SUSPENSE
+
+Soon the gorgeous chariot containing the carnival paraphernalia came
+lumbering along en route for Berryville. It was a vision of red and
+gold with wheels that looked like pinwheels in a fireworks display.
+
+The one discordant note about it was the rather startling projection
+of the heads and legs of animals here and there as if the wagon were
+returning from a hunt in South Africa. But these were only the
+disconnected parts of a merry-go-round.
+
+Upon the white and silver wind organ which arose out of this ghastly
+display sat a personage in cap and bells with face elaborately decorated
+in every color of the rainbow. He was distributing printed announcements
+to the gaping citizens of Everdoze. Not so much as a frankfurter or a
+glass of lemonade did the people of this motley caravan buy.
+
+It was late in the afternoon and Pee-Wee and Pepsy were feeling the
+tedium of waiting when suddenly the sound of merry laughter burst upon,
+their ears and somebody said, "Oh, I think it's perfectly adorable to be
+on the wrong road! I just adore being lost! And I never saw anything so
+perfectly excruciating in my life!"
+
+"It's an auto full of girls," said Pee-Wee, adjusting his paper hat
+upon his head; "they come from the city, I can tell; you leave them to
+me."
+
+"I never saw anything so adorably funny in all my life," the partners
+now heard. "I just have a headache from laughing."
+
+"I know that kind," said Pee-Wee; "they've got the giggles. You leave
+them to me."
+
+Pepsy was ready enough to defer to the master mind, the more so
+because this approach of their first probable customers gave her a kind
+of stage fright. She was seized with sudden terror and the dishpan full
+of doughnuts shook in her hands as she placed it in full view by
+Pee-Wee's order.
+
+The auto was evidently picking its way along the hubbly road in
+second gear. "We'll find a place where we can turn around somewhere,"
+said a man's voice good humoredly.
+
+"Not till we've gorged ourselves with food," the voice of a girl
+caroled forth.
+
+Pee-Wee gave his white paper cap a final adjustment, stood the pan
+of taffy enticingly in full view and waited as a pugilist waits, for the
+adversary's next move.
+
+"I am going to have a saucerful of ground glass, the latest breakfast
+food," a female voice sang merrily. At which there was a chorus of
+laughter.
+
+"What did she say?" Pepsy asked.
+
+"Girls are crazy," Pee-Wee said.
+
+Pepsy fumbled nervously with the Several glasses of lemonade which
+stood temptingly ready on the counter and glanced fearfully but
+admiringly at the genius of this magnificent enterprise.
+
+It was the biggest moment in her poor little life and Pee-Wee was a
+conquering hero. She placed the fudge within his reach and waited in
+terrible suspense to see him operate upon this giggling band of lost
+pilgrims.
+
+Nearer and nearer the car came and now it poked its big nickel
+plated nose around the bend and advanced slowly, easily, along the
+narrow, grass grown way. It looked singularly out of place in that
+wild valley.
+
+A low, melodious horn politely reminded Simeon Drowser, who stood
+gaping in the middle of the road, to withdraw to a safer gaping point.
+He retreated to the platform in front of the post office and consulted
+with Beriah Bungel, the village constable, about this sumptuous
+apparition.
+
+Only a couple of hundred feet remained now between the refreshment
+parlor and this party of mirthful victims. If Pepsy's red hair had been
+short enough it would have stood on end; as it was her fingers tingled
+with mingled appeal and confidence in the head of the firm.
+
+Would it stop? Oh, would it stop? The suspense was terrible.
+
+"F--r--resh doughnuts!" called Pee-Wee in a sonorous voice. "Ice cold
+lemonade! It's ice cold! Get your fudge here!"
+
+Pepsy looked admiringly upon her hero. She would not have dared to
+obtrude into the negotiations which seemed at hand. She gazed wistfully
+at a half dozen girls in fresh, colorful, summer array as only a little
+red-headed orphan girl in a gingham dress can do. She gazed at the big,
+palatial touring car with eyes spellbound. It was thus that the Indians
+first gazed upon the ships of Columbus.
+
+"Hot frankfurters," shouted Pee-Wee from behind his counter.
+"They're all hot! Here you are. Get your fresh sweet cider! Five a
+glass. Doughnuts six for a dime. All fresh."
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XV
+
+                         SIX MERRY MAIDENS
+
+"What kind of nuts did you say?" called a girl merrily, as the car
+stopped.
+
+"Doughnuts," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"We thought maybe everybody here were nuts," laughed the man who
+was driving.
+
+"I'd like a nice saucerful of ground glass," laughed one of the
+girls. "Can you serve carbon remover with it?"
+
+"Oh, isn't he just too cute." another girl said.
+
+"Could we get a little of your delicious tire tape, we're so hungry?
+What are you all going to drink, girls? We'll have six glasses of carbon
+remover, if you please, and, let's see, we'll have six plates of ice
+cream hot out of the oven."
+
+"Do you think you can jolly me?" said the head of the firm. "I'll
+give you some carpet tacks to eat if you'd like them."
+
+"Oh, wouldn't those be too scrumptious," another girl said. "Do you
+serve peanut glue with them?"
+
+"I'll give you some fried fish-hooks," Pee-Wee shot back with
+blighting sarcasm.
+
+"Yes, but what we'd like most of all is the ground glass," said
+another girl. "Is it chocolate or vanilla flavor?" At which they all
+giggled, while the man smiled broadly.
+
+"What flavor glass are you going to have, Esther?" a girl asked.
+
+"Oh, I think I'll take cathedral glass," caroled forth another; "I
+think it's more digestible than window glass, if it's properly cooked."
+At which there was another chorus of laughter.
+
+The terrible conqueror, who intended to subdue this bevy of giggling
+maidens and cast a blight upon their levity, stood behind his counter
+like a soldier making a last stand in a third line trench, while Pepsy,
+captivated by the mirthful assailants, laughed uncontrollably.
+
+The head of this firm saw that this was no time for dallying
+measures, his own partner was laughing, and even Wiggle was barking
+uproariously at Pee-Wee as if he had shamelessly gone over to the enemy.
+
+"Oh, If, It's just--too--excruciatingly funny or anything!" one of
+the girls laughed. "I never in my life heard of such--Oh, look at him!
+Look at him! Hold me or I'll collapse!"
+
+Pee-Wee had come around from behind the counter, tripped on his long
+white apron and gone sprawling on the ground, and the faithless Wiggle,
+taking advantage of this inglorious mishap, started pulling on the apron
+with all his might and main. Loyal Pepsy was only human, and tears of
+laughter streamed down her cheeks, and the neighboring woodland echoed
+to the sound of the unholy mirth in the auto.
+
+A large frying fork which Pee-Wee used as a sort of magnet to attract
+trade was still in his hand and by means of this he caught his white
+paper cap as it blew away, piercing it as if it were a fresh doughnut.
+It was indeed the only instance of triumph for him in the tragic affair.
+He arose, with Wiggle still tugging at his apron, his face decorated
+with colorful earth, his eyes glaring defiance.
+
+The driver of the auto, who seemed to be a kindly man, put an end to
+this unequal and hopeless struggle of the scout by ordering a round of
+lemonade and purchasing fifty cents' worth of doughnuts. "When you have
+a few minutes to spare," he said in a companionable undertone, "stroll
+up the road and look about; the scenery is beautiful."
+
+"What do you mean?" Pee-Wee demanded.
+
+"And be sure to take some salted spark plugs with you in case you
+get lost in the woods," one of the girls chirped teasingly as the auto
+started.
+
+And the victim distinctly heard another say, as the big car rolled
+away: "It's a shame to tease him; he's just too cute for anything. I
+could just kiss him. But it was so excruciatingly funny."
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XVI
+
+                            A REVELATION
+
+"What are you laughing at?" Pee-Wee demanded to know, as soon as he
+had regained his poise and dignity. "You're as bad as they are."
+
+"I couldn't help laughing," Pepsy said remorsefully, "'specially
+when you fell down. You said you were going to handle them."
+
+"That could happen to the smartest man," Pee-Wee said in scornful
+reproval; "that could happen to--to--to Julius Caesar."
+
+"He's dead, you ask Miss Bellison," said Pepsy timidly.
+
+"That shows how much you know," said Pee-Wee scornfully as he
+brushed off his clothing.
+
+"Can't something be a kind of a thing that could happen to somebody
+who's dead if he was very smart, only if he wasn't dead. We got a dollar
+and ten cents from them, didn't we?"
+
+"Yes, but--did you--did you--handle them?" Pepsy asked fearfully.
+
+"There are different ways of handling people," Pee-Wee said; "you
+can't handle people that are crazy, can you? I can handle scoutmasters
+even."
+
+Pepsy was willing to believe anything of her hero and she said,
+"They were a lot of freshies and I hate them anyway."
+
+Pee-Wee did not trouble himself about what the man had said. His
+chief interest was the dollar and ten cents of working capital which
+they now had and how to invest it. In his enthusiasm he had been rather
+premature in his advertisement of auto accessories, and he now purposed
+to make good at least one of these announcements by commissioning Simeon
+Drowser to buy some ten-cent rolls of tire tape for him at Baxter City,
+whither Simeon went daily.
+
+He started along the road to the post office where he hoped to catch
+Simeon before that worthy left for Baxter City. But he did not reach the
+post office. The first interruption to his progress was one of his own
+two-card signs staring him in the face from a roadside tree:
+
+                            CHEWING GUM
+                           FOR PUNCTURES
+
+He paused scowling before this novel announcement.
+
+His gaze then wandered to a fence on which he read the astounding
+words:
+
+                           PANCAKES FOR
+                            HEADLIGHTS
+
+Alas, the ground glass which should have appeared in place of
+pancakes did duty beneath the single word EAT on another tree nearby. Eat
+GROUND GLASS the hungry motorist was blithely advised.
+
+Nor was this the worst. As Pee-Wee penetrated deeper into the woods the
+more terrible was the masquerade of his own enticing signs. His stenciled
+cards, deserting their lawful mates, had struck up ghastly unions with
+other cards proclaiming frightful items of refreshment to the appalled
+wayfarer who was reminded of NON-SKID BANANAS and advised that OUR PEANUT
+TAFFY STICKS LIKE GLUE. The faithless TIRE TAPE which should have
+surmounted the STICK LIKE GLUE card was nestling under the fatal EAT,
+while FRANKFURTERS COLD AND COOLING and ICE CREAM SIZZLING HOT met
+Pee-Wee's astonished gaze. He stood looking at this awful sequel of his
+handiwork.
+
+Most of the cards were besmeared with mud and one or two in such a
+freakish way as to give a curious turn to their meaning. On one card a
+mischievous little rivulet of mud or wetted ink had ingeniously changed
+a T into a crude R and the travelers read RUBES SOLD HERE.
+
+Pee-Wee contemplated this exhibition with dismay. Wherever he looked,
+on fence or tree, some ridiculous sign stared him in the face. He did not
+continue on to the post office but retraced his steps to the refreshment
+parlor which was the subject of these printed slanders.
+
+He and Pepsy were discussing this miscarriage of their exploitation
+design when a shuffling sound in the distance proclaimed the shambling
+approach of the advertising department. And if Pee-Wee had not made
+good his flaunting boast to handle the six merry maidens, he at least
+made amends and regained somewhat of his heroic tradition in his
+handling of Licorice Stick.
+
+"What did I tell you to do?" he shouted, his face red with terrible
+wrath. "What did I tell you to do? Do you know the way you put those
+cards up? You made fools of us, that's what you did!"
+
+"I done gone make no fools of you, no how:" Licorice Stick exclaimed. "I
+see a sperrit 'n I shakes like dat, I do. As shu I'm stan' here I see a
+sperrit in dem woods."
+
+From a vivid and terrifying narrative the partners made out that
+while Licorice Stick was on his way to embellish the wayside in strict
+accordance with instructions, he had encountered a spirit from the other
+world in the form of the carnival clown whom we have seen pass our
+wayside rest.
+
+The ghostly raiment of this lowly humorist and the motley decoration
+of his face had so frightened Licorice Stick that he had dropped his cards
+and retreated frantically into the woods. When the awful apparition had
+passed he hid stealthily shuffled back to the spot and with many furtive
+glances about him had gathered up the cards with trembling hands, and
+proceeded to post them in pairs without regard to their proper order.
+
+After this triumphant exploitation feat (which ought to commend him
+to every lying advertiser in the world) Licorice Stick had shuffled into
+a new path of glory, going to the carnival, where (not finding the
+sperrit in evidence) he had accepted a position to stand behind a
+piece of canvas with his head in an opening and allow people to throw
+baseballs at him.
+
+On hearing this Pee-Wee desisted from any further criticism. For, as
+he told Pepsy, "a scout has to be kind and forgiving, and besides when I
+go to the carnival I can plug him in the face with a baseball two or
+three times and then we'll be square."
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XVII
+
+                            HARD TIMES
+
+If many people went to the carnival they must have approached it
+from the other direction. It was a small carnival and probably did not
+attract much interest outside of Berryville. A few stragglers passed
+Mr. Quig's farm traveling in buckboards and farm wagons, but they did
+not come from distant parts and evidently were not hungry,
+
+Some were so unscrupulous as to bring their lunches with them. One
+reckless farmer, indeed, bought a doughnut and exchanged it for another
+with a smaller hole.
