Tom Slade at Temple Camp | Page 6

legs from the rubble-stone coping--those same legs that had made
the scout pace famous.
"Oh, crinkums," he said, "they'll have some time! Cracky, but I'd like to
go. You don't believe all this about Roy's making a noble sacrifice, do
you?" he added, scornfully.
Mary laughed and said she didn't.
"Because that isn't a good turn," Pee-wee argued, anxious that Mary
should not get a mistaken notion of this important phase of scouting.
"A good turn is when you do something that helps somebody else. If
you do it because you get a lot of fun out of it yourself, then it isn't a
good turn at all. Of course, Roy knows that; he's only jollying when he

calls it a good turn. You have to be careful with Roy, he's a terrible
jollier--and Mr. Ellsworth's pretty near as bad. Oh, cracky, but I'd like
to go with them--that's one sure thing. You think it's no fun being a girl
and I'll admit I wouldn't want to be one--I got to admit that; but it's
pretty near as bad to be small. If you're small they jolly you. And if I
asked them to let me go they'd only laugh. Gee, I don't mind being
jollied, but I would like to go. That's one thing you ought to be thankful
for--you're not small. Of course, maybe girls can't do so many things as
boys--I mean scouting-like--but--oh, crinkums," he broke off in an
ecstasy of joyous reflection. "Oh, crinkums, that'll be some trip, believe
me."
Mary Temple looked at the diminutive figure in khaki trousers which
sat before her on the coping. It was one of the good things about
Pee-wee Harris that he never dreamed how much people liked him.
"I don't know about that," said Mary. "I mean about a girl not being
able to do things--scouting things. Mightn't a girl do a good turn?"
"Oh, sure," Pee-wee conceded.
"But I suppose if it gave her very much pleasure it wouldn't be a good
turn."
"Oh, yes, it might," admitted Pee-wee, anxious to explain the science of
good turns. "This is the way it is. If you do a good turn it's sure to make
you feel good--that you did it--see? But if you do it just for your own
pleasure, then it's not a good turn. But Roy puts over a lot of nonsense
about good turns. He does it just to make me mad--because I've made a
sort of study of them--like."
Mary laughed in spite of herself.
"He says it was a good thing when Tom threw a barrel stave in the
Chinese laundry because it led to his being a scout. But that isn't logic.
Do you know what logic is?"
Mary thought she had a notion of what it was.

"A thing that's bad can't be good, can it?" Pee-wee persisted. "Suppose
you should hit me with a brick----"
"I wouldn't think of doing such a thing!"
"But suppose you did. And suppose the scouts came along and gave me
first aid and after that I became a scout. Could you say you did me a
good turn by hitting me with a brick because that way I got to be a
scout? Roy--you got to be careful with him--you can't always tell when
he's jollying."
Mary looked at him intently for a few seconds. "Well, then," said she,
"since you've made a study of good turns tell me this. If Roy and Tom
were to ask you to go with them on their long hike, would that be a
good turn?"
"Sure it would, because it would have a sacrifice in it, don't you see?"
"How?"
"Because they'd do it just to please me--they wouldn't really want me."
"Well," she laughed, "Roy's good at making sacrifices."
"Je-ru-salem!" said Pee-wee, shaking his head almost incredulously at
the idea of such good fortune; "that'll be some trip. But you know what
they say, and it's true--I got to admit it's true--that two's a company,
three's a crowd."
"It wouldn't be three," laughed Mary; "it would only be two and a half."
She watched the sturdy figure as Pee-wee trudged along the gravel
walk and down the street. He seemed even smaller than he had seemed
on the veranda. And it was borne in upon her how much jollying he
stood for and how many good things he missed just because he was
little, and how cheerful and generous-hearted he was withal.
The next morning Roy received a letter which read:

"Dear Roy--I want you and Tom to ask Walter Harris to go with you.
Please don't tell him that I asked you. You said you were going to name
one of the cabins or one of the boats for me because I took so much
interest. I'd rather