CHAPTER XXXIII—WE SEPARATE
“One thing sure, I won’t desert this car,” Pee-wee said. “It’s our car and I’m going to stick to it. I’m not going to leave it here to rot after all the fun we’ve had in it.”
I said, “You’re welcome to take it with you for all I care. Maybe you know some new kind of strategy to move it. I don’t see that our appetites are going to do us any good down here. Here’s the car in the middle of the marsh and that’s all there is to it. If there should happen to be an earthquake maybe that would move it.”
“Let’s have an earthquake,” the inventor piped up.
“Maybe when the earth revolves a little it will start the car, hey?” Pee-wee shouted. “Maybe if we wait till to-morrow morning——”
”Suppose it starts it back and we bunk into Tony’s lunch wagon?” Dorry Benton said.
“The earth is moving the other way,” Pee-wee shouted.
Westy said, “Well, here’s an end to all our fine plans, that’s sure. I don’t see what we can do. In the winter it won’t be so bad down here, but now—s—lap, there’s another.”
“He must have come in through the glass,” I said.
Then, just to make the fellows feel good, I started singing:
We started down to the river
But fate is very—is very—is very——
“Harsh!” Westy shouted.
“Correct,” I said.
We started down to the river,
But fate is very harsh.
We started out for the, what-d’you call it, promised land,
And got stuck in the middle of the marsh.
But, gee whiz, they didn’t feel like singing, I could see that. Pee-wee shouted, because that kid would be happy in the bottom of a well, but the rest of them just kept still and looked grouchy.
“It’s raining, too,” one of them said.
“It always rains in vacation,” another began grumbling.
“Vacations and Saturdays,” another said.
“Come on home; that’s the end of our plans,” Dorry said. “I’m sorry we didn’t go up to Temple Camp with the others. I bet they’ll be good and mad when they see where the car is.”
I said, “A scout is supposed to be cheerful; let’s laugh, ha, ha!”
“I tell you what let’s do,” Pee-wee said. “Let’s camp here all night.”
“What good will that do?” one of the fellows wanted to know.
I said, “Well, I’m not going home in all this rain, anyway. We’re here and I’m going to stay here till it holds up.”
“That will be in about two weeks,” one of them said.
“I’ll go and tell our mothers and fathers and I’ll get some eats,” Pee-wee shouted. “And I’ll get some games and——”
“Ah, give us a rest,” Bad Manners said.
I said, “Isn’t it nice, we’re all such optimists?”
“Where did you get that word?” one of them grumbled.
“That means a man that tests your eyes,” Pee-wee shouted.
“You mean an optometrist,” Westy said.
I said, “What’s the use of grouching? We’re here because we’re here. Can you deny that? Is it our fault if the car didn’t go all the way? You fellows make me sick. Look at the inventor; he’d be happy on top of a volcano.”
“No wonder,” Westy said. “That’s because a volcano is on fire.”
“Fire’s better than rain, anyway,” one of them said.
“Oh, is that so?” I shot back at him. “If it wasn’t for rain there wouldn’t be any good fishing.”
“A lot of fish we’ll catch here,” Will Dawson said.
“And another thing,” I said, “look at Queen Victoria; she reigned for fifty years and she didn’t get mad. That shows you women are better than men. Maybe Minerva Skybrow could think of a way for us to get the car out of here.”
“Sure, maybe she’ll talk Italian to the cattails,” Ralph Warner said.
“Maybe she could get the mosquitoes to move, she was so successful with Tony,” Charlie Seabury began grouching.
“I wish school would open,” Dorry Benton said.
I said, “Do you take back that remark?”
“A lot of fun we’ll have here,” somebody else started grumbling.
Pee-wee said, “Just the same, I bet we’ll have some more adventures. I saw a yellow dog running east last night, and that’s a sign we’ll have more adventures. The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide; that’s what it says in my copy book.”
I said, “You’ve got the right idea, Kid. A car may be down, but it’s never out.”
“Well, I’m going out,” Hunt Manners said. “I’m going home.”
“So am I,” Charlie Seabury said, very grumpy like.
“Go ahead,” I told them. “We should worry. Pee-wee and the inventor and I are going to stay here.”
“I’m going to stay, too,” Westy said.
“I’m going home to get supper and go to the movies,” Dorry said, with a black look on his face.
“Give my regards to Charlie Chaplin,” I said.
Hunt Manners said, very cross, “Come on, fellows. Let’s go up to Bennett’s and get some sodas. Want to go, Pee-wee?”
I looked at the kid. Gee whiz, that was the hardest moment in his life. He stood between love and duty; I mean between love and more love.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I saw a yellow dog going east last night, and that means we’re going to have more adventures. Anyway, I can go with you and get a soda and then come back.”
Jiminies, I had to laugh.
“I’m through with this old shack; come on,” Tom Warner said.
“The pleasure is mine,” I told him. “So long.”
“We’re going to have adventures, ain’t we?” the inventor piped up.
“I don’t know,” I said, “but we’re going to have a game of checkers anyway.”
“I’m with you,” Will Dawson said.
I said, “All right, there are five of us and we’ll challenge the world.”
“That’s us,” Westy said.
“That’s me, too,” the inventor shouted. “I hope we get in a lot of danger, hey?”
“Don’t lose your lives playing checkers,” Hunt Manners said.
“Don’t risk your young lives up at the Lyric Theatre,” I told him. “Be careful when you’re crossing Main Street.”
“Don’t let the mosquitoes eat you up,” Charlie Seabury said.
“Thanks,” I told him. “Look out you don’t get run over by a baby carriage.”
“We’re going to start for Temple Camp in the morning,” Dorry said, very grouchy.
“Just tell them that you saw us,” I said.
“Tell them we wouldn’t desert the old car in the marsh,” Westy shouted after them.
“I’m through with it,” another one of them said.
“We’re going to stick to our wounded comrade in No Man’s Land. Hey?” Pee-wee said. Gee, that was a good name for Cat-tail Marsh.
So that’s the way it was. Will Dawson, Westy, Pee-wee, the inventor and I stayed down in the car, only Pee-wee went up with the others because he was going to tell our mothers and get some eats and things. We told him to get games and hooks, too. As long as there wasn’t anything better to do, and it was raining and blowing, we thought we might as well camp in the old car that night. We knew there wouldn’t be much doing, but, gee whiz, I’m tired of the movies.
The others went back along the trestle, Pee-wee with them, and we could see them when they got out from among the cat-tails and started up across the Sneezenbunker land. It was raining hard and it was getting dark and we could see the little lights shining on Main Street. It was nice and cozy in that old car. Maybe it wasn’t a good place for it, I’m not saying, and maybe it wouldn’t be any use there, especially in the summer, but anyway, we were going to have one last night in it.
“Will he come back?” the inventor asked me.
“Who? Pee-wee?” I said. “You bet he will. He’s not missing anything; not even a soda.”
“Can I watch you play checkers?” the kid wanted to know.
“You bet!” I told him.
“I hope it rains all night. Don’t you?” he asked me.
“Sure thing,” I said.
“I like water better than fire. Don’t you?” he wanted to know.
“You’re changing,” I said.
He went over and sat with his face plastered against one of the windows, watching for Pee-wee. The rain was just dripping down outside the windows. The kid’s nose was flat against the pane.
Pretty soon he shouted, “I see him! Here he comes!”
Away up on the Sneezenbunker land we could see a black speck coming toward us through all the rain. In a couple of minutes it got down to the edge of the marsh and we couldn’t see it any more on account of the cat-tails.