ink that just because I fell down--gee, that could happen to the
smartest man--even--even--_Edison_----"

"Sure," I said, "lots of times Edison fell down."

"Scouts can do anything," Pee-wee said. I guess after what had happened
he wanted to let those girls know that just because a scout fell down,
it didn't prove he wasn't smart.

"Hurrah for P. Harris," I said.

"Oh, is _he_ P. Harris?" one of the girls said; "Oh, isn't that
_glorious_! Is he the one that stirs soup?"

By that I knew they must have seen one of the handbills.

"Oh, we're _all_ coming to-night to see him stir it," she said; "our
camp is just across the lake from Ridgeboro. Don't you think Ridgeboro
is a _poky_ old place? We'll canoe over. We're camping over the holiday
and we call our camp, _Camp Smile Awhile_. Isn't that just a _peachy_
name?"

Connie said, "I should think a girls' camp ought to be named _Camp
Giggle a Lot_."

"Oh, aren't you _perfectly terrible_!" one of them said; "the _idea! Is
it ten cents to get in? Have you really got a railroad car of your _very
own_? Oh, I think that's just simply _scrumptious_. I wish I were a
boy."

"That's nothing," Pee-wee said; "we hike hundreds of miles. Once we got
lost on a mountain--we didn't care. We were lost two days. We could have
been lost three if we'd wanted to."

"Only what's the use of being extravagant?" I said.

"Once I fell down a cliff forty feet high," Pee-Wee said; "that's
nothing."

"Oh, and didn't you _kill_ yourself?" one of the girls wanted to know.

"Sure he did," Westy said; "but he's all right now."

"It's fine being a boy," Pee-wee said; "gee, I feel sorry for girls."

"Oh, and you can sew, too?" one of them asked him. "And cook?"

"Cook!" I said. "He used to be the chef in the Waldorf Castoria."

"Scouts have to know how to do everything," Pee-wee told her; "because
suppose a scout is alone in the woods; he has to cook his dinner,
doesn't he? He has to know how to do everything for himself, see?
That's why I'll sew this jacket myself. That's what you call
resourcefulness. A scout has to be full of that, see?"

"Oh, I think it's just _wonderful_!" the girl said.

"That's nothing," Pee-wee told her; "you can even cook moss and eat it
if you're lost and hungry. Once I went two days without food."

"You mean two hours," Connie said.

"Anyway, it was _two_ something or other," Pee-wee shouted.

"Most likely it was two minutes," I told the girl.

"And you