n, I saw that, but he was having the time of his life,
just the same.

"Some Daniel Boone," Will Dawson said. But I told them not to make fun of
him.

All the while I kept wondering if Skinny really thought that axe was his
very own like he said. And it seemed sort of funny that he could be
getting so much fun out of it. Oftentimes he would get tired and begin to
cough and Connie would make him sit down and rest. Then he would show his
axe to the fellows and match it to theirs and say he liked his best. I
don't know, maybe there was something wrong about Skinny. Maybe he was
more crazy about weapons than he was about scouting. He didn't seem to
think ahoot anything except cutting down that sapling, and the more of a
botch he made out of it, the harder he worked. I remembered something Mr.
Ellsworth said to Tom Slade about not caring more for his gun than he did
for his country. But, gee, when I thought about what Skinny said about
the two things he liked most, the axe and the law about honor, good
night, I couldn't understand him at all.

Illustration #3

"Every time Skinny hit, he hit in a different place"

Pretty soon I began worrying about Westy, because something is always
delaying that fellow, and I even hoped that he wouldn't stumble over
any more good turns, until this day's work was over. If Westy fell out
of a ten-story building, he'd do a good turn on the way down--that's the
way he is.

Well, pretty soon I heard him coming through the woods on the dead run.
We all stopped working and laughed, because he was coming along like
a marathon runner. All except Skinny-he went right on chopping away and
the sapling looked as if a cow had been chewing it.

I don't know, but something or other made me feel kind of mad at him all
of a sudden, and I didn't laugh at him.

Then he called over to me and he said, "Look how I'm chopping it down
with my axe! See?" "Who's axe?" I said, because I just couldn't help it.

"Look! See?" he shouted, all excited; "ain't I a good chopper--ain't I?"

Maybe you won't understand how it was, because, gee, I can't tell things
so you'll see them just right. Anyway, I'm not excusing myself, that's
one thing. But I just looked over at Skinny and I said:

"I don't want to look at your axe! Shut up you little--" I was going to
call him a little thief, but I'm mighty glad I didn't. "Can't you see
I'm looking at something else?" I said, kind of mad. "You'd be better
off if you never