Now I have to admit that I got kind of excited and I didn’t know much what I was saying.
Sometimes I had to stop on account of that lump being in my throat. But anyway, I kept on and I held on tight to my emblem—the Silver Fox emblem.
“So that’s what I mean,” I said, “and this morning Westy was on his way to help on the house-boat and he met” (oh, jiminies, I guess I didn’t know how I was talking now, I was so excited) “and he met Skinny McCord’s mother and she told him about Skinny being sick on account of a good turn he did for me—keeping Jake Holden from going to my house—and she asked him to go up and stay with him and he didn’t think any more about the house-boat, and I’m glad he didn’t, and I told him that, and I’m his patrol leader yet, anyway. I tell him that, I do! And he went home and got his baseball and his catching mit and it cost a dollar and seventy-five cents, and he took them to Skinny just so as he’d kind of forgot being sick. Westy saved up to get that mit and I know all about it. And he stayed all day with Skinny and the doctor says, he says Skinny has got to die, but anyway Westy stayed all day with him—that’s what he did. And I’m glad you fellows are going to elect a new leader if you want him to reprimand Westy, because you’d never get me to do it, I can tell you that!”
Oh, crinkums, there wasn’t a sound. It had to stop because I was gulping and all excited, but I started again, you can bet.
“And there’s only one thing more I’ve got to say,” I told them. “I got on the trail—I mean Skinny’s trail. And it took me to his house in Barrel Alley. I picked up his trail down at Little Landing and it had the scout’s pathfinder sign printed in the mud. And I—I’m—I’m a scout, I am, I don’t care what you say, and I followed it. And maybe, for all you know, it was put there for me to follow—maybe. It took me to where a fellow was sick, it did, and it showed me one of my own—one of the Silver Foxes, doing a good turn to pay Skinny back for the good turn he did for me. And I stayed there to help and I forgot all about the house-boat, and I’m glad I did. And I hope that whoever these fellows elect, he won’t let them chip in for the cruise, but I hope he’ll have them chip in to send Skinny up to the country—I don’t care what the doctor says. Once a doctor said that—he said that my father——”
And that’s all I had a chance to say. Gee, I couldn’t tell you what happened next. All I know is, I heard my Scout Handbook go kerflop on the floor and Vic Norris of the Ravens grabbed the Silver Fox emblem right out of my hand and began waving it. All of a sudden I saw Westy and he didn’t say anything only put his arm around my shoulder and he started to say something and, oh, I don’t know, he just couldn’t. Then I heard a fellow asking him what was the matter, because he was husky, kind of, and his eyes shiny—you know. And he said he had a cold. Oh, boy!
“He caught cold from drinking out of a damp glass,” Doc Carson shouted. Honest, you couldn’t hear yourself think. And Pee-wee—g-o-o-d night!
Then Mr. Ellsworth held up his hand and we all quieted down.
“Before we go any further,” he said, “and while our lungs are working overtime I want every member of the Raven Patrol and every member of the Elk Patrol to give three cheers for the Silver Foxes, scouts, real scouts, every one of them, and for their leader, Roy Blakeley. After that you can hold your election.”