+
+Altogether the neighboring carnival did not bring much business to
+Pee-Wee and Pepsy. Aunt Jamsiah took their enterprise good-naturedly;
+Uncle Ebenezer said it was a good thing to keep the children out of
+mischief. Miss Bellison, the young school teacher, bought ten cents'
+worth of taffy each day as a matter of duty, and Beriah Bungel, the
+town constable, being a natural born grafter, helped himself to
+everything he wanted free of charge.
+
+So the pleasant summer days passed and brought them little business.
+Occasionally some lonely auto would crawl along the foliage-arched road,
+its driver looking for a place to turn around so that he might get back
+out of his mistaken way.
+
+Most of these were too disgruntled at their mistakes and the
+quality of the road to heed the voice of the tempter who shouted at
+them, "Lemonade, ice cold! Get your lemonade here!" They usually
+answered by asking how they could get to West Baxter. And Pee-Wee
+would answer, "You have to go four miles back, get your hot doughnuts
+here." Then they would start back but they never, never got their hot
+doughnuts there.
+
+If Pee-Wee's stout heart was losing hope he did not show it, but
+Pepsy was frankly in despair. In her free hours she sat in their
+little shelter, her thin, freckly hands busy with the worsted
+masterpiece that she was working. Pee-Wee, at least, had his appetite
+to console him, but she had no relish for the stale lemonade and
+melting, oozy taffy which stood pathetically on the counter each night.
+
+  One day a lumbering, enclosed auto went by, an undertaker's car it
+was, and Pepsy was seized with sudden fright lest it be the orphan
+asylum wagon come to get her. The two dominating thoughts of her simple
+mind were the fear that she would have to go back to "that place" and
+the hope that Pee-Wee might get the money to buy those precious tents.
+She had learned something of scouting, that scouts camp and live in the
+open, and she had learned something of the good scout laws. She was
+witnessing now an exhibition of scout faith and resolution, of faith
+that was hopeless and resolution that was futile. She was soon to be
+made aware of another scout quality which fairly staggered her and left
+her wondering.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                    THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT
+
+One night after dark, Pepsy and Pee-Wee were sitting in their
+little roadside pavilion because they preferred it to the lamp-lighted
+kitchen smelling of kerosene where Uncle Ebenezer read the American
+Farm Journal, his arms spread on the red covered table.
+
+A cheery little cricket chirped somewhere in this scene of impending
+failure; nearby a katydid was grinding out her old familiar song as if
+it were the latest popular air. In the barn across the yard the
+discordant sound of the horses kicking the echoing boards sounded clear
+in the still night and seemed a part of the homely music of the
+countryside.
+
+Suddenly a speeding auto, containing perhaps its load of merry,
+heedless joy riders, went rattling over the old bridge along the
+highway and the loose planks called out across the interval of
+woodland to the little red-headed girl in this remote shack along the
+obscure by-road.
+
+                      "You have to go back,
+                       You have to go back,
+                       You have to go back."
+
+Little did those speeding riders know of the voice they had called
+up to terrify this unknown child. The rattling, warning voice ceased as
+suddenly as it had begun as the unseen car rolled noiselessly along the
+smooth highway.
+
+"Don't you be scared of it," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"You're as bad as Licorice Stick. Those old boards don't know what
+they're talking about. I wouldn't be scared of what anything said
+unless it was alive, that's sure."
+
+"They voted not to build a new bridge for two years because they've
+got to build a new schoolhouse," said Pepsy. "That's because this county
+hasn't got much money. I'll be glad when they build it; the floor's
+going to be made out of stone; like--"
+
+"You mean the bridge?"
+
+"Yes, and I wish they'd hurry up. Every night I hear that and I know
+boards tell the truth, because if a door squeaks that means you're going
+to get married."
+
+"All you need is an oil can to keep from getting married then," said
+Pee-Wee, "because if you oil a door it won't squeak. So there; lets
+hear you answer that argument."
+
+There was no answer to that argument; keeping single was just a
+matter of lubrication; but just the same that appalling sentence which
+had become fixed in Pepsy's mind, haunted her, especially when she lay on
+her feather mattress in the yellow painted bed up in her little room.
+
+She was just about to go in when they were aroused by a sound in the
+distance. Pee-Wee thought it was an auto and he made ready to deliver
+his usual verbal assault to the travelers.
+
+Louder and louder grew the sound and suddenly a motorcycle with no
+headlight went whizzing past in the darkness. It was followed by
+another, also without any headlight, but this second rider stopped
+a little distance beyond the shack and got off his machine.
+
+Something, he knew not what, dissuaded Pee-Wee from making his
+customary announcements and he stood in the darkness watching this second
+speeder who seemed to be delayed by some trouble with his machine. The
+traveler was certainly too hurried and preoccupied to think of doughnuts.
+
+Meanwhile, the first cyclist had covered perhaps fifty yards and was
+still going. The little red taillight of his machine shone brightly.
+Pee-Wee was just wondering why these travelers used no headlights and
+whether the first cyclist would return to assist his friend, when he
+beheld something which caught and held his gaze in rapt concentration.
+
+The little red taillight went out and on four times in quick
+succession. There followed an appreciable pause, then two quick flashes.
+Pee-Wee watched the tiny light, spellbound. It appeared for a couple
+of seconds, then flashed twice with lightning rapidity.
+
+"Hide," Pee-Wee repeated to himself and motioned with his hand for
+Pepsy not to move. Now, in such rapid succession that Pee-Wee could
+hardly follow them, the flashes appeared, tinier as the cyclist sped
+further away.
+
+"Hide Kelly's barn," Pee-Wee breathed.
+
+Presently the second cyclist was on his machine again, speeding through
+the darkness. Either the first cyclist knew that his friend's trouble was
+not serious, or time was so precious that he could not pause in any case.
+Indeed, their flight must have been urgent to speed on such a road without
+headlights. The whole thing had a rather sinister look.
+
+Pee-Wee wondered who Kelly was and where his barn was located.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIX
+
+                          THE OTHER VOICE
+
+"What do you mean, hide in Kelly's barn?" Pepsy whispered, greatly
+agitated.
+
+"Can you keep still about it?" Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Girls can't keep secrets. Can you keep still till I tell you it's
+all right to speak?"
+
+"I can keep a secret and not even tell it to you," she shot back at
+him in spirited defiance. "I know a secret that will--that will--help us
+sure to make lots and lots of money. And I wouldn't even tell you or
+Aunt Jamsiah, because she tried to make me. So there, Mr. Smarty. And
+I don't care whether you tell me or not if I can't keep a secret, but
+I've got a secret all by myself and it's that much bigger than yours,"
+she said, spreading out her thin, little arms to include a vast area.
+"And besides that, I hate you," she added, bursting into tears and
+starting for the house. "And you can have that girl who was kept in
+after school for a partner," he heard her sobbing as she crossed the
+yard.
+
+Pepsy did not pause to speak with Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah who were
+sitting in the kitchen, but the latter, seeing her in tears, said
+kindly, "No folks passed by to the carnival to-night, Pepsy?"
+
+"Looks like rain," Uncle Eb said consolingly; "to-morrer'll be the
+big night when they have the wrestlin' match. I reckon Jeb Collard n' all
+his summer folks will go up on th' hay-rig from West Baxter. You wait
+till to-morrer night, Pep. Mamsy'll make you up a pan of fresh doughnuts
+fer to-morrer night, won't you, Mamsy? Don't you take on now, Pepsy girl;
+you jes' go ter bed n' ferget yer troubles."
+
+"I don't care about people from West Baxter," Pepsy said, stamping
+her foot and shaking her, head violently, "and I don't care about the
+old carnival or anything--so now. They're all too stingy--to--to--buy
+things--they're too stingy. I--I--I--don't care," she went on fairly in
+hysterics, "he says I can't--I can't--keep--keep--a secret--but I've got
+one and I won't tell it to anybody and I thought it up all myself and
+it will surely make lots and lots and lots of people come and buy--and--and
+he'll see if girls can do things." She was crying violently and shaking
+like a leaf.
+
+"What is the secret, Pepsy?" Aunt Jamsiah asked gently; "maybe I
+can help you." "I won't tell--I won't tell anybody," Pepsy sobbed.
+
+They were accustomed to these outbursts of her tense little nature
+and said no more. Pepsy went up to her little room under the eaves,
+catching each breath and trembling. No wonder they had not understood
+her at that big brick orphan home. No wonder she had hated it. Little
+as she was, she was too big for it.
+
+She was in a mood to torment herself that night and she lay awake
+to listen for that dread voice from across the woods. She lay on her
+left side so they would have good luck next day. She was greatly
+overwrought and when at last she did hear the sound, loud and
+heartless with its sudden beginning and sudden end, it startled and
+terrorized her as if it were indeed that gloomy, windowless
+equipage of the State Orphan Home, coming to take her away.
+
+She pushed her little fingers into her ears so that she could not
+hear it. . . .
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XX
+
+                        AN OFFICIAL REBUKE
+
+As for Pee-Wee, his trouble was quite of another character. The
+dubious outlook for their great enterprise did not submerge his
+buoyant spirit. He had been the genius of many colossal enterprises,
+most of them falling short of his glowing predictions, and his
+ingenious mind passed from one thing to another with no lingering regrets.
+
+He usually invested so much enthusiasm in organization that he had
+none left for maintenance. He did not stick at anything long enough to
+be disappointed in it; there were too many other worlds to be conquered.
+His heart was no longer in the refreshment parlor and he was already
+finding solace in becoming his own solitary customer, by eating the
+taffy which he could not sell.
+
+There had been so few things in Pepsy's poor little life that she
+had put her whole intense little heart and soul in this and was resolved
+that this hero from the great world of Bridgeboro should buy the tents
+which in plain fact he had already forgotten about.
+
+So it happened that while Pepsy was lying on her left side (one
+of Licorice Stick's prescriptions) to insure good luck for the morrow,
+Pee-Wee was dangling his legs from the counter eating a doughnut.
+
+What concerned him now was this mystery of the speeding cyclists.
+That was the big thing in his young life. He believed them to be
+fugitives. Their reckless speed, and the fact that they used no
+headlights, gave color to this delightful supposition. Little had
+they thought that this diminutive scout, unseen in the darkness, had
+read that message in the Morse Code with perfect ease. Hide Kelly's
+Barn. What did that mean?
+
+If Pee-Wee had liked Beriah Bungel, the Everdoze constable, he would
+have gone to him with this information. But he disliked Beriah Bungel
+with true scout thoroughness; he knew him to be officious, and swelling
+with self-importance and he was not going to put business in such a
+creature's way.
+
+But the next morning something happened which showed Scout Harris
+in a new light. Going to the post office early in the morning, he saw
+a sign posted on the bulletin board and he read it with lively interest.
+
+                         $250.00 REWARD
+
+      for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
+      thieves who stole two motorcycles from the yard of Chandler's
+      Motorcycle Repair Shop in Baxter City.
+
+      The machines are Indian models bearing license plates 2570
+      and 92632. Both machines are comparatively new.
+
+      Communicate with Austin Sawyer,
+      County prosecutor, County of Borden, Baxter City.
+
+This notice had evidently been brought down by the mail driver
+early in the morning and several distinguished citizens of Everdoze
+were gathered about commenting on it. It seemed certain that none of
+the Everdoze dozers had heard the motorcycles and surely no one in the
+village would have been any the wiser for seeing those quick, tiny
+flashes, which told so much to the scout.
+
+"I heerd somethin' but 'twan't no motorcycles," said Nathaniel Knapp;
+"'twas a auto or I'm crazy."
+
+Then spoke Beriah Bungel, sticking his thumbs into his suspenders so
+that his rusty-colored coat flapped open showing his imposing badge,
+"They wouldn' never come this way, they wouldn', when they got th'
+highway ter go on. They hit inter th' highway from Barter, that's what
+they done. Them fellers hez con-federates waitin' across th' state line
+with Noo York license plates. They made th' line last night; them fellers
+gits as fur as they kin on the first go off. Waal, ha ow's refreshments?"
+he added, turning upon Pee-Wee.
+
+"You ought to know," Pee-Wee piped up; "you took enough of them."
+Which caused a laugh among the store loungers.
+
+"When I wuz a youngster if I sassed my elders I got the hickory
+stick," Beriah said. "Yes, and when you grew up you got the
+peppermint sticks and doughnuts and things," Pee-Wee shot back.
+
+At this Darius Dragg and Nathaniel Knapp laughed uproariously.
+Constable Bungel saw but one way out of his rather embarrassing situation
+and that was the old approved device of a box on the ears. The official
+slap sounded loud in the little post office and left Pee-Wee's cheek
+and ear tingling.
+
+"I'll learn yer how to answer back yer superiors," said Constable
+Bungel. "We don't relish sass from city youngsters daown here, you mind
+that. Naow yer git along a outer here n' tell yer uncle ter learn yer
+some manners n' respect fer th' law."
+
+Pee-Wee faced him, his cheek flushed, his eyes blazing. "You're
+a--you're a--coward--and a thief--that's what you are," he shouted.
+"You--you--haven't got brains enough to find two--two--motorcycles--you
+haven't--all you can do is stand around and eat things that other
+people are trying to sell! You're a coward and a--a fo--ol--and you
+owe us as much as--a--a dollar. You'd better button your coat up or
+you'll--you'll be stealing your own watch--you--you coward!"
