im it
meant just exactly what it said. And so he had asked his patrol leader
if it would be all right for three to go instead of two. It was a small
matter and of course it was all right, as any scoutmaster or National
Scout Somebody-or-other would have agreed. The point is that Warde's
thinking about it was very characteristic of him. In this instance he
accepted his patrol leader's decision....

CHAPTER XIII

WARDE IS IN EARNEST

It was not likely that Warde Hollister would forget his note book, for
his habit of keen observation and a knack he had for full and truthful
description had won him the post of troop scribe which Artie Van Arlen's
duties as Raven patrol leader had compelled him to relinquish.

"If it's seven miles there," said Warde, plainly elated at the thought
of accompanying them, "all I'll have to do is to write my little
description when I get back and there you are."

"A first class scout," said Pee-wee, quite as delighted as his friend.

"It says fourteen miles there and back," said Roy. "Maybe it'll be seven
miles there but we don't know how far it will be back. Sometimes it's
longer one way than another. You never can tell."

"You make me tired," said Pee-wee.

"All right, you're so clever," said Roy; "how far is ten miles?"

"How _far?_"

"That's what I said."

"You're crazy," Pee-wee shouted.

"Answer in the affirmative," said Roy. "There's a grasshopper, get out
your note book.... Do you know what he did once?" he asked, turning to
Warde. "He wouldn't jot down a fountain in Bronx Park because he didn't
have a fountain pen--"

"You're crazy!" Pee-wee shouted.

"He went into a store and asked for the handbook and when they told him
they didn't have one he asked for the feetbook. He thinks the feetbook
has got all the daring feats in it. He--"

"Don't you believe him," Pee-wee yelled.

"Before he was in the scouts he used to be a radiator ornament on an
automobile," Roy persisted. "There's a caterpillar, enter him up, Kid,"
he added.

"Up at Temple Camp," Pee-wee yelled in merciless retaliation,
"they--they told him he could play on the veranda and he said he could
only play on the harmonica!"

"I admit it," Roy said. "That was when I was a second-hand scout."

"They ought to be called the Nickel Foxes, that's what all the scouts up
at Temple Camp say," Pee-wee shouted. "Because none of them ever have
more than five cents."

"The Raving Ravens haven't got any sens