ten 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 j