"What do you know about that little water snake," El Sawyer said. Then he shouted, "Bully for you, Skinny!"
I said, "You'd better look out, you'll get yourself in trouble."
"What do I care for the Elks?" he said.
"That's all right," I said; "Connie's got Skinny copyrighted, all rights reserved."
Then, all of a sudden, Wig Weigand shouted, "Look at that, will you?
Look!"
We could just see Hunt Ward reach out of the skiff for Skinny, when all of a sudden he disappeared and came up about twenty feet from the skiff. Everybody began laughing and I guess the Elks were mad, because they thought we were just sitting up there kidding them.
Right then I heard Mr. Ellsworth calling out from just in back of us,
"Take him in the skiff and bring him aboard, Huntley."
"Now—e—ng—t—gt—cld—down," Pee-wee said, munching away on a jaw breaker.
"You look as if you'd been gargling a bottle of ink," I told him.
"Don't talk, you can't do two things at once."
Pretty soon Skinny came up the ladder to the cabin roof where we were all sitting. His wet bathing suit stuck to him and it made him look terribly thin, and his hair was all streaked and the water was dripping from his face. But anyway, his eyes were bright and all excited—I never saw another fellow that had eyes like that. He had the piece of candy in his hand and it was all melting from the water and his hand was black and sticky. Jiminy, he looked awful small and skinny alongside of Mr. Ellsworth, and I had to feel sorry for him as soon as Mr. Ellsworth began to speak.