about a thing; and the other
night I said to myself that if anything should happen I should get
elected----"

(A voice, "You didn't do a thing but walk away with it, Tommy!")

(Cries of "Shut up till he gets through!")

"I wouldn't go to that camp in a train. I'm not going to set foot in it
till I'm qualified for a first-class scout, and I'm going to do the rest
of my stunts on the way. I want Roy to go with me if he can. I thank you
for electing me. I'll do my best in that job. If I knew how to say it,
I'd thank you better. I guess I'm kind of rattled."

The blunt little speech was very characteristic of Tom and it was
greeted with a storm of applause. He had a way of blurting out his plans
and ideas without giving any previous hint of them, but this was
something of a knockout blow.

"Oh, you hit it right!" shouted Pee-wee. "Gee, I do hate railroad
trains--railroad trains and homework."

"You don't mean you're going to hike it from here, Tom, do you?" asked
Mr. Ellsworth.

"I had an idea I might canoe up as far as Nyack," said Tom, "and then
follow the river up to Catskill Landing and hit in for Leeds--but, of
course," he added, "I didn't really expect to be elected."

"Oh, crinkums!" shouted Pee-wee. "I'll go with you!"

"Well," said Roy, when the laughter had subsided, "this is a new wrinkle
and it sounds rather risky for a half-baked Elk----" (Hisses from the
Elks) "So far as I'm concerned, I think a hike of a hundred miles or
so----"

"You're crazy!" interrupted Pee-wee. "You silver-plated Fox----"

"Is too much," concluded Roy. "In the first place, there would have to
be a whole lot of discomfort." (Hisses) "A fellow would be pretty sure
to get his feet wet." (Mr. Ellsworth restrained Pee-wee with
difficulty.) "He would have to sleep out of doors in the damp night
air----" (A voice, "Slap him on the wrist!") "And he would be likely to
get lost. Scouts, it's no fun to be lost in the woods----" (Cries of
"Yes, it is!") "We would be footsore and weary," continued Roy.

"You got that out of a book!" shouted Pee-wee. "_Footsore and
weary_--that's the way folks talk in books!"

"We might be caught in the rain," said Roy, soberly. "We might have to
pick our way along obscure trail or up steep mountains."

"You ought to go and take a ride in a merry-go-round," cried Pee-wee,
sarcastically.

"In short, it is fraught with peril," said Roy.

"You got _that_ out of a book, too," said Pee-wee, disgustedly