Pee-Wee Harris | Page 5

seen
in a small saucepan stuck in his belt like a deadly dagger. Thus if
danger came he might confront his enemy with a sample of scout
cookery and kill him on the spot.
His sleeves were bedecked with merit badges; from the end of his scout
staff waved the flaunting emblem of the Raven Patrol; his stalking
camera was swung over his shoulder like a knapsack; his nickel-plated
scout whistle jangled against the saucepan and in his trousers pockets
were a magnifying glass, three jaw breakers, a chocolate bar, a few
inches of electric wiring, and a rubber balloon in a state of collapse.
The highway from Bridgeboro was a broad, smooth road, a temptation
and a delight to speeders, where motorcycle cops lurked in the bushes
hardly waiting for cars with New York licenses.
It was late in the afternoon when they reached Baxter City and here
they turned into such a road as Charlie vowed he had never seen before.
Scarcely had they gone a mile over rocks and ruts when the dim woods
closed in on either side, imparting a strange coolness. It was almost like
going through a leafy tunnel projecting branches brushed the top of the
car and mischievously grazed and tickled their faces. The voices of the
birds, clear in the stillness, seemed to complain at this intrusion into
their domain.
"I'd like to know how I'm going to get back through this jungle after
dark," Charlie said. "I wonder what anybody wanted to start a village
down here for?"

"Maybe--maybe they did it kind of absentmindedly," Pee-Wee said. "I
never started a village so I don't know."
"Well, you'll startle one anyway," Charlie said.
"I guess the village isn't much bigger than you are."
The road took them southward through the valley. They were not far
west of the highway but the low country and the thick woods obscured
it from view. They could hear the tooting of auto horns over that way
and sometimes human voices sounding strange across the intervening
solitude.
"I don't see why they didn't set the village down over at the highway;
it's not more than a mile or so," Charlie said. "Maybe they were afraid
the autos would run over it; safety first, hey? Nobody'll run over it here,
that's one sure thing."
Pee-Wee took the last bite of a hot frankfurter he had bought at a
roadside shack on the highway and was now more free to talk.
"Listen," he said, "what's that?"
It was a distant rattling sound which began suddenly and ended
suddenly. They both listened.
"There must be a bridge up there along the highway," Charlie said,
"that's the sound of cars going over it. Loose planking, hey?"
Pee-Wee listened to the rattling of the loose planks as another car sped
over the unseen structure, little dreaming of the part that bridge was
destined to play in his young life. The commonplace noise of the
neglected flooring seemed emphasized by the quiet of the woodland.
That reminder of human traffic, so near and yet so far and out of tune
with all the gentler sounds of the valley, presented a strange contrast
and jarred even Pee-Wee's stout nerves.
"There goes another," Charlie said; "we must be nearer to the highway

than I thought."
They had, indeed, inscribed a kind of loop and having passed its
farthest point from the main road were traveling toward it again and
would have emerged upon it just beyond the bridge but for the wood
embowered and sequestered village which was their destination. The
first sign of this village was a cow standing in the middle of the
grass-grown road as if to challenge their approach. Perhaps she was
stationed there as a sort of traffic cop.
CHAPTER V
ENTER PEPSY
It will be seen by a glance at the accompanying sketch that the village
of Everdoze was about opposite the bridge on the highway. From this
main road the village could be reached by a trail through the woods. On
hearing of this, Charlie expressed regret that he had not allowed his
passenger to make the final stage of the journey on foot.
"Well, I never in all my life !" said Aunt Jamsiah as Pee-Wee stepped
out of the car. "In goodness' name, where's the rest of you? I thought
you were a great, tall, strapping boy. I hope your appetite's bigger than
your body. And what on earth is that saucepan for? Are you going to
cook us all alive? Did you ever see such a thing?" she added, speaking
to Uncle Ebenezer who had stepped forward to welcome his nephew.
"He's all decked out like a carnival! He's just too killing!" She then
proceeded to embrace him while his martial paraphernalia clanked and
rattled.
"We