He said, “No, I’m not. I—like roasted potatoes, though.”
“How many do you like?” the kid asked him.
“As many as I can get,” Warde said. “And I’d like to go with you fellows if you’ll let me.”
Westy said, “Do you mean you’d like to join the scouts?”
He said, “Yes, I do.”
Tom Gilligan was standing there with his camera over his shoulder and his big leather bag in his hand, all ready to go away. I guess he was going back to the station and I was sorry because I liked that fellow.
He said to Warde, “You’re a wise young fellow, you are. Go in for the real thing and don’t bother with imitations. What’s the use of jumping off a cliff made of pasteboard when you’ve got real roofs to climb over? What’s the use of doing stunts in a studio when you can go on a bee-line hike across the country? You’re a wise young fellow, you are. You stick to the boy scouts; they’ll keep you moving.”
Then he said, “Well, so long, kids.” And away he went.
I said, “Come over here right close to us and keep near us, Warde. We’re keeping this bee-line as narrow as we can.”