"Hanged if I know," Westy said; "he's going to win them the swimming badge, all right. But he doesn't seem to be friends with them exactly. They make good use of him, anyway."
"Kind of a performing bear, hey?" Bert said.
"Something like that," I told him; "I wish I had him in my patrol, I know that."
"Guess he wouldn't fit into any patrol," Winton said; "he seems to be a kind of an odd number."
Pretty soon Skinny came running back shouting for all he was worth, and believe me, he did look like an odd number. His streaky hair was all down over his forehead and his eyes were like a couple of camp fires. He was shouting: "Don't go, don't go! I can go with you"
We rowed over to shore and as he climbed in I could see that he was trembling all over, just for fear we wouldn't wait for him, I suppose. "I was going to swim out to you, I was," he said; "if you didn't wait."
"You wouldn't want your scout suit to get all wet, would you?" I said.
"Sit down and don't be so excited."
"I like the water better than hiking, anyway," he said; "and I like you best of all."
I said, "The pleasure is mine," and then we all laughed.
"You can make fun of me all you want," he said; "I don't care. I told them they could make fun of me all they want if they'd let me go with them, but they wouldn't let me go."