“Do you mean to tell me that—that—that Ravens——” the kid began yelling.
“You see how ravens can go up in the air,” I said to Warde. “Now you know why they’re called the Raving Ravens. They’re all right as long as you don’t feed them meat. They think you can do good turns riding on a merry-go-round.”
“What’s the second-hand scout?” Warde wanted to know.
“Good night,” I said, “don’t make me laugh. You mean a second-class scout. Of course there are slightly used scouts, 1915 models, but you wouldn’t call them exactly second-hand. First comes the tenderfoot, then the second-class scout and then the first-class scout—and above that are the Silver Foxes in a class by themselves.”
“That’s because they can’t get anybody to go in the class with them,” Pee-wee shouted.
Westy said, “Well, here we are talking about classes in vacation time. In a minute we’ll be talking about arithmetic. Let’s talk of something pleasant while we’re eating.”
I said, “Sure, let’s talk of something pleasant. I didn’t start talking about the Ravens. The question is how are we going to follow a bee-line across the river? I wish the equator went across the river and we could walk on that.”