an envelope with an enclosure similar to
many which he had received of late. He suspected their source. This one
read as follows:

If you want to be a scout,
You must watch what you're about,
And never let a chance for mischief pass.
You may win the golden cross
If your ball you gayly toss
Through the middle of a neighbor's pane of glass.

CHAPTER IV

TOM AND ROY

The letter from Mary Temple fell on Camp Solitaire like a thunderbolt.
Camp Solitaire was the name which Roy had given his own cosy little tent
on the Blakeley lawn, and here he and Tom were packing duffel bags and
sharpening belt axes ready for their long tramp when the note from
Grantley Square was scaled to them by the postman as he made a short cut
across the lawn.

"What do you know about that?" said Roy, clearly annoyed. "We can't take
_him_; he's too small. Who's going to take the responsibility? This is a
team hike."

"You don't suppose he put the idea in her head, do you?" Tom asked.

"Oh, I don't know. You saw yourself how crazy he was about it."

"Pee-wee's all right," said Tom.

"Sure he's all right. He's the best little camp mascot that ever
happened. But how are we going to take him along on this hike? And
what's he going to do when he gets there?"

"He could help us on the troop cabin--getting it ready," Tom suggested.

Roy threw the letter aside in disgust. "That's a girl all over," he
said, as he sulkily packed his duffel bag. "She doesn't think of what it
means--she just wants it done, that's all, so she sends her
what-d'you-call-it--edict. Pee-wee can't stand for a hundred and forty
mile hike. We'd have to get a baby carriage!"

He went on with his packing, thrusting things into the depths of his
duffel bag half-heartedly and with but a fraction of his usual skill.
"You know as well as I do about team hikes. How can we fix this up for
three _now_? We've got everything ready and made all our plans; now it
seems we've got to cart this kid along or be in Dutch up at Temple's.
_He_ can't hike twenty miles a day. He's just got a bee in his dome that
he'd like----"

"It _would_ be a good turn," interrupted Tom. "I was counting on a team
hike myself. I wanted to be off on a trip alone with you a while. I'm
disappointed too, but it _would_ be a good turn--it would be a peach of
a one, so far as that's concerned."

"No, it wouldn't," contradicted Roy. "It would be a piece of blamed
foolishness