+
+With this rebuke, which left Beriah gaping, Pee-Wee started home,
+holding a hand to his cheek. He was trying hard not to cry, not from
+pain, but from the indignity he had suffered. He had never known such a
+thing in all his life before. He felt shamed, humiliated. His whole
+sturdy little form trembled at the thought of such degradation at the
+hands of a stranger. . . .
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXI
+
+                       SCOUT HARRIS FIXES IT
+
+Perhaps you will say that Pee-Wee was not a good scout to speak
+with such impudent assurance to his elders. But you are to remember
+what I told you about Pee-Wee, that everything about him was
+tremendous except his size. He was not always the ideal scout in
+little things. He was a true scout in the big things.
+
+When he reached the shack he found Pepsy waiting for him and he
+poured forth his grievance into her sympathetic ears. "I'll fix him
+all right," he said; "he's a coward, that's what he is, and he,
+needn't think I'm afraid of him. I'll get even with him all right.
+Whenever I make up my mind to do a thing I do it, that's one thing
+sure."
+
+"Only we didn't make a success of our refreshment parlor," Pepsy
+ventured to say, "but just the same we're going to because--"
+
+"What do I care about it?" Pee-Wee vociferated. "I know a way to
+get two hundred and fifty dollars and that's more money than we'd
+ever make in this old place. And I'll have you for my partner just
+the same. I'm going to get two hundred and fifty dollars all at once."
+
+"Can I see it when you get it?" Pepsy asked.
+
+"You can have half of it because we're partners," Pee-Wee said,
+recovering something of his former spirits as this new prospect
+opened before him.
+
+"Can't we have the refreshment parlor any more?" Pepsy asked
+wistfully. "Because, honest and true, we're going to make lots
+and lots of money in it; I know a way--"
+
+"Listen, Pepsy," Pee-Wee said. "Do you know what the Morse Code
+is? It's the language they use when they telegraph. Scouts have to
+know all about that. Do you remember when I said hide Kelly's barn
+last night? That's what that first feller said to the other one who
+was stuck. Didn't you notice how his little red light kept flashing
+away up the road? That's what it meant. They're hiding in Kelly's
+barn and nobody knows it.
+
+"There's a sign in the post office and it says they'll give two
+hundred and fifty dollars to anybody who tells where they are. Do
+you think I'd tell Beriah Bungel?" he added contemptuously. "I'm
+going to tell a man named Sawyer, he's the county prosecutor, he
+lives in Baxter City. Only we have to go right away. I'm going back
+with the mail car to Baxter. Do you want to go? If you do you have
+to hurry up."
+
+The last time that Pepsy had appeared before an official--of--the--law
+she had been sent to the big brick building and she was naturally wary
+of prosecutors, judges and such people. Suppose Mr. Sawyer should order
+herself and Pee-Wee to the gallows for meddling in these dark,
+mysterious matters. Pee-Wee read this in her face.
+
+"Don't be scared," he said manfully; "I wouldn't let anybody hurt
+you. My father knows a man that's a judge and he tells jokes and has
+two helpings of dessert and everything just like other people.
+Prosecutors aren't so bad, gee whiz, they're better than poison-ivy;
+they're better than school principals anyway, that's sure. You see,
+I'll handle him all right."
+
+Pepsy's thoughts wandered to the six merry maidens whom Pee-Wee
+had "handled" with such astounding skill. "Can't we have our
+refreshment parlor any more?" she asked, with a note of homesickness
+for the little place they had decorated with such high hope. "If
+you'll wait, if you'll wait as much as--two weeks--lots and lots and
+lots and lots of people will come--"
+
+But Pee-Wee was not to be deterred by sentiment and false hope.
+"Don't you want us to have two hundred and fifty dollars?" he asked
+scornfully. "Don't you want us to buy those tents?" This was too much
+for Pepsy. She grasped Pee-Wee's hand, following him reluctantly, as
+she gave a wistful look back at their little wayside shelter. The
+"stock" had not been set out for the day and the bare counter made
+the place look forlorn and deserted as they went away.
+
+"It's a blamed sight easier than running a refreshment parlor,"
+Pee-Wee said; "it's just like picking the money up in the street.
+All we have to do is to go to Mr. Sawyer's office and tell him and--"
+
+"You have to go in first," said Pepsy.
+
+Pee-Wee's enthusiasm was contagious and Pepsy was soon keyed up
+to the new enterprise, even to the point of facing Mr. Sawyer. She
+had cautiously resolved, however, to remain close to the door of his
+office, so that she might effect a precipitate retreat at the first
+mention of an orphan asylum.
+
+Whatever Pee-Wee did must be right and she saw now that two
+hundred and fifty dollars won in the twinkling of an eye was better
+than life spent in the retail trade. Yet she could not help thinking
+wistfully and fondly of their little enterprise and its cosy
+headquarters.
+
+They sat on a rock by the roadside waiting for the mailman's auto
+to come along. Once in that Pepsy felt that her fate would be sealed.
+She had never been away from Everdoze since she had first been taken
+there. Baxter City was a vast place which she had seen in her dreams,
+a place where people were arrested and run over and where the
+constables were dressed up like soldiers. She clung tight to
+Pee-Wee's hand.
+
+"I hate him, too," she said, referring to Beriah Bungel, "and it
+will serve him right if Whitie dies and I just hope he does, because
+his father hit you."
+
+"Who's Whitie?" Pee-Wee asked.
+
+"He's Mr. Bungel's little boy and he's all white because he's sick,
+and they can't take him to a great big place in the city so they can
+make him all well again and it just serves him right and I'm glad they
+haven't got any money. Everybody says he's going to die and Licorice
+Stick knows he's going to die in a rainstorm on a Friday, that's what
+he said."
+
+This information about a little boy who was so pale that they
+called him Whitie, and who was going to die in a rainstorm on a
+Friday was all new to Pee-Wee.
+
+"Licorice Stick is crazy," he said. "What does he know about
+dying? He never died, did he?" This brilliant argument appeared
+to impress Pepsy.
+
+"If they took him to a hospital in New York then he wouldn't have
+to die because they could fix him," Pepsy said. "I heard Aunt Jamsiah
+say so. There are doctors there that can' fix people all well again."
+
+"I bet I'm as good a fixer as they are," Pee-Wee said; "I fixed
+lots of people; I fixed a whole patrol once."
+
+"So they wouldn't die?"
+
+"They thought they were smart but I fixed them."
+
+"Fixing smarties is different," said Pepsy. "If people have
+something the matter with their hips you can't fix them. Because,
+anyway, if they're going to die on a Friday even snail water won't
+fix them."
+
+"Snail water, what's that?"
+
+"It's medicine made from snails; Licorice Stick knows how to
+make it. You have to stir it with a willow stick and then you get
+well quick."
+
+"How can you get well quick when snails are slow?" Pee-Wee asked.
+"That shows that Licorice Stick is crazy. It would be better to make
+it with lightning-bugs."
+
+"Lightning-bugs mean there are ghosts around," said Pepsy, "the
+lightning-bugs are their eyes. But anyway, just the same, nobody can
+fix Whitie Bungel, because the doctor from Baxter said so, and he
+knows because he's got an automobile."
+
+"Automobiles don't prove you know a lot," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"Just the same Whitie is going to die," said Pepsy, "and then
+you'll see, because when my mother didn't have any money she died,
+so there." Pee-Wee did not answer; he appeared to be thinking. And
+so the minutes passed as they sat there on the rock by the roadside,
+waiting for the mailman's auto to take them to Baxter City.
+
+
+"Do you say I can't fix it?" he finally demanded. "Maybe you
+think scouts can't fix things. They know first aid, scouts do. I can
+fix that little feller; maybe you think I can't. You come with me,
+I'll show you. Scouts--scouts can do things--they're better than snails
+and lightning-bugs. I'll show you what they can do; you come with me."
+
+"Ain't you going to wait for the mailman?"
+
+"No, I'm not. You come with me."
+
+This apparent desertion of another cherished enterprise all in the
+one day, took poor Pepsy quite by storm. She did not understand the
+workings of Pee-Wee's active and fickle mind. But she followed his
+sturdy little form dutifully as he trudged up the road and into a
+certain lane. On he went, like a redoubtable conqueror with Pepsy
+after him. To her consternation he went straight up to the kitchen
+door, yes, of Constable Beriah Bungel's humble abode! Pepsy stood
+behind him in a kind of daze and heard his resounding knock as in
+a dream. Then suddenly to her dismay and terror she saw Beriah Bungel
+himself standing in the open doorway looking fiercely down at the
+little khaki-clad scout.
+
+"Mr. Bungel," she heard as she stood gaping and listening and
+ready to run at the terrible official's first move, "Mr. Bungel,
+if you want to know where those two fellers are that stole the
+motorcycles, they're hiding in Kelly's barn and I guess they'll
+stay there till dark. So if you want to go and get them you'll get
+two hundred and fifty dollars as long as you don't say who told you
+where they are."
+
+Without another word he turned and trudged away along the path,
+Pepsy following after him, to astonished to speak.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXII
+
+                           FATE IS JUST
+
+On that very morning Constable Bungel performed the stupendous
+feat which sent his name ringing through Borden County and
+established him definitely as the Sherlock Holmes of Everdoze.
+
+Followed by the local citizenry, who marveled at his deductive
+skill, he advanced against Kelly's barn in the outskirts of
+Berryville. Here, perceiving evidences of occupation, he demanded
+admittance and on being ignored he forced an entrance and
+courageously arrested two young fellows who were hiding there
+waiting for the night to come.
+
+   It is painful to relate that in process of being captured one of
+these youthful fugitives delivered a devastating blow upon the long
+nose of the constable thereby unconsciously doing a good turn like a
+true scout and repaying him in kind for his treatment of Pee-Wee
+Thus it will be seen that fate is just for, as Pee-Wee explained to
+Pepsy, "He got everything I wanted him to get, a punch in the nose
+and two hundred and fifty dollars. And that shows how I got paid back
+for doing a good turn, because if I hadn't given up that two hundred
+and fifty dollars he wouldn't have got punched, so you see it pays to
+be generous and kind like it says in the handbook."
+
+The official pride of Beriah Bungel as he led his captives back
+to Everdoze to await transportation to Baxter City was somewhat
+chilled by the inglorious appearance of his face. There can be no
+pomp and dignity in company with a wounded nose and Beriah Bungel's
+nose was the largest thing about him except his official prowess.
+
+"Don't tell anybody I told him," Pee-Wee whispered to Pepsy, "or
+you'll spoil it all and they won't give him the money."
+
+"Suppose he tells himself," Pepsy said.
+
+But Officer Bungel did not tell of the keen eyes and scout skill
+which had put him in the way of profit and glory. For he was like the
+whole race of Beriah Bungels the world over, officious, ignorant,
+contemptible, grafting, shaming human nature and making thieving
+fugitives look manly by comparison.
+
+Everdoze was greatly aroused by this epoch making incident.
+Even a few stragglers from Berryville followed the crowd back
+as far as Uncle Ebenezer's farm and Pee-Wee tried to tempt them
+into the ways of the spendthrift with taffy and other delights
+which cause the reckless to fall. But it was of no use.
+
+"I bet if there was a murder we could sell a lot," he said.
+"Motorcycle thief crowds aren't very big. If the town hall burned
+down I bet we'd do a lot of business. I wish the school-house would
+burn down, hey? Murders and fires, those, are the best, especially
+murders, because lots of people come."
+
+"I like fires better," Pepsy said. "Lots and lots and lots of
+people go to fires."
+
+"Yes, and they get thirsty watching them, too," said Pee-Wee.
+"That's the time to shout, ice cold lemonade."
+
+There was one person in Everdoze, and only one, who neither
+followed nor witnessed this triumphal march, which had something
+of the nature of a pageant. This was a little lame boy, very pale,
+who sat in a wheel chair on the back porch of the lowly Bungel
+homestead.
+
+The house was up a secluded lane and did not command a view of
+the weeds and rocks of the main thoroughfare. This frail little boy,
+whose blue veins you could follow like a trail, had never seen or
+heard of Pee-Wee Harris, scout of the first class (if ever there
+was one) and mascot of the Raven Patrol. He had indeed heard his
+father speak of "cuffing a sassy little city urchin on the ear,"
+but how should he know that this same sassy little urchin had
+thrown away two hundred and fifty dollars?
+
+Thrown it away? Well, let us hope not. Let us hope that those
+wonder workers in the big city succeeded in "fixing" him, as indeed
+they must have done, if they were as good fixers as Scout Harris.
+Let us hope that Licorice Stick had gotten things wrong (as we have
+seen him do once before) and that little Whitie Bungel did not die
+in a rainstorm on a Friday.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXIII
+
+                 WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY
+
+To translate some little red flashes of light and read a secret in
+them was utterly beyond the comprehension of poor Pepsy. Here was a
+miracle indeed, compared with which the prophecies and spooky
+adventures of Licorice Stick were as nothing. And to win two hundred
+and fifty dollars by such a supernatural feat was staggering to her
+simple mind.
+
+Licorice Stick's encounters with "sperrits" had never brought him a
+cent. But deliberately to sacrifice this fabulous sum in the interest
+of a poor little invalid that he had never seen, made Pee-Wee not
+only a prophet but a saint to poor Pepsy. If scouts did things like
+this they were certainly extraordinary creatures. To give two hundred
+and fifty dollars to a person who has boxed your ears and then to go
+merrily upon your way in quest of new triumphs, that Pepsy could not
+understand.
