Wasn't that a nervy thing to say? Skinny is brave when he gets started.
"It would be fine," she told him, "only Ma is expecting me at the house. She is visiting, too. Wouldn't it be nicer for you to come with me? They will be glad to see you because you saved me from the cow. I am awfully hungry and Grandma is the best cook. We're going to have lemonade. She told me so. Come on, do."
"Lemonade would taste good," he said, "if I only dast."
"Huh!" said she, tossing her head. "I thought that you were not afraid of anything."
"I ain't of a cow. This is different. Say, that was a swell song you were singing. I wish I knew it."
"I'll teach it to you after dinner, if you will come. If you don't you're a 'fraid cat."
"All right. I'll go if it kills me."
Skinny says that he never ate a dinner that tasted any better than that one did. Mrs. Richmond was scared when she heard about the cow and she couldn't say enough about how he had saved her little girl from a terrible death.
"That wasn't anything," he told her. "Scouts are always doing those things. I'm going to try to save somebody from drowning when I come back along the river to-morrow."
"I'll tell you a better stunt than that," said Mary's grandfather, winking one eye at the rest of the folks. "Why don't you go up to Savoy on the east mountain. That would make a walk of about seven miles from the village. You won't find anybody drowning up there, but several deer have been seen around there lately."