“Destinations and quitters, those are the two things we have no use for,” he acknowledged with great alacrity. “And anyway you couldn’t meet those fellers, because they haven’t got any time. The only way anybody can ever meet them is to bunk into them; they’re kind of sort of like comets. You can’t meet them on purpose. Do you know what they’re going to do now? They’re going to count four stores from the green and then they’re going in to ask for sodas. Even if it’s a hay and feed store or the post office, they’re going in to ask for sodas.”
“I think it’s perfectly ridiculous,” said Hope; but all the while she seemed very curious about that pair of adventurers who had so captivated Pee-wee.
“Did you ever hear that time was made for slaves?” Pee-wee asked her. “Well, places are made for slaves too, that’s what Ray and Fuller said. They have no use for places.”
“They must be very odd,” Hope said, with ill disguised interest.
“Anyway that’s best,” Pee-wee argued like the new disciple of a cause, “because if you hadn’t cared where you were you wouldn’t be here; you’d be down at the farm having a lot of fun, that’s one sure thing.”
This argument seemed rather to impress Hope. It made her homesick for the farm to talk with Pee-wee. She did not care so much now about the gay times there. She was thinking of Pee-wee and his unfailing joy in everything. She had planned to capture the “two perfectly lovely fellows” and instead Pee-wee had captured them. Apparently the “two perfectly lovely fellows” had not the least thought of her. And now she liked them all the more for that. She liked them because they were reckless and care free and happy-go-lucky. She began to realize that real fun consisted in doing the kind of things that they did.
She had had her chance to be an adventurer on a caravan and she had chosen another destination and lost out while the people down at Goodale Farm were having the time of their lives. Perhaps she began to see that if one cannot find fun in one place it is useless to search for it in another; that it is better to carry your fun with you, like Fuller Bullson and Raysor Rackette, and then it will be always handy when you want it. Don’t bother with ready-made fun, gotten up to sell, but make your own like Scout Harris.
Hope wished now that Pee-wee would remain a little longer and talk with her; it seemed so natural to hear him rattle on. She felt that she would just like to go exploring in the woods with him again. Most of all she felt that she would like to meet those two boon companions of his. She would like to tell them that their ideas were just perfectly wonderful. But that, of course, was out of the question, since these two never went anywhere on purpose. They could not be bothered doing that. She wondered if she would ever meet them....
Pee-wee caught up with his two friends near the green. They were on the point of counting four stores from the corner. It turned out to be a grocery store and they all filed in and seated themselves on three stools along the counter.
“We’re after soda,” said Fuller Bullson seriously.