+
+The whole business had transpired so quickly that Pepsy had only seen
+the two hundred and fifty dollars flying in the air, as it were, and
+now they were poor again, even before they had realized their riches.
+And there was Pee-Wee sitting on the counter of their unprofitable
+little roadside rest, with his knees drawn up, sucking a lemon stick
+(which apparently no one else wanted) and discoursing on the subject
+of good turns generally. There seemed to be nothing in his life now
+but the lemon stick.
+
+"You think girls can't do good turns, don't you?" Pepsy queried
+wistfully.
+
+Pee-Wee removed the lemon stick from his mouth, critically
+inspecting the sharp point which he had sucked it to. By a sort of
+vacuum process he could sharpen a stick of candy till it rivaled a
+stenographer's pencil.
+
+"Do you know what reciprocal means?" he asked with an air of
+concealing some staggering bit of wisdom.
+
+"It's a kind of a church," Pepsy ventured.
+
+"That's Episcopal," Pee-Wee said with withering superiority! Placing
+the lemon stick carefully in his mouth again. This action was followed by
+a sudden depression of both cheeks, like rubber balls from which the air
+has escaped. He then removed the dagger-like lemon stick again to observe
+it.
+
+"If you have an apple and I have an apple and you give me yours,
+that's a good turn, isn't it? And if I give you mine that's another
+good turn, isn't it? And we're both just as well off as we were before.
+That's recip--" He had to pause to lick some trickling lemon juice from
+his chubby chin, "rical."
+
+Pepsy seemed greatly impressed, and Pee-Wee continued his edifying
+lecture. "I should worry about two hundred and fifty dollars because
+you saw how people always get paid back only sometimes it isn't so
+soon like with the apples. Everything always comes out all right,"
+continued the little optimist between tremendous sucks, "and if you're
+going to get a punch in the nose you get it, and you can see how Mr.
+Bungel got paid back auto--what'd you call it?"
+
+"Automobile?" Pepsy ventured.
+
+"Automatically," Pee-Wee blurted out, catching a fugitive drop of
+lemon juice as it was about to leave his chin. "Good turns are the same
+as bad turns, only different. Do you see? I bet you can't say
+automatically while you're sucking a lemon stick."
+
+"Is it a--a scout stunt?" Pepsy asked. Pee-Wee performed this
+astounding feat for her edification, catching the liquid by-product
+with true scout agility. Whether from scout gallantry or scout
+appetite, he did not put Pepsy to the test.
+
+"I'm glad of it, anyway," she said, "because now we can stay
+here and have our store and there isn't anybody like that pros--like
+that Mr. Sawyer to be afraid of."
+
+"Do you think I'm afraid of prosecutors?" Pee-Wee demanded to
+know. "I'm not afraid of them any more then I'm afraid of June-bugs;
+I bet you're afraid of June-bugs."
+
+"I'm not," she vociferated, tossing her red braids and looking very
+brave.
+
+"Then why should you be afraid of prosecutors?"
+
+"I wouldn't be afraid of anything that doesn't sting."
+
+Pepsy said nothing, only thought. And Pee-Wee said nothing, only
+sucked the lemon stick, observing it from time to time, as its point
+became more deadly.
+
+"Maybe I'm not as brave as you are and can't do things and I'm
+scared of Baxter City, but I bet you. I can think up as good turns as
+you can, so there! And if you promise to stay here I'll make it so lots
+of people will come and you can buy the tents and that will be a good
+turn won't it? You said if you make up your mind to do a thing you can
+do it."
+
+"I wouldn't take back what I said," said Pee-Wee, finishing the
+lemon stick by a terrible sudden assault with his teeth.
+
+"Well, then, so there, Mr. Smarty," she said with an air of
+triumph, "I'm going to do a good turn, you see, because I made up
+my mind to it good and hard, and we'll make lots and lots of money.
+So do you promise to stay here and keep on being partners? Do you
+cross your heart you will?"
+
+If Pee-Wee had been as observant of Pepsy as he was used to being
+of signs along a trail he might have noticed that her eyes were all
+ablaze and that her little, thin, freckly wrist trembled. But how should
+he know that his own carelessly uttered words had burned themselves into
+her very soul?
+
+"If you make up your mind to do a thing you can do it."
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXIV
+
+                        PEPSY'S ENTERPRISE
+
+Pepsy knew the scouts only through Pee-Wee. She knew they could
+do things that girls could not do. She must have been deaf if she
+did not hear this. She knew they walked with dauntless courage in
+great cities, and that they were not afraid of prosecutors.
+
+They were strange, wonderful things to her. They possessed all
+the manly arts and some of the womanly arts as well. They could
+track, swim, dive, read strange messages in flashes of light,
+sacrifice appalling riches and think nothing of it. They could
+cook, sew, imitate birds, and read things in the stars. Pee-Wee
+had not left Pepsy in the dark about any of these matters.
+
+Pepsy knew that she could not aspire to be a scout. The young
+propagandist had forgotten to tell her of the Girl Scouts who can
+do a few things, if you please. But one thing Pepsy could do; she
+could worship at the feet of his heroic legion.
+
+If all there was to doing things was making up your mind to do them,
+then could she not do a good turn as well as a boy? Surely Scout Harris,
+the wonder worker, could not be mistaken about anything. He had shown
+Pepsy, conclusively, how good turns (to say nothing of bad ones) are
+always paid back by an inexorable law. Punches on the nose, or kindly
+acts of charity and sweet sacrifice, it was always the same. ...
+
+Pepsy had no money invested in their unprofitable enterprise, for she
+had no money to invest. Neither had she any capital of scout
+experience to draw upon. But one little nest egg she had. She had
+once made a small deposit in this staunch institution of reciprocal
+kindness. All by herself, and long before she had known of Pee-Wee
+and the scouts, she had done a good turn.
+
+According to the inevitable rule, which she did not doubt, the
+principal and interest of this could now be drawn. Why not? Somewhere,
+and she knew where, there was a good turn standing to her credit. It
+would be paid her just as surely as that splendid punch in the nose
+was paid to Beriah Bungel. And, using this good turn that was standing
+to her credit, she would be the instrument which fate would choose, to
+pay scout Harris back for his great sacrifice of two hundred and fifty
+dollars. You see how nicely everything was going to work out.
+
+The person who would now do Pepsy the good turn which would bring
+success and fortune to their little enterprise and enable Scout Harris
+to buy three tents, was Mr. Ira Jensen who lived in the big red house
+up the road. A very mighty man was Mr. Ira Jensen almost as terrible
+in worldly grandeur and official power as a prosecutor. Not quite, but
+almost. At all events, Pepsy could muster up courage to go and face him,
+and that she was now resolved to do.
+
+Indeed, this had been her secret.
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXV
+
+                            AN ACCIDENT
+
+Mr. Ira Jensen sometimes wore a white collar and he was deacon in
+the church and he was the one who selected the Everdoze school teacher,
+and he was president of the Horden County Agricultural Association and
+he had a khaki-colored swinging-seat on his porch and muslin curtains
+in his windows. So you may judge from all this what a mighty man he was.
+
+Such a man is not to be approached except upon a well-considered plan.
+It required almost another week of idling in the refreshment parlor,
+of vain hopes, and ebbing interest on the part of the scout partner,
+to bring Pepsy to the state of desperation needed for her terrible
+enterprise. A sudden and alarming turn of Pee-Wee's fickle mind
+precipitated her action.
+
+"Let's eat up all the stuff and make the summerhouse into a gymnasium,
+and we can give magic lantern shows in it, too. What do you say?"
+Pee-Wee inquired in his most enthusiastic manner. "We can charge five
+cents to get in." He did not explain whence the audiences would come.
+He had found an old magic lantern in the attic and that was enough.
+The only stock now on hand was what might be called the permanent
+stock (if any stock could be called permanent where Pee-Wee was).
+No longer did the fresh, greasy doughnut and the cooling lemonade
+grace the forlorn little counter.
+
+"No, I won't!" Pepsy said, tossing those red braids. "I won't eat
+the things because we started here and I love them, so there!"
+
+"If you love them I should think you'd want to eat them," said
+Pee-Wee. "That shows how much you know about logic."
+
+"I don't care, I'm just going to stay here and if you promise to
+wait we'll get lots and lots of money," she said. "You promised me
+you'd wait," she added wistfully, "you crossed your heart. Won't you
+please wait till--till--five days--may-be? Won't you, please? Maybe that
+will be a good turn, maybe?"
+
+He did not refuse. Instead he helped himself to some gumdrops out
+of a glass jar, and appeared to be content. But Pepsy knew better than
+to trust the fickle heart of man and that night she played the poor
+little card that she had been holding.
+
+After Uncle Eb and Aunt Jamsiah had gone to bed and while the curly
+head of Scout Harris was reposing in sweet oblivion upon his pillow,
+Pepsy crept cautiously down the squeaky, boxed-in stairs and paused,
+in suspense, in the kitchen. The ticking of the big clock there seemed
+very loud, almost accusing, and Pepsy's heart seemed to keep time with
+it as it thumped in her little breast. How different the familiar
+kitchen seemed, deserted and in darkness! The two stove lids were
+laid a little off their places to check the banked fire, leaving two
+bright crescent lines like a pair of eyes staring up at her. This light,
+reflected in one of the milk pails standing inverted on a high shelf,
+made a sort of ghostly mirror in which Pepsy saw herself better than
+in that crinkly, outlandish mirror in her little room.
+
+For a moment she was afraid to move lest she make a noise, and so
+she paused, almost terrified, looking at her own homely little face,
+on the most fateful night of her life. Then she tiptoed out through
+the pantry where the familiar smell of fresh butter reassured her. It
+seemed companionable, in the strange darkness and awful stillness, this
+smell of fresh butter. She crept across the side porch where the
+churn stood like a ghost, a dish-towel on its tall handle and crossed
+the weedy lawn, where the beehives seemed to be watching her, and
+headed for the dark, open road. But here her courage failed. Some
+thought of doing her errand in the morning occurred to her, but, she
+could not go then without saying where and why she was going. And in
+case of failure no one must ever know about this. ...
+
+So she screwed up her courage and returned to the side porch to get
+a lantern. She shook it and found it empty. There was nothing to do now
+but brave the darkness or go down into the cellar and fill the lantern
+from the big kerosene can. She paused in the darkness before those
+sepulchral stone steps, then in a sudden impulse of determination
+she tightened her little hand upon the lantern till her nails dug
+into her palms and went down, down.
+
+She groped her way to the kerosene can and finally came upon it and
+felt its surface. Yes, it was the kerosene can. Her trembling little
+hand fumbled for the tiny faucet. How queer it felt in the dark when
+she could not see it! It seemed to have a little knob or something
+on it. ...
+
+Her hand was shaking but she held the little tank of the lantern under
+the faucet and was about to turn the handle when something--something
+soft and wet and silent--touched her other hand. She drew a quick
+breath, her heart was in her mouth, her hands were icy cold. Still
+she had presence of mind enough not to scream.
+
+But as she rose in panic terror from her stooping posture, the
+lantern pulled upward against the faucet, toppling the big can off
+its skids. There was no plug in the can and the kerosene flowed out
+upon the terror-stricken child, wetting her shoes and stockings, and
+made a great puddle on the stone floor. She stood in the darkness,
+seeing none of this, which made the catastrophe the more terrible.
+
+And then, as she stood in terror, wet and bewildered, waiting for
+whatever terrible sequel might come, she felt again that something
+soft and wet and silent on her hand. She moved her hand a little and
+felt of something soft. Soft in a different way. Soft but not wet.
+
+"Wiggle," she sobbed in a whisper; "why--why--didn't you--you--tell me
+it was you--Wiggle?"
+
+But he only licked her hand again as if to say, "If there is anything
+on for to-night, I'm with you. Cheer up. Adventures are my middle
+name". ...
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVI
+
+                        PEPSY'S INVESTMENT
+
+For a few seconds Pepsy stood in suspense amid the spreading,
+dripping havoc she had caused, listening for some sound above. But
+the seconds piled up into a full minute and no approaching step was
+heard. The danger seemed over.
+
+But the very air was redolent of kerosene; she stood in a puddle
+of it, and one of her stockings and both of her plain little buttoned
+shoes were thoroughly wet. When she moved her toes she could feel the
+soppy liquid. Oh, for a light! It would lessen her terror if she could
+just see what had happened and how she looked.
+
+She groped her way to the small oblong of lesser darkness which
+indicated the open bulk-head doors, and felt better when she was in
+the free open darkness of outdoors. Wiggle, seeming to know that
+something unusual was happening, kept close to her heels.
+
+She reentered the kitchen, where those accusing, ghostly, red
+slits of eyes in the stove seemed to watch her. She fumbled
+nervously on the shelf above the stove and got some matches,
+spilling a number of them on the floor. She could not pause to
+gather them up while those red eyes stared. She had planned her poor
+little enterprise with a view to secrecy, but in the emergency and with
+the minutes passing, she did not now pause to think or consider. Near
+the flour barrel hung several goodly pudding bags, luscious reminders
+of Thanksgiving. Aunt Jamsiah had promised to make a plum-pudding for
+Pee-Wee in the largest one of these and he had spent some time in
+measuring them and computing their capacity, with the purpose of
+selecting the most capacious. Pepsy now hurriedly took all of these
+and a kitchen apron along with them, and descended again into the cellar.
