Pee-Wee Harris | Page 6

won't need any more brass band," said a young girl in a gingham
apron and with brick red hair in long tightly woven braids, who stood
close by; "he's a melodeon. I don't see what they sent such a big car for
with such a little boy. 'Taint no fit, it ain't."
Pee-Wee gave this girl a withering look which she boldly returned,
continuing to stare at him. Her face was covered with freckles and she

was so unqualifiedly plain and homely in face and attire that she might
be said to have been attractive on the ground of novelty.
"Pepsy," said Mrs. Quig, addressing her, "you shake hands with Walter
and tell him you and he are going to be good friends. You come right
here and do as I say now and no more of those looks."
"I ain't going to kiss him," the girl said by way of compromising.
"You give him a welcome just like Wiggle is doing," said Aunt Jamsiah,
"and be ashamed that you have to learn your manners from such as he.
You do as I say now."
"You're welcome--and I can beat you running," the girl said.
"Girls are afraid of snakes," Pee-Wee retorted.
Meanwhile the individual who had been cited as a model of social
correctness by Aunt Jamsiah stood upon the doorstep looking eagerly
up into Pee-Wee's face and wagging his tail with vigorous and
lightning rapidity. Wiggle's tail was easily the fastest thing in Everdoze.
His head vibrated in unison with it and his look of intentness carried
with it all sorts of friendly expectations. He fairly shook with
excitement and cordiality. He followed the sedan car a few yards upon
its homeward journey and then, by a sudden impulse, deserted it and
returned to a position directly in front of Pee-Wee with wagging tail
and questioning gaze. He seemed to say, "I'm ready for anything, the
sky is the limit."
"You haven't had a bite to eat since breakfast and you're starving. I can
tell it," said Aunt Jamsiah. "You come right in the kitchen."
"I had a lot of frankfurters and things at the places along the highway,"
Pee-Wee said. "I had waffles at one place. I bet they make a lot of
money along that road selling things. There are shacks all the way. All
the autoists stop and buy things to eat. You can get tires and
everything."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to eat tires," said Pepsy.
"You think you're smart, don't you?" Pee-Wee said.
"What are your soldier clothes for?" the girl wanted to know.
"They're not soldier clothes," Pee-Wee said;
"I'm a scout."
"I bet you don't know as much as Miss Bellson does."
"I bet I don't either," Pee-Wee said, "so I win."
"She's the school teacher here and she knows everything."
"Did she know I was coming?"
"No she didn't and--"
"Then she doesn't know everything," Pee-Wee said.
"Smarty, smarty!" the girl retorted, "I came out of an orphan home and
that's more than you can say.".
"You only get one helping of dessert there," said Pee-Wee. "I'd rather
be a scout than an orphan. I know a feller who was an orphan and he
was sorry for it afterwards."
"Are you going to stay all summer?"
"Till school opens," Pee-Wee said.
"Do you want me to show you where there's a woodchuck hole?"
At this point Pee-Wee was summoned again to the kitchen where he ate
a sumptuous repast, after which Pepsy and Wiggle took him about and
showed him the farm.

Pee-Wee and Pepsy fenced a good deal but seemed to progress in this
cautious and defensive way toward a friendly understanding. As for
Wiggle, he danced about, following elusive scents that led nowhere,
carried off and back again by quick impulse, till at last the three ended
their tour of inspection at a little summer house which had been built
over a spring by the roadside.
Here they drank of the bubbling, crystal water. Wiggle doing this as
everything else, with erratic impulse, drinking a dozen times and not
much at any time.
The dying sunlight painted the slopes of the valley with crimson tints
and the countryside was very still. Through the woods to the west could
be heard occasionally the discordant noise from the loose flooring of
the bridge on the highway as an auto sped over it. In the quiet evening
the sound, with its sudden start, its rattling clamor and its quick
cessation, made a jarring note in all the surrounding peacefulness.
"That's what wakes me up in the morning, the mail wagon going over,"
Pepsy said; "I know it's time to get up then. Those planks can talk, they
say the same thing every day."
You have to go back, You have to go back, You