. "I'd rather do that than stay here and
fight. I don't see any use talking about whether it's a good turn to
Pee-wee." (Roy ostentatiously busied himself with his packing and
pretended not to hear.) "I wasn't thinking about Pee-wee so much anyway.
It's Mary Temple that I was thinking of. It would be a good turn to her,
you can't deny that. Pee-wee Harris has got nothing to do with it--it's
between you and me and Mary Temple."

"You going home?" Roy asked, coldly.

"Yes."

"Well, you and Pee-wee and Mary Temple can fix it up. I'm out of it."

He took a pad and began to write, while Tom lingered in the doorway of
the tent, stolid, as he always was.

"Wait and mail this for me, will you," said Roy. He wrote:

"Dear Mary--Since you butted in Tom and I have decided that it would be
best for Pee-wee to go with _him_ and I'll stay here. Anyway, that's
what _I've_ decided. So you'll get your wish, all right, and I should
worry.

"ROY."

Tom took the sealed envelope, but paused irresolutely in the doorway. It
was the first time that he and Roy had ever quarrelled.

"What did you say to her?" he asked.

"Never mind what I said," Roy snapped. "You'll get your wish."

"I'd rather go alone with you," said Tom, simply. "I told you that
already. I'd rather see Pee-wee stay home. I care more for you," he
said, hesitating a little, "than for anyone else. But I vote to take
Pee-wee because Mary wants--asks--us to. I wouldn't call it a good turn
leaving him home, and you wouldn't either--only you're disappointed,
same as I am. I wouldn't even call it much of a good turn taking him. We
can never pay back Mary Temple. It would be like giving her a cent when
we owed her a thousand. I got to do what I think is right--you--you made
me a scout. I--I got to be thankful to you if I can see straight.
It's--it's kind of--like a--like a trail--like," he blundered on. "There
can be trails in your mind, kind of. Once I chucked stones at Pee-wee
and swiped Mary's ball. Now I want to take him along--a little bit for
his sake, but mostly for hers. And I want to go alone with you for my
own sake, because--because," he hesitated, "because I want to be alone
with you. But I got to hit the right trail--you taught me that----"

"Well, go ahead and hit it," said Roy, "it's right outside the door."

Tom looked at him steadily for a few seconds as if he did not
understand. You might have seen something out of the ordinary then in
that stolid fac