+
+By the dim lantern light she lifted the fallen tank and replaced
+it on its skids. Then she wiped up the floor as best she could with
+the makeshift mop which had been intended to serve a better
+purpose. She wiped off her soggy shoes and tried to clean that
+clinging oiliness from her hands. It seemed to her as if the
+whole world were nothing but kerosene.
+
+She did not know what to do with the drenched rags, so she took them
+with her when she started again for the dark road, this time with her
+two cheery companions, the lantern and Wiggle. She soon found the
+dripping rags a burden and cast them from her as she passed the well.
+Wiggle turned back and inspected the smelly, soggy mass, found that he
+did not like it, took a hasty drink from the puddle under the well
+spout, and rejoined his companion.
+
+It must have been close to ten o'clock when Mr. Ira Jensen, enjoying
+a last smoke on his porch before retiring, saw the lantern light swinging
+up his roadway. The next thing that he was aware of was the pungent odor
+of kerosene borne upon the freshening night breeze. And then the little
+delegation stood revealed before him, Wiggle, wagging his tail, the
+lantern sputtering, and Pepsy's head jerking nervously as if she were
+trying to shake out what she had to say.
+
+It took Pepsy a few moments to key herself up to the speaking point.
+Then she spoke tremulously but with a kind of jerky readiness suggesting
+many lonely rehearsals.
+
+"Mr. Jensen," she said, "I have to do a good turn and so I came
+to ask you if you'll help me and the reason I smell like kerosene is
+because I tipped over the kerosene can." This last was not in her
+studied part, but she threw it in answer to an audible sniff from
+Mr. Jensen.
+
+ "You said when I came here and stayed nights when Mrs. Jensen
+was sick with the flu and everybody else was sick and you couldn't
+get anybody to do--to nurse her--you remember?" She did not give him
+time to answer for she knew that if she paused she could not go on.
+Her momentum kept her going. "You said then--just before I went
+home--you'd--you said I was--you said you'd do me a good turn some
+day, because I helped you. So now a boy that's staying with us--we
+have a refreshment parlor and nobody comes to buy anything--and he
+wants to buy some tents and we have to make a lot of money so will
+you please have them have the County Fair in Berryville this year so
+lots of people will go past our summerhouse?
+
+"We have lemonade and he calls to the people and tells them, only
+there ain't any people. But lots and lots and lots of people come to
+the County Fair from all over, don't they? So now I'd like it for you
+to do me that good turn if you want to pay me back."
+
+Thus Pepsy, standing tremulously but still boldly, her thin little
+hand clutching the lantern, played her one card for the sake of Pee-Wee
+Harris, Scout. Standing there in her oil soaked gingham dress, she made
+demand upon this staunch bank of known probity, for principal and
+interest in the matter of the one great good turn she had one before
+she had ever known of Scout Harris. It never occurred to her as she
+looked with frank expectancy at Mr. Jensen that her naive request was
+quite preposterous.
+
+To his credit be it said, Mr. Jensen did not deny her too abruptly.
+Instead he spread his knees and arms and, smiling genially, beckoned her
+to him.
+
+"I can't, I'm all kerosene," she said.
+
+"Never you mind," he said. "You come and stand right here while I
+tell you how it is." So she set down the lantern and stepped forward and
+stood between his knees and then he lifted her into his lap. "Well,
+well, well, you're quite a girl; you're quite a little girl, ain't you,
+huh? So you came all the way in the dark to ask me that! Here, you sit
+right where you are and never you mind about kerosene; if you ain't
+scared of the dark I reckon I ain't scared of kerosene. Now, I want
+you should listen 'cause I'm going to tell you jes' how it is n' then
+you'll understand. Because I call you a little kind of a--a herro--ine,
+that's what I call you."
+
+He wasn't half wrong about that, either. ...
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXVII
+
+                          SEEN IN THE DARK
+
+So then he told her how it was about the County Fair, which shortly
+would open. He told her very gently and kindly how Northvale had been
+chosen, because it was the county seat and how he was powerless to change
+the plans.
+
+He looked around into her sober face, and sometimes lifted it to his,
+and at almost every hope-blighting sentence, asked her if she did not
+understand. He told her all about how county fairs are big things,
+planned by many men, months and months in advance. And at each pause
+and each gently asked question she nodded silently, as if it was all
+quite clear and plausible, but her heart was breaking.
+
+"But I'm not going to forget that good turn I owe you, no, siree,"
+he added finally as he set her down on the porch, much to Wiggle's
+relief. "And I'm coming down the road to pay you a visit n' look over
+that refreshment store of yours n' see if I can't make some suggestions
+maybe. Now, what do you say to that?"
+
+Pepsy nodded soberly, her thoughts far away.
+
+"You'll see me along there," Mr. Jensen added cheerily, as he patted
+her little shoulder, "n' I give you fair warning I'm the champion
+doughnut eater of Borden County."
+
+She smiled, still wistfully, and gulped, oh ever so little.
+
+"That's what I am," he added with another genial pat. "So now you
+cheer up and run back home and go to bed n' don't you lie awake crying.
+You tell that little scout feller I'm coming to make you a visit n'
+that, I usually drink nine glasses of lemonade. Now you run along and
+get to bed quick."
+
+"Thanks," she said, her voice trembling.
+
+So Pepsy took her way silently along the dark road. Her bank had
+failed, she could do nothing more. This was a strange sequel to
+follow Pee-Wee's glowing representations about good turns. She did
+not understand it. And now that she had failed, the catastrophe in
+the cellar loomed larger, and she saw her nocturnal truancy as a
+serious thing. What would Aunt Jamsiah think of this? Pepsy had been
+forbidden to go away from the farm at night, except to weekly prayer
+meeting.
+
+The crickets sang cheerily as she returned along the dark road, a
+disconsolate little figure, swinging her lantern. She was weary--weary
+from exertion and disappointment and foreboding. Her good scout
+enterprise was suddenly changed into an act of sneaking disobedience.
+The physical exhaustion which follows nervous strain was upon her now
+and her little feet lagged in their soaking shoes and once or twice she
+stumbled with fatigue.
+
+For what burden is heavier than a heavy heart? The soothing voices
+of insect life which soften the darkness and cheer the wayfarer in the
+countryside seemed only to mock her with their myriad care-free songs.
+And to make matters worse there suddenly rang in her ears from far over
+to the west the loud clatter of those loose planks on the old bridge
+along the highway, as a car sped over it:
+
+                     "You have to go back,
+                      You have to go back."
+
+Then the noise ceased suddenly, and there was no sound but the calling
+of a screech-owl somewhere in the intervening woods.
+
+Pepsy sat down on a rock by the roadside partly to rest and partly
+because she did not want to go home. She knew, or she ought to have
+known, that Aunt Jamsiah was pretty sure to be lenient about a harmless
+transgression with so generous a motive. But the warning voice from that
+unseen bridge disconcerted her. It was not long after she was seated
+that her head hung down and soon the gentle comforter of sleep came to
+her and she lay there, pillowing her head on her little thin arm.
+
+But the comforter did not stay long, for Pepsy dreamed a dream.
+She dreamed that all the people of the village, Simeon Drowser,
+Nathaniel Knapp, Darius Dragg, the sneering Deadwood Gamely, and even
+the faithless Arabella Bellison, the school teacher, were pointing
+fingers a yard long, at her and saying, "You have to go back to the
+big brick building. You have to go back, you have to go back." On the
+big doughnut jar in the "refreshment parlor" sat Licorice Stick saying,
+"You have to go back the next time it thunders." She shook her fist at
+Licorice Stick and called him a Smarty and said she would not go back,
+but they all laughed and sang:
+
+                     "You have to go back,
+                      You have to go back."
+
+Miss Bellison was the worst of all. ...
+
+                     "You have to go back,
+                      You have to------"
+
+With a sudden start Pepsy sat up on the rock, wide awake,
+
+                     "-----go back,
+                      You have to go back.",
+
+She still heard.
+
+Her forehead throbbed and her face felt very hot. There was a
+ringing in her ears. She was feverish, but she did not know that.
+All she knew was that everybody was against her and that the bridge
+had put them up to it. She was dizzy and had to put her hand on the
+rock to steady herself. The lantern light was extinguished but she
+did not remember the lantern, or Wiggle. She felt very strange and
+wanted a drink of water. Her hand trembled and her little arm with
+which she braced herself against the rock, felt weak. And her head
+throbbed, throbbed. ...
+
+Where were all those people? She felt around for them. Then she
+heard the voice again, far off through the woods, up along that highway.
+It was just an innocent automobile,
+
+                    "You have to go back."
+
+Pepsy rose to her feet with a start, reeled, reached for a tree,
+and clutched it. "I'll stop it, I'll--I'll make it--it stop--I'll tear
+it--I'll pull them off," she said. "I--I won't--go back--I won't, I won't,
+I won't!"
+
+Staggering across the road she entered the woods. Each tree there
+seemed like two trees. She groped her way among them, dizzy, almost
+falling. Sometimes the woods seemed to be moving. Perhaps it was by
+the merest chance that she stumbled into the trail which led through
+the woods to the highway, ending close to the old bridge.
+
+But once in the familiar path she ran in a kind of frenzy. No doubt
+the fever gave her a kind of temporary, artificial strength, as indeed
+it gave her the crazy resolve somehow to still that haunting voice
+forever. Crazed and reeling she stumbled and ran along, pausing now and
+again to press her throbbing head, then running on again like one
+possessed.
+
+At last she came out of the woods suddenly on to the broad, smooth
+highway. There was the bridge, silent and--no, not dark. For there was
+a bright spot somewhere underneath it and gray smoke wriggling up
+through those cracks between the planks. And there, yes, there,
+crawling away in the darkness was a black figure. A silent, stealthy
+figure, stealing away.
+
+To the dazed, feverish girl, the figure seemed to have two pairs of
+arms. She tried to call but could not. Her scream of delirious fright
+died away into a murmur as she staggered and fell prone upon the ground
+and knew no more.
+
+But never again--never, never would those cruel planks taunt her with
+their heartless prediction. Never would they frighten the poor,
+sensitive, fearful little red-headed orphan girl any more.
+
+
+                          CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+                           STOCK ON HAND
+
+It was Joey Burnside, the burliest and heartiest of the volunteer
+firemen, who carried Pepsy back through the woods to the farm while
+still the conflagration was at its height.
+
+There was not timber enough left from the old bridge to kindle a
+scout camp-fire. A few charred remnants had gone floating down the
+stream and these fugitive remnants drifting into tiny coves and lodging
+in the river's bends were shown by the riverside dwellers as memorials
+of the event which had stirred the countryside more than any other item,
+of neighborhood history. Under the gaping space of disconnected road
+the stream flowed placidly, uninterrupted by all the recent hubbub
+above it. The straight highway looked strange without the bridge.
+
+Pepsy had a fever all that night, but toward morning she fell asleep,
+and Aunt Jamsiah, who had watched her through the night, tiptoed into
+the little room under the eaves and out again to tell Pee-Wee that he
+had better wait, that all Pepsy needed now was rest.
+
+"Can't I just look at her?" Pee-Wee asked. So he was allowed to
+stand in the doorway and see his partner as she lay there sleeping
+the good sleep of utter exhaustion.
+
+"When she wakes up," Aunt Jamsiah said pleasantly.
+
+Pee-Wee knew the circumstances of her being found at the burning
+bridge and brought home, but he asked no questions and Aunt Jamsiah
+said nothing of the events of that momentous night. It seemed to be
+generally understood that this matter was in Aunt Jamsiah's hands
+for thorough consideration later.
+
+Meanwhile Pee-Wee went across the lawn and down the road to the
+scene of their hapless enterprise. The roadside rest could boast now
+of but two jars, one of peppermint sticks and one of gumdrops (both
+in rapid process of consumption) and a number of spools of tire tape.
+But the absence of doughnuts and sausages and lemonade, this was
+nothing. It was the absence of Pepsy that counted.
+
+Pee-Wee took his customary eye-opener, consisting of a gumdrop. He had
+to shake the jar to get a red one, that being the kind he preferred.
+Then he drew his legs up on the counter and proceeded to work upon
+the willow whistle he was making.
+
+His handiwork soon reached that stage of manufacture where it was
+necessary to soak the willow bark in water, so as to cause it to swell.
+He thereupon distributed the remaining gumdrops impartially between his
+mouth and his trousers pocket and filled the empty jar with water,
+dropping his handiwork into it. Thus by gradual stages and without any
+sensational "closing out sales" the refreshment business was steadily
+going into a state of liquidation, even the lemon sticks being reduced
+to a liquid. There was no stock on hand now but two peppermint sticks
+and some tire tape.
+
+Suddenly a most astonishing thing happened. The sound of an
+automobile horn was heard in the distance. A deep, melodious, dignified
+horn. Not since the passing of the six merry maidens had such welcome
+music sounded in Pee-Wee's enraptured ears.
+
+The signs had all been made fight, the ice cream had been made cold,
+the sausages hot, and the ground glass had been put where it belonged.
+No longer did "our taffy stick like glue." Indeed, there was no taffy
+of any kind on hand, notwithstanding these blatant announcements.
+
+Along came the automobile, an eight-cylinder Super Junkster. And,
+yes, it was followed by another, and still another. Pee-Wee could see
+the imposing procession as far down as the bend.
+
+"Some detour," a good-natured voice said.
+
+"Detour? Detour?" Pee-Wee whispered in sudden and terrible
+excitement. Then, as the full purport of the staggering truth burst
+upon him he issued forth from the roadside rest and contemplated the
+approaching pageant with joy bubbling up like soda water in his heart.
