Tom Slade at Temple Camp | Page 7

have you do this. You can call it a good turn if you
want to--a real one.
"MARY TEMPLE."
Pee-wee Harris also received an envelope with an enclosure similar to
many which he had received of late. He suspected their source. This
one read as follows:
If you want to be a scout, You must watch what you're about, And
never let a chance for mischief pass. You may win the golden cross If
your ball you gayly toss Through the middle of a neighbor's pane of
glass.
CHAPTER IV
TOM AND ROY
The letter from Mary Temple fell on Camp Solitaire like a thunderbolt.
Camp Solitaire was the name which Roy had given his own cosy little
tent on the Blakeley lawn, and here he and Tom were packing duffel
bags and sharpening belt axes ready for their long tramp when the note
from Grantley Square was scaled to them by the postman as he made a
short cut across the lawn.
"What do you know about that?" said Roy, clearly annoyed. "We can't
take him; he's too small. Who's going to take the responsibility? This is
a team hike."
"You don't suppose he put the idea in her head, do you?" Tom asked.
"Oh, I don't know. You saw yourself how crazy he was about it."
"Pee-wee's all right," said Tom.

"Sure he's all right. He's the best little camp mascot that ever happened.
But how are we going to take him along on this hike? And what's he
going to do when he gets there?"
"He could help us on the troop cabin--getting it ready," Tom suggested.
Roy threw the letter aside in disgust. "That's a girl all over," he said, as
he sulkily packed his duffel bag. "She doesn't think of what it
means--she just wants it done, that's all, so she sends her
what-d'you-call-it--edict. Pee-wee can't stand for a hundred and forty
mile hike. We'd have to get a baby carriage!"
He went on with his packing, thrusting things into the depths of his
duffel bag half-heartedly and with but a fraction of his usual skill. "You
know as well as I do about team hikes. How can we fix this up for three
now? We've got everything ready and made all our plans; now it seems
we've got to cart this kid along or be in Dutch up at Temple's. He can't
hike twenty miles a day. He's just got a bee in his dome that he'd
like----"
"It would be a good turn," interrupted Tom. "I was counting on a team
hike myself. I wanted to be off on a trip alone with you a while. I'm
disappointed too, but it would be a good turn--it would be a peach of a
one, so far as that's concerned."
"No, it wouldn't," contradicted Roy. "It would be a piece of blamed
foolishness."
"He'd furnish some fun--he always does."
"He'd furnish a lot of trouble and responsibility! Why can't he wait and
come up with the rest? Makes me sick!" Roy added, as he hurled the
aluminum coffee-pot out of a chair and sat down disgustedly.
"Now, you see, you dented that," said Tom.
"A lot I care. Gee, I'd like to call the whole thing off--that's what I'd
like to do. I'd do it for two cents."

"Well, I've got two cents," said Tom, "but I'm not going to offer it. I say,
let's make the best of it. I've seen you holding your sides laughing at
Pee-wee. You said yourself he was a five-reel photoplay all by
himself."
Roy drew a long breath and said nothing. He was plainly in his very
worst humor. He did not want Pee-wee to go. He, too, wanted to be
alone with Tom. There were plenty of good turns to be done without
bothering with this particular one. Besides, it was not a good turn, he
told himself. It would expose Walter Harris to perils---- Oh, Roy was
very generous and considerate of Walter Harris----
"If it's a question of good turns," he said, "it would be a better turn to
leave him home, where he'll be safe and happy. It's no good turn to him,
dragging him up and down mountains till he's so dog-tired he falls all
over himself--is it?"
Tom smiled a little, but said nothing.
"Oh, well, if that's the way you feel," said Roy, pulling the cord of his
duffel bag so tight that it snapped, "you and Pee-wee had better go and
I'll back out."
"It ain't the way I feel," said Tom, in his slow way. "I'd rather go alone
with you. Didn't I say so? I guess Pee-wee thinks he's stronger than he
is. I think he'd better be at home too and I'd rather he'd stay home,
though it's mostly