That’s always the way it is with Pee-wee. All of a sudden he springs a big idea. Mr. Ellsworth (he’s our scoutmaster) says Pee-wee’s good turns are planned on a large scale. They’re masterpieces, that’s what Mr. Ellsworth says. And this one I’m telling you about was especially good because it was kind of crazy. Hervey said, “That’s just what we want, a good climax for this funny-bone hike. We’ll wind up in a blaze of glory.”
“The end of a perfect day,” Bert said.
The man said he guessed we must have had a lot of fun.
“We’ve got a lot left, too,” I told him; “we’ve got enough to last a couple of weeks. We never knew when we started out how many dandy misfortunes there are. I bet we had more fun starving than anybody else ever did.” Then I said; “Hey, mister, what’s your name?”
He said his name was Goobenhoff but he wouldn’t tell us his front name because we couldn’t pronounce it.
I said, “Tell it to us without pronouncing it.”
He said, “When you go on a hike it’s good to have a destination.”
Hervey said, “Sure it is, because then we know where not to go. We never start out without taking a destination with us.”
After a little while the jitney bus came along from the other direction and we all set up a shout. Darby Curren was driving it and scouts were sticking their heads out of the windows. Gee whiz, maybe what we were going to do was crazy, but when I saw the faces of those fellows I said, “Crazy things are all right; as long as a thing is a good turn it doesn’t matter.”
Gee, I didn’t blame the Camp Committee because they couldn’t help the camp being crowded, and troops are supposed to fix it up about their cabins a long time ahead, but just the same it seemed funny as long as scouts are all brothers that those fellows should have to go to another camp, because believe me, there’s only one place and that is Temple Camp. I guess you know yourselves what fun we have there.
I said to the fellows, “This funny-bone hike is going to end in something worth while or else the whole day is lost.”
“Let it be lost,” Hervey said; “there’s a lot of fun being lost.”
I said, “Pee-wee, this is your job, go to it.” The kid stepped right out into the middle of t............