+
+"Never mind," said another voice, "we can get some eats in this
+jungle, thank goodness. What I won't do to a couple of hot
+frankfurters."
+
+A sudden chill cooled the fresh enthusiasm of Scout Harris.
+
+"I'll buy every blamed doughnut they've got in the place,"
+somebody shouted. "We won't leave a thing for the rest of the
+cars that have to plow through this jungle. I suppose this is
+what motorists will be up against for six months. What do you know
+about that? This eats merchant ought to clear a couple of million.
+I'll dicker with him for everything hot that he's got, I'm starving."
+
+"Same here!" another shouted.
+
+Frantically, like a soldier waving his country's emblem in the
+last desperate moment of forlorn hope Scout Harris clambered over
+the counter and grasped the jar containing two peppermint sticks.
+
+"Peppermint sticks! Peppermint sticks!" he shouted at the
+advancing column. "Get your peppermint sticks! They quench thirst
+and--and--and satisfy your hunger! They're filling! They warm you up!
+Peppermint is hot! Oh, get your peppermint sticks here!"
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXIX
+
+                       INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS
+
+Pee-Wee emerged safely, if not triumphantly, from this ordeal amid
+much laughter, and was just congratulating himself upon his skillful
+handling of "the trade" in a period of acute shortage when he received
+a knockout blow. In depositing the trifling price of the peppermint
+sticks in his trousers pocket, he discovered there four gumdrops glued
+together and clinging so affectionately that nothing could part them.
+
+At the moment of this discovery, Scout Harris, thus driven into a
+corner and standing at bay with nothing but one huge, consolidated
+gumdrop for defense, heard the unmistakable sound of another car
+crawling over the rocks and hubbles of that outlandish road in second
+gear. On, on, on, it came like some horrible British tank.
+
+And now again he heard voices, "We can eat about twenty of them in
+my patrol y--mm. Are we hungry? Oh, no! Hot frankfurters! Oh, boy, lead
+me to them. I could even eat the sign, I'm so hungry. Put her in high.
+What do we care about the road?"
+
+Pee-Wee listened and waited in terrible suspense. Scouts! He knew
+something about the scout capacity. Then, upon the fresh morning air
+there floated another voice calling a sentence which he knew too well
+it was the good scout motto. "Hey there, you, whoever you are, Mr.
+Refreshment Man? Be Prepared! We're s--c--o--u--t--s we are and we're
+h--u--n--g--r--e--e! We haven't had anything since breakfast at
+four-thirty. We had to come around through this rocky tour or detour or
+whatever you call it. Somebody ate the bridge last night. Are there any
+scouts down in this South African backyard?"
+
+If Pee-Wee had not heard that familiar motto "Be Prepared," he
+would have known the approaching caravan to be scouts by their talk
+and banter.
+
+Be Prepared. Pee-Wee glanced at the bare counter and the empty jars
+and the shiny dishpan which held nothing but Pepsy's ball of worsted and
+the terrible ornamental thing that she was knitting. There they were,
+just as she had laid them the day before. Poor little Pepsy. ...
+
+Then they descended upon him as only hungry scouts can descend.
+Pee-Wee's glowing promises which decorated the woods (and which he
+could not fulfill) had brought the party to a state of distraction.
+It was a big Crackerjack touring car overflowing with scouts and
+driven by a smiling scoutmaster. It seemed as if they ought to have
+been pressed in and down with a shovel like ice cream in a quart box.
+
+"For the love of--" one of them began.
+
+"Look what's here, it's a scout."
+
+"That?" shouted another, "Let's have the magnifying glass, will you?"
+
+Pee-Wee straightened himself up to his full
+height. The big Crackerjack touring car stopped.
+
+"Some detour," the scoutmaster said with an air of infinite relief.
+
+"Do they have scouts down here?" a member of the party asked.
+
+"I'm only staying here, I belong in Bridgeboro, New Jersey,"
+Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Don't talk about bridges," another scout said.
+
+"Talk about something pleasant. A scout is supposed to save life,
+scout law number six; let's have a couple of thousand hot dogs, will
+you? We're dying. And forty-eleven dozen doughnuts with the holes
+removed."
+
+"Do you--I--eh--do you--need any tire tape?" Pee-Wee stammered,
+playing for time. "Tire tape! What do you take us for? A lot of
+blow-outs? Let's have some eats and we'll take care of the blow-out."
+
+"Come on, hurry up, a scout is supposed to be prepared," piped
+up a natty scout wearing the bronze cross.
+
+"Where's all the food?" the scoutmaster asked, glancing at the
+empty counter. "We were led to suppose--"
+
+"Don't you know what a shortage is?" Pee-Wee piped up in sheer
+desperation.
+
+"We know what a shorty is," one of the party shot back.
+
+"You don't expect us to eat a shortage, do you?" another said.
+"Come ahead, hurry up, a scout isn't supposed to be cruel. You can
+always depend on scout signs that you find in the woods. A scout
+that puts scout signs--"
+
+"Those are different kinds of signs!" Pee-Wee shouted. "Those
+are trail signs. You think you're so smart! That shows how much
+you know about--about--"
+
+"Three strikes out," one of the scouts shouted. "About--about
+industrial conditions," Pee-Wee concluded. "Don't you know what
+a--a--what'd you call it--a--"
+
+"Yes, that's what you call it," a scout laughed.
+
+"Don't you know what a reconstruction period is?" Pee-Wee fairly
+yelled, amid uncontrollable laughter. "If something happens like a
+war--or a--a bridge burning down--or something--or other--that makes
+business conditions--what'd you call it--it makes them all kind
+of upside down, doesn't it? Sometimes--kind of--things are hard to
+get. Everybody knows that."
+
+"We can see it," a scout said.
+
+By this time the scoutmaster was laughing heartily but with the
+greatest good humor. Pee-Wee continued bravely, to the great
+amusement of the party.
+
+"Gee whiz, nobody ever came along this road. You admit that scouts
+are hungry, don't you?"
+
+"We proclaim it," said the scoutmaster.
+
+"I ate a lot of the stuff and my aunt wouldn't cook any more
+stuff for us because nobody ever came and it got stale and I ate
+too much of it, that's what she said. So now, anyway, we're going
+to start in again because the business world--and we're--we're going
+to speed up production."
+
+"All right, speed up the auto and good luck to you," the scout
+with the bronze cross said. He seemed to be a patrol leader.
+
+There was a little fraternal chat before this boisterous troop
+moved on and all seemed interested in Pee-Wee and his enterprise.
+They were on their way to camp somewhere down the line. "You'll
+succeed all right," they called back to him, "only be sure to have
+plenty of stuff on hand when we come back in a couple of weeks or
+we'll kill you."
+
+"Do you like waffles and honey?" the proprietor shouted after them.
+
+"We've got the bees working overtime for us," a scout called back.
+
+"I'll have a lot of those--ten cents each," Pee-Wee announced. "Do
+you like clam chowder?" he called, raising his voice to cover the
+increasing distance.
+
+"Don't you make us hungry," one called back.
+
+"Good luck to you, you'll make it a go all right."
+
+"I'm lucky, I always have good luck," the small optimist screamed
+at the top of his voice. "Do you like peanut taffy? Do you like hot
+corn," he added, fairly yelling this sudden inspiration after the
+departing sufferers; "with butter and pepper on it; do you like that?
+I'll have some!"
+
+These were the last words they heard as the big car moved slowly
+over the rocky, grass-grown road. They are good words to end a
+chapter with--hot corn with pepper and butter on it. ...
+
+Oh, boy!
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXX
+
+                            PAID IN FULL
+
+Pee-Wee was just about to make a frantic rush to the house when
+he saw another automobile coming along the road, brushing the projecting
+foliage aside as some stealthily advancing creature might do. Not far
+behind it he could hear other ears grinding along that impossible road
+in second gear.
+
+The world seemed to be making a pathway, of rather a highway,
+to Pee-Wee's door. The sequestered, overgrown road, with its
+intertwined and overarching boughs, was become a surging thoroughfare.
+The birds, formally unmolested in their wonted haunts, complained to
+one another of this sudden intrusion into their domains. Away back
+where this obscure road branched off the highway to furnish the
+unfrequented access to Everdoze and Berryville, a sign had been placed
+that morning with an arrow pointing toward the depths of the Everdoze
+jungle.
+
+                               DETOUR -->
+
+                         HIGHWAY CLOSED. FOLLOW
+                             YELLOW ARROWS.
+
+These yellow arrows appeared at intervals along the Everdoze road,
+thus guiding the motorist back to the highway at a point a mile or two
+below the gap where the bridge had been. Everdoze was on the map now
+in dead earnest. The little hamlet nestling in its wooded valley was
+destined to review such a procession of Pierce-Arrows, and Packards,
+and Cadillacs, aye and Fords and jitney busses, as it had never
+dreamed of in all its humble career.
+
+Who was responsible for this? Or was accident responsible? Who,
+if anyone, by the mere touching of a match had started a blaze which,
+would illuminate poor little Everdoze? Everdoze had gone to bed
+(at eight P. M.) in obscurity. It had awakened to find itself
+dragged into the light of day. Already Constable Bungel was devising
+a formidable code of "traffic regulations"--traps and snares to catch
+the prosperous and make them pay tribute as they passed along.
+
+As early as seven o'clock that vigilant agent of the peace had
+placed a sign in front of the post office (where he was wont to
+loiter) reading, "NO PARKING HERE." But all the while he hoped that
+the unwary would park there and pay the three dollars and costs.
+
+But of all the signs which appeared in Everdoze on that day when
+fate, like an alarm clock, had awakened it out of its slumber, there
+was one which thrilled the soul of Pee-Wee Harris and caused
+consternation to everybody else. This appeared in front of the
+"Town Hall" and at a number of other strategic places in and out
+of the village.
+
+"Come and read it! Come and read it!" shouted little Silas Knapp
+as he madly intercepted Pee-Wee who, as I have said, was about to run
+to the house. "It's a monolopy or somethin' like that--Mr. Drowser says
+so! Come and read it!"
+
+So before going to the house Pee-Wee went and read it. He did not
+know that the stern phraseology had been penned ever so tenderly and
+with a twinkle in the eye, of the writer. He did not know that it was
+a tribute (or shall we say the repayment of a good turn?) to the little
+red-headed girl, who, all unaware of this hubbub, was sleeping in her
+little bedroom under the eaves. Strange that such a little girl could
+thus shake her fist by proxy at the grasping villagers!
+
+                                  NOTICE
+
+               The property on both sides of the road
+               from two miles north of the Everdoze line to
+               the boundary of Ebenezer Quig's farm, is of
+               private ownership.
+
+               Anyone attempting to sell or vend or who
+               erects any tent or shack for such purpose upon
+               said property will be prosecuted to the full
+               extent of the law.
+
+                                           IRA C. JENSEN.
+
+So Pepsy had kept her word after all, her one poor little
+investment of kindness had paid a hundred percent dividend, and
+the partners were the owners of a monopoly, or a monolopy, whichever
+you choose to call it.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXI
+
+                      CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
+
+Along the road and over the stone wall and straight across the
+bed of tiger-lilies sped Pee-Wee, using his own particular mode of
+scout pace, patent not applied for. Across the side porch and into
+the kitchen he went, pell-mell, shouting in a voice to crack the
+heavens.
+
+"It's a monolopy--I mean a monopoly! We've got a monopoly! Where's
+everybody? Hey, Aunt Jamsiah, where are you? Where's Uncle Eb? Hurry
+up and make some doughnuts? There's a detour! Cars--hundreds of
+cars--from the highway--they're coming along the road. You ought to
+see. Where's the ice-pick? Can I have some lemons? Are there any
+cookies left? I left two on the plate last night. Where's the
+sugar so I can--"
+
+He paused in his frenzy of haste and enthusiasm as Aunt Jamsiah
+opened the sitting room door, very quietly and seriously.
+
+"Shh, come in here, Walter," she said.
+
+Her manner, kind, gentle, but serious, disconcerted Pee-Wee and
+chilled his enthusiasm. The very fact that he was summoned into the
+sitting room seemed ominous for that holy of holies was never used;
+not more than once or twice in Pee-Wee's recollection had his own
+dusty shoes stood upon that sacred oval-shaped rag carpet. Never
+before had he found himself within reaching distance of that plush
+album that stood on its wire holder on the marble table.
+
+This solemn apartment was the only room in the house that had a
+floor covering and the fact that Pee-Wee could not hear his own
+foot-falls agitated him strangely. Uncle Eb sat in the corner near
+the melodeon looking strangely out of place in his ticking overalls.
+
+"Is--is she--dead?" Pee-Wee whispered fearfully.
+
+"Sit down, Walter," said Aunt Jamsiah; "no, she isn't dead, she's
+better."
+
+Uncle Eb said nothing, only watched Pee-Wee keenly.
+
+Pee-Wee seated himself, feeling very uncomfortable.
+
+"Walter," said his aunt, "something very serious has happened and
+I'm going to ask one or two questions. You will tell me the truth,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'll answer fer him doin' that," said Uncle Eb.
+
+"Sure I will," said Pee-Wee proudly.
+
+"Walter, do you know what Pepsy's secret was? You remember she
+said she had a secret that would make lots and lots of people come
+and buy things from you?"
