Charlie came to me because I’m patrol leader, and he said, “Shall I go out there and spend the summer?”
I said, “Sure, you might as well. If you hang around here all you’ll spend is nickels.”
He said, “But when you start up for camp you’ll want a full patrol, won’t you? You can’t count Pee-wee in the Silver Foxes.”
“Talk of something pleasant,” I told him. “You go ahead out west and leave the patrol to us. We’ll find a new member and when you come back in the Fall you can start the new patrol that Mr. Ellsworth is always talking about.”
He said, “Good idea; what shall we call it?”
“Call it the police patrol or whatever you want to, I don’t care,” I told him.
He said, “Well, I guess I’ll go. My grandfather has a big apple orchard and everything, and I can go swimming in the Mississippi. I’ll write to you.”
“How is that going to get me any apples?” I asked him. “Go ahead, the sooner the quicker, and I’ll have fewer Silver Foxes to worry about. Let your grandfather worry for a while.”
So that’s the end of Charlie Seabury in this story. We lost a scout and his grandfather lost an apple orchard. I should worry. Maybe, later, you’ll hear about the Laughing Hyenas that he started. But believe me, there are laughs enough in this story without bothering our heads about that new outfit.