When we got into the galley, I said to Skinny, "Let's sit up on the board so we can look out and see the bay." So we sat on the board that was on two barrels. I used it to open cans on and slice bread and all that. And I always washed it good and clean, you can bet. Oh, but it was nice sitting there and it was just as quiet as it is in the woods. Sometimes a motor boat would go by and we could hear it chugging.
"One thing, nobody'll bother us here," I said, "some fellows don't like
Sunday, but I do."
Skinny said, "I like Christmas best, because rich people bring baskets of food."
Cracky, I felt awful sorry for him.
CHAPTER VI
TELLS HOW SKINNY AND I GOT TOGETHER
First I bored a hole in the coin and hung it around Skinny's neck. He was all excited and said, "Now I've got a regular merit badge, ain't I?"
I said, "No you haven't, but it's a good badge, all right" Then I said, "Now I'm going to tell you some things about merit badges. You get merit badge because you're able to do special things, see? You get them for being able to do things that some other fellows can't do—kind of. Not exactly that," I told him, "because most fellows can do the things if they try hard enough. But, anyway, there isn't any merit badge for keeping your eyes open. Mr. Ellsworth was only joking about that. And especially you don't get any merit badge for being honest, because that would be too easy. If you could get one for that, gee-whiz, all the fellows would have them, that's sure."
He said, "Ain't it good to be honest?"
I told him sure it was, but it was too easy and that all the scouts were honest anyway, even without badges. Then I said, "If you wore that on account of being honest, that would insult all the other fellows, wouldn't it?" He just stared at me, but didn't say anything. "So you have to be careful," I told him, "not to be saying that you have a reward for being honest, see?"