+
+"Girls are--" Pee-Wee began. He was going to say they were crazy,
+but remembering the one that lay upstairs he caught himself up and
+said, "they're kind of--they think they have big ideas when they
+haven't. I should worry about their secrets."
+
+"But some of Pepsy's ideas and plans have been very big, Walter,"
+his aunt said ruefully. "You see we know her better than you do. She's
+very, very queer; I'm afraid no one understands her."
+
+"I understand her," said Pee-Wee. "She believes in bad luck days."
+
+Aunt Jamsiah paused a moment, considering; then she went straight
+to the point. "Pepsy wants to do right, dear, but she will do wrong
+in order to do right--sometimes. We have always been a little fearful
+of her for that reason. She--she can't argue in her own mind and consider
+things as--as you do."
+
+"I know lots of dandy arguments," Pee-Wee announced.
+
+"You know, Walter, her father was a--he was a--not a very good man.
+And Pepsy is--queer. Last night she made a dreadful mess in the cellar.
+She was at the kerosene; oh, it makes me just sick to think of it.
+She had some rags soaked with kerosene. Some of them were found out
+by the well. The others--" Aunt Jamsiah lifted her handkerchief to her
+eyes and wept for a moment, silently.
+
+"What others?" Pee-Wee asked.
+
+"The ones that were used to set fire to the bridge, dear. Oh, it's
+terrible to think of it. Poor, poor Pepsy. That is what is bringing
+lots and lots of people along our road to-day, Walter. Pepsy was found
+lying unconscious near the bridge. She had kerosene all over her. One
+charred rag was found over there. It just makes me--it makes me--"
+
+Pee-Wee arose and laid one hand on the back of the hair-cloth
+chair. He, too, was concerned now.
+
+"You--you didn't tell her--you didn't blame--accuse her--did you?"
+he asked.
+
+"No, I didn't," his aunt breathed worriedly.
+
+"I asked her to tell me all about last night and she would tell
+me nothing. She said that the planks on the bridge tormented her.
+To almost everything I asked her she said, 'I won't tell.' She is
+very, very stubborn; she was always so."
+
+"Because, anyway," Pee-Wee said, alluding to his former query,
+"if anybody says she burned down the bridge on purpose it's a lie.
+I don't care who says it, it's a lie. She's--she's my partner--and
+it's a lie. If--even--if the minister says it, it's a lie!"
+
+"Listen, my dear boy," said his aunt kindly. "I'm not angry with
+Pepsy, poor child. I'm not accusing her, and you mustn't talk about
+the Rev. Mr. Gloomer telling lies. Pepsy tried to burn down the
+orphan home once, for some trifling grievance. We can't take the
+responsibility of the poor child any longer. I'm afraid that any
+minute Beriah Bungel will want to take her--arrest her. I know she's
+your partner, dear, but it would be better for us to send her back
+to the state home where she will probably be kept than to let her
+be arrested. I don't think she knew what she was doing, poor, poor
+child--"
+
+Aunt Jamsiah broke down completely, crying in her handkerchief.
+So Uncle Eb finished what little there was to say.
+
+"We had to send fer 'em, Walter," said he. "She'll be better
+off there fer a spell, I reckon. I ain't so sure about her doin'
+it, though it looks bad. Least ways, she didn't know what she was
+doing. But don't you worry--"
+
+Pee-Wee did not wait to hear more. He just could not stand there.
+
+"When--when are they--coming?" he asked. "I reckon to--morrow, boy.
+Now, you look here--."
+
+But Pee-Wee had gone.
+
+Up the narrow, boxed-in stairs he went, never asking permission.
+He could see nothing but a big enclosed wagon, dark inside, with
+Pepsy inside it. He had no more idea what he was going to do that
+day than the man in the moon. But he knew what he was going to do
+that very minute. When a scout makes up his mind to do a thing. ...
+
+Into the little room under the eaves he strode, his eyes
+glistening, but his heart staunch and his resolve indomitable.
+And she smiled when she saw him. She was sitting up and she looked
+ever so little in her nightclothes and ever so plain with her tightly
+braided red hair. But her eyes were clear and she smiled when she
+looked at him. ...
+
+"I won't tell anybody where I went," she said, "because I was a
+smarty and I thought I could make somebody do a good turn ever
+so--ever so big. And they'd only laugh at me if I told them what
+it was. So I'm not going to be a tell-tale cat."
+
+"Pep," he said, "it shows that you're right because lots and lots
+of automobiles are coming along our road since the old bridge burned
+down and it's a detour and that means hundreds and hundreds of them
+have to go past our refreshment place and we're going to make lots
+of money. And I thought of a dandy idea, it's what they call an
+inspiration. We're going to name the place Pepsy Rest, because Pepsy
+will remind people to buy chewing gum, because that has pepsin in it
+and as soon as you're all well we'll start in and keep on being
+partners, because we have a monopoly. Do you know what that is? It's
+when you can sell all you want of something and nobody else can sell
+it. ...
+
+"Mr. Jensen, he put up a sign, and he said no one should sell
+things on his property and he owns all the property along the road,
+and you bet everybody is scared of him. So now we're going to have a
+great big business and we began as poor boys, I mean girls, I mean a
+boy and a girl. So don't you believe anything that anybody tells you,
+not even--not even Aunt Jamsiah. Because you know how I told you I
+was a good fixer and I'm always lucky, you have to admit that."
+
+"Can I be the one to count the money?" Pepsy asked.
+
+"Sure, and I'll be the one to eat what's left of the things that
+won't keep," said Pee-Wee. "Only don't you worry no matter what you
+hear--"
+
+She was on the point of telling him how Mr. Jensen had done his
+good turn after all, and all about what she remembered of the
+previous night. But she decided that she was not going to have a
+boy laughing at her and put it within his power to call her a
+tell-tale cat some day. So instead she threw her arms around him
+and said, "Oh goody, goody!"
+
+You know how girls do.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXII
+
+                              THE CLEW
+
+ Pee-Wee never knew until now how much he cared about his little
+companion of the summer and how little he cared about their roadside
+enterprise except so far as she was concerned in it. All morning the
+almost continuous procession passed along the road reviewed by a
+gaping assemblage on the platform in front of the post office. Many
+motorists who read the enticing promises along the way paused for
+refreshment only to find the little rustic shelter bare and deserted.
+
+But they were not the only ones to be disappointed. Upon the front
+porch of Doctor Killem's house there sat in a wheel chair the queerest
+little figure ever seen outside of a soup advertisement. He was of the
+kewpie type, all head and eyes, and he had a kind of ridiculous air of
+stern authority about him as he sat all bundled up in blankets soberly
+reviewing the passing cars. So odd and gnomelike was he that he might
+have stepped out of the pages of "Alice in Wonderland." He would have
+made a good radiator ornament on an automobile.
+
+This, you will know, was little Whitie Bungel, who seemed not
+at all disconcerted at being elsewhere than in his own home. He had
+been moved about so much without any exertion on his own part that
+he was quite at home anywhere.
+
+Though Pee-Wee had spoken in high hope to Pepsy about their
+unexpected and glowing prospects, he was haunted by thoughts of
+the terrible thing which was to happen on the morrow. Pepsy was
+to be taken away, back to the big brick building which she hated,
+just as the planks of the old bridge had foretold;
+
+Pee-Wee's loyalty was so staunch that he did not even consider
+the things his aunt had said. He was going to save Pepsy from that
+place and make her the sharer of the fortune that was within their
+grasp. He made this resolve with the same generous impulse as that
+which had caused him to put two hundred and fifty dollars within
+the reach of Mr. Bungel who had boxed his ears.
+
+"I'm lucky," he said to himself as he trudged down to the post
+office; "I'll fix things all right. I'll show them; I don't care,
+I'll show them. They won't take her back to that place, not while
+I'm around."
+
+He did not know how he was going to prevent this but he had
+unbounded faith in his capacity to fix things and in his good luck.
+
+So, as he trudged along, stepping out of the way of many cars, he
+came to the home of Doctor Killem.
+
+"Hello, soldier," piped up a little thin voice upon the porch.
+
+ "I'm not a soldier," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"My father can arrest people," said the little gnome, looking
+straight ahead of him.
+
+"That doesn't prove I'm a soldier," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"You've got a uniform," said the gnome. "I'm not afraid of
+soldiers. My father's got a lot of money, he's got two hundred
+and fifty dollars and I'm not going to get dead."
+
+"Where's your father?" Pee-Wee asked.
+
+"He's up the road and he's going to catch people and put them
+in jail."
+
+"Is he?"
+
+"Why do you say 'Is he?' I didn't go to the hospital last
+night. Do you want to know why?" He asked questions as if they
+were riddles.
+
+"Yes, why?" Pee-Wee asked, half interested.
+
+"Because the bridge burned down. Do you like bridges?"
+
+"It isn't a question of whether a person likes them or not,"
+Pee-Wee said; preoccupied with his own sorrow and worry, yet
+amused in spite of himself at this queer little fellow.
+
+"Yes it is," said Whitie Bungel.
+
+"All right then, it is," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"Why did you say it wasn't?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, I guess I was thinking of something else."
+
+"What were you thinking of?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know--nothing."
+
+"Why did you say you were?"
+
+"You didn't tell me about why you didn't go to the hospital last
+night."
+
+"I can see things that other folks can't see," Whitie announced.
+
+"You're like Licorice Stick," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"He's black," Whitie said.
+
+"I know he is."
+
+"Then how am I like him? I'm white. My name is Whitie."
+
+Pee-Wee felt like a prisoner at the bar of justice with this
+little personage swathed in blankets, staring down at him. His
+wrappings covered his neck and all that could be seen of him was
+his face, perfectly motionless. Finally he said as if he were
+pronouncing sentence.
+
+"Doctor Killem took me in his auto. We had to turn around and come
+back when we came to the bridge burning down. He's going to take me
+another way. I saw a man getting dead,"
+
+"Where?" Pee-Wee asked, his interest somewhat aroused,
+
+"Will you give me that tin thing if I tell you?"
+
+"That isn't a tin thing, it's a compass, it tells you which way to go.
+
+"Can it talk?"
+
+"No, it can't talk."
+
+"Then how can it tell you?"
+
+"It points its finger."
+
+"You're crazy."
+
+"All right," Pee-Wee laughed in spite of himself. "You tell me
+about the man getting dead and I'll give you the tin thing."
+
+"He was lying down in the bushes and wriggling."
+
+"Where? Near the bridge?" Pee-Wee asked.
+
+"Doctor Killem didn't see him and he laughed at me. He said I was
+seeing things. Can you wriggle? I looked back out of the window and
+saw him."
+
+"Did you tell your father about it?" Pee-Wee asked, hardly
+knowing what to think of this information.
+
+"My mother made him give her the two hundred and fifty dollars
+so I wouldn't get dead. Do you know what I'm going to be when I grow up?"
+
+"No; what?"
+
+"A giant."
+
+"Well, you'd better hurry up about it."
+
+"Do you know where my father got that two hundred and fifty dollars?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"It was a prize for catching thieves. You can't catch thieves."
+
+"I know it," Pee-Wee said.
+
+"Are you going to be a thief when you grow up?"
+
+"No, I guess not," said Pee-Wee.
+
+"You can have three guesses."
+
+"All right, I guess not three times. Now, tell me if you told your
+father about seeing that man getting dead."
+
+"Yes, and he said I'm always seeing things; everybody says that.
+Maybe I'll get dead when it rains."
+
+"Don't you believe it," Pee-Wee said; "Licorice Stick's been
+telling you that. Didn't you say you were going to be a giant first?"
+
+"You're not a giant."
+
+Alas, Pee-Wee knew this only too well. He knew too that it would
+be quite impossible to get anything in the way of a connected
+narrative out of this stern little autocrat. Whether he had actually
+been "seeing things" or had only seen something in his queer little
+inner life, who should say? Evidently no one took him very seriously.
+And this fact did not seem to trouble him at all. Removing the
+compass cord from about his neck, Pee-Wee advanced to proffer his
+second gift to the Bungel family. Little did that stiff, serious
+little figure know that the much-needed money which Mrs. Bungel had
+been wise enough to take from her husband, had come from the same
+source. Pee-Wee searched in vain for any sign of hands in those
+enveloping blankets. There were no hands, there seemed to be no
+body even; just two eyes looking straight ahead as if their owner
+were not going to assist at all in the transfer of the little gift.
+So Pee-Wee laid the compass on the porch rail.
+
+"There you are," he said; "that needle always points to the north."
+
+The two severe eyes stared down at the compass on the rail but
+their owner made no attempt to reach it as Pee-Wee started off. If
+Pee-Wee had not been so worried and preoccupied he would have thought
+that he had never seen anything so absurdly amusing in all his life.
+
+"Come back and say good-by," the little voice commanded.
+
+Pee-Wee returned and stood in the exact spot where he had stood
+before and said, "Good-by." Although the little pale face did not
+turn the fraction of an inch, the staring eyes followed Pee-Wee as
+he went along the road.
+
+
+                          CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+                        THE TRAMPLED TRAIL
+
+Pee-Wee felt as if he were emerging from some enchanted spot in
+the "Arabian Nights," abounding with giants and men "getting dead."
+He had no more belief in what this imperious little imp had told him
+than he had in the predictions of Licorice Stick, or the homely
+superstitions of Pepsy.
