Hank and Bill thought a dog would be best.
"A dog," said Bill, "is man's best friend, and that is what Scouts are for."
Hank could bark like a dog. That was why he wanted it.
Benny thought a crow would be the thing, but it seemed to me that the American eagle would be better. We heard one once on Greylock and it was great.
Skinny liked the eagle pretty well, especially the American part, but when he found that Benny Wade wanted a crow he said he was for a crow, too. That was because Benny had made the speech.
"A snake is all right for some things," he said, "and you don't want to step on them or on us. Don't you remember that old flag which had a rattlesnake on it and the words, 'Don't tread on me'? The hissing is all right, too, when we are close together and can hear, but how about it when we are not? What if I was hiding in Plunkett's woods and you were on the way to the cave and I should be attacked by Injuns or something. I might hiss until I was black in the face and who'd hear me? You could hear me caw almost to Peck's Falls."
"Yes, that's so about snakes," I told them. "I don't think much of snakes myself. But I don't know about crows. The eagle is such a noble bird."
"Noble nothin'!" said he. "What did an eagle ever do that was noble any more than a crow? Besides a crow can talk if you split its tongue. I read it in a book. You can't draw an eagle. You'd have to write under it what it was."
"So you would under a crow," I told him.
"Anyhow," he went on, "I'll bet nobody here can make a noise like an eagle. Let's hear you do it, Pedro. Cawing is easy."