+
+Indeed, if he had thought seriously of these erratic snapshot
+bits of information about figures wriggling in the dark and "getting
+dead" he would never have mentioned these things to Licorice Stick
+whom he ran plunk into as that aggregation of rags and nonsense sat
+upon a stone wall up the road engaged in the profitable occupation
+of watching the passing cars. Licorice Stick's business was
+contemplating the world and he always attended strictly to business.
+
+"Lordy me!" he said, rolling his eyes, "you don' go nowheres
+that kid 'e tell you. Dat wrigglin' man, he no man, he a sperrit.
+Don' you go near dat bridge, you get a spell. Yo keep away f'm dat
+bridge."
+
+How much this had to do with Pee-Wee's actually going to the
+scene of the fire it would be hard to say. If he had not talked
+with Whitie he probably would not have gone. At all events, he had
+nothing else to do and he wanted to think. So he followed the trail
+through the woods to the highway.
+
+It seemed quite probable that Whitie's jerky sentences were about
+true, that the doctor had been compelled to turn back by reason of
+the burning bridge. The fact that Whitie was holding his imperial
+court on the doctor's porch made this part of his story seem true.
+
+Perhaps it would be about right to say that little Whitie's
+spasmodic announcements directed Pee-Wee in his idle wanderings on
+that morning when he was fearful and sick at heart.
+
+Long afterwards he remembered with interest that it was little
+Whitie Bungel (for whose recovery he had sacrificed two hundred and
+fifty dollars and not a little glory) who put him in the way of
+the terrible discovery that he made on that fateful day. And the
+funny thing about it was that the little gnome had given the clue
+to his benefactor and not his father who knew nothing about the
+frightful revelation of that morning until it was all over.
+
+So perhaps there is a little god of good turns after all, who,
+all unseen, administers punches in the nose and pays back two
+hundred and fifty dollar gifts and so forth, and has the time of
+his life watching how these things work out. Or a "pay back sperrit"
+as Licorice Stick might have called him. ...
+
+As Pee-Wee approached the scene of the fire he saw in the bushes
+something which caught his eye. This was a torn fragment of clothing.
+The bushes were trampled down at the spot. It was not hard for the
+scout to follow this line of trampled brush which was so disordered
+that he thought it could not have been caused by a walking or fleeing
+person. It was well away from the area where the men had fought the
+flames.
+
+Here and there something brown and sticky on the leaves caught
+the scout's eye. Some one had crawled stealthily through here. Or
+else dragged himself through. Pee-Wee shuddered at this thought.
+He examined the trampled channel more carefully. And from this
+examination he was satisfied of one fact which made him uneasy,
+apprehensive.
+
+The weight which had crushed the bush down had been a prone, dead
+weight. At intervals of perhaps three or four feet were gathered
+wounded strands of the tall grass, as if some groping hand had
+reached ahead, gathering and pulling on them. Pulling a helpless
+weight. Pee-Wee knew this for he saw with the eyes of a scout.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+                          THE TRAIL'S END
+
+This trampled channel petered out in a comparatively bare area
+across which was more brush. Almost hidden in this was a tumbled-down
+shack, hardly bigger than a closet, in which boys who had been wont
+to dive from the old bridge had donned their bathing suits. It had
+been thrown together as a storage place for fishing tackle and crab
+nets and these latter, rotten and gray with age still hung in the
+dank, musty place.
+
+Pee-Wee paused a moment, irresolute, nervous. He had a strange
+feeling, a feeling of apprehension which amounted to a certainty.
+And as he paused two charred bits of timber from the old bridge,
+still held together by a rusty brace, creaked, and the creaking
+seemed loud in the stillness of desolation.
+
+A rusty can, the discarded receptacle of bait, lay at his feet,
+and in his hesitation and transient fear, he kicked it, and followed
+it, kicking it again. Then, banishing such cracked-up excuses for
+delay he put aside his fears and went around the tiny shelter to
+where the rotted door hung loose upon one broken hinge.
+
+Within lay a human figure. The hair was wet and matted and
+prickly leaves were stuck in it. The face was streaked with
+blood, the clothes were torn. One of the legs lay in a very
+unnatural attitude. The eyes were wide open and staring with a
+glassy look at some rough fishing rods which lay across the rafters
+above. One of the arms was outstretched and the hand lay open as if
+its owner were saying, "Here I am, you see." There was something
+very appalling about that dumb attitude of speech and welcome when
+the voice and the eyes could not speak. For he had "got dead," this
+poor troubled creature "got dead" after committing one hideous
+crime to hide another.
+
+The people in the nearest house along the now deserted highway
+came at Pee-Wee's breathless summons and gazed down silently but
+would not touch the figure with outstretched arm and opened hand
+that seemed to say, "Step in, you're welcome, here I am."
+
+So they called the coroner and the body of Deadwood Gamely was borne
+away and it was soon known that he had died from injuries received
+in falling down the embankment which he was scrambling up after
+setting fire to one of the supports of the old bridge.
+
+He had not done this horrible thing willfully, at least not
+for money to spend. That very day a warrant was issued for his
+arrest in Baxter City for embezzlement of funds which he had stolen
+from the bank in which he had been employed. But the angel of death
+had traveled faster than the law.
+
+That the contractors, or one of them, who wished to benefit the
+county with a modern bridge had offered Gamely pay to do this
+dreadful deed of arson seemed certain. But it seemed equally certain
+that the wretched boy had balked at this frightful enterprise,
+putting it off from day to day, until discovery and arrest for his
+other crime stared him in the face. He had waited till the very night
+before the day on which his petty thefts would be revealed. Then in
+frantic desperation he had taken this only means of acquiring a sum
+of money quickly. No one could say this for a certainty.
+
+But in a story where we have witnessed so many good turns may we
+not dismiss poor Deadwood Gamely and his tragic end from our thoughts
+with the hope, nay, even the confidence, that his second crime was not
+a deed of willing choice? There was more money misappropriated by Tom,
+Dick and Harry, before the new steel bridge was up than ever poor
+Deadwood Gamely, with his silly clothes and hat, would have dared
+to steal. And so the tax rate went up and Commissioner
+Somebody--or--other got a new automobile and County Engineer Grabson
+built a big house and so on, and so on, and so on.
+
+But before the new million-dollar bridge was finished the Pepsy
+Roadside Rest was flourishing as the only real "monolopy" in Everdoze.
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXV
+
+                               EXIT
+
+So it befell that the big black wagon belonging to the brick
+orphan home came and turned around and went back again. It got in
+the way of all the automobiles that were headed for The Home of Fresh
+Doughnuts (a new sign) and was a nuisance generally. The men who drove
+it didn't buy so much as a gumdrop.
+
+But what cared the partners? For such a business were they doing
+as would make the Standard Oil Company turn green with envy. Their
+financial rating was so high that you couldn't see it without a
+telescope. Every time there was a strike over at the new bridge the
+partners reaped a profit from the delay. Thus labor unconsciously put
+business in the way of monopolies.
+
+And so the great enterprise prospered. The advertising department
+had now two steady employees--Licorice Stick and Wiggle. Licorice Stick
+covered the road up as far as Berryville with a huge placard hung from
+his neck. Wiggle proudly flew an inflated balloon from his tail bearing
+the appropriate reminder HOT DOGS AT THE PEPSY REST.
+
+One evening, oh, it must have been about six o'clock, the weary
+partners were closing up their little shack for the night. Pepsy was
+counting the money and Pee-Wee was eating the cookies that were left
+over. For he was conscientious and must open shop with a fresh supply
+each day. Sometimes he would have a dozen or more to eat, but he did
+it bravely--from a sense of duty. A scout is dutiful.
+
+Presently there hove in sight a large figure, walking.
+
+"Oh, it's Mr. Jensen," said Pepsy; "hurry up and finish the
+cookies or he'll want them; he always does that."
+
+Mr. Jensen came up mopping his forehead.
+
+"Any lemonade left?" he asked.
+
+"There's about one glass," Pee-Wee said.
+
+In accordance with his invariable daily custom, Mr. Jensen bought
+up the remainder of stock, drank several glasses of cider, and chatted
+with the partners.
+
+"Ain't heard of any rivals, have you?" he asked. "We've got the whole
+detour eating out of our hands," said Pee-Wee, which was literally true.
+
+"Makin' money fast, huh? You takin' good care of this little gal
+of mine?"
+
+Pepsy smiled at him and he put his arm around her and kissed her
+and said, "If he don't take good care of you, you just come and let
+me know ."
+
+Then he winked at Pee-Wee.
+
+When he was gone something reminded Pee-Wee to look into the big
+lemonade cooler and make sure that it was empty. It was not quite
+empty, there being about ten lemon pits, a slice of rind, and a small
+piece of ice left in the bottom of it. But this was worth going after
+and Pee-Wee went after it. With all his strength he raised the goodly
+cooler to a position above his head and tilted it to his mouth. His
+arms trembled under its weight, and his hands slipped upon its cold,
+beady sides. The several drops of highly diluted lemonade trickled
+down into his mouth but the flavory pits and rind remained at bay at
+the bottom of the cooler.
+
+They would not roll but they might fall. Pee-Wee held the cooler
+up to a perfectly perpendicular position above his upturned face.
+Then, oh, horrors! The wet cooler slipped through his hands and the
+curly head of Pee-Wee Harris disappeared within it. If the postman
+who found him wrestling valiantly with a banana and clinging with
+the other hand, could only have seen him in this new and terrible
+predicament!
+
+And thus the curly head and terribly frowning countenance of
+Scout Harris disappears out of our story into a new realm of joy. ...
+
+
+
+                                 THE END
+
+
+
+Other books by Percy Keese Fitzhugh (7 Sep 1876 - 5 Jul 1950).  Note
+that characters from each series crossover to or are mentioned in the
+others.
+
+ 1 - Pee-Wee Harris                              - 1922
+ 2 - Pee-Wee Harris On The Trail                 - 1922
+ 3 - Pee-Wee Harris In Camp                      - 1922
+ 4 - Pee-Wee Harris In Luck                      - 1922
+ 5 - Pee-Wee Harris Adrift                       - 1922
+ 6 - Pee-Wee Harris F.O.B. Bridgeboro            - 1923
+ 7 - Pee-Wee Harris: Fixer                       - 1924
+ 8 - Pee-Wee Harris As Good As His Word          - 1925
+ 9 - Pee-Wee Harris: Mayor for a Day             - 1926
+10 - Pee-Wee Harris and The Sunken Treasure      - 1927
+11 - Pee-Wee Harris On The Briny Deep            - 1928
+12 - Pee-Wee Harris In Darkest Africa            - 1929
+13 - Pee-Wee Harris Turns Detective              - 1930
+
+ 1 - Roy Blakeley                                - 1920
+ 2 - Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp           - 1920
+ 3 - Roy Blakeley  Pathfinder                    - 1920
+ 4 - Roy Blakeley's Camp On Wheels               - 1920
+ 5 - Roy Blakeley's Silver Fox Patrol            - 1920
+ 6 - Roy Blakeley's Motor Caravan                - 1921
+ 7 - Roy Blakeley  Lost  Strayed or Stolen       - 1921
+ 8 - Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike                - 1922
+ 9 - Roy Blakeley at The Haunted Camp            - 1922
+10 - Roy Blakeley's Funny-Bone Hike              - 1923
+11 - Roy Blakeley's Tangled Trail                - 1924
+12 - Roy Blakeley on the Mohawk Trail            - 1925
+13 - Roy Blakeley's Elastic Hike                 - 1926
+14 - Roy Blakeley's Roundabout Hike              - 1927
+15 - Roy Blakeley's Happy-Go-Lucky Hike          - 1928
+16 - Roy Blakeley's Go-As-You Please Hike        - 1929
+
+ 1 - Tom Slade - Boy Scout                       - 1915
+ 2 - Tom Slade At Temple Camp                    - 1917
+ 3 - Tom Slade On The River                      - 1917
+ 4 - Tom Slade With The Colors                   - 1918
+ 5 - Tom Slade On A Transport                    - 1918
+ 6 - Tom Slade With The Boys Over There          - 1918
+ 7 - Tom Slade' Motor-cycle Dispatch Bearer      - 1918
+ 8 - Tom Slade With The Flying Corps             - 1919
+ 9 - Tom Slade at Black Lake                     - 1920
+10 - Tom Slade On Mystery Trail                  - 1921
+11 - Tom Slade's Double Dare                     - 1922
+12 - Tom Slade On Overlook Mountain              - 1923
+13 - Tom Slade Picks a Winner                    - 1924
+14 - Tom Slade At Bear Mountain                  - 1925
+15 - Tom Slade: Forest Ranger                    - 1926
+16 - Tom Slade At Shadow Isle                    - 1928
+17 - Tom Slade In The North Woods                - 1927
+18 - Tom Slade in the Haunted Cavern             - 1929
+19 - Tom Slade Parachute Jumper                  - 1930
+
+ 1 - Westy Martin                                - 1924
+ 2 - Westy Martin In The Yellowstone             - 1924
+ 3 - Westy Martin In The Rockies                 - 1925
+ 4 - Westy Martin On The Santa Fe Trail          - 1926
+ 5 - Westy Martin On The Old Indian Trail        - 1928
+ 6 - Westy Martin In The Land Of The Purple Sage - 1929
+ 7 - Westy Martin On The Mississippi             - 1930
+ 8 - Westy Martin In The Sierras                 - 1931
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pee-Wee Harris,
+by Percy Keese Fitzhugh
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE HARRIS ***
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