The man said, “How do you feel about peanut brittle?”
“No peanut brittle can get past us,” I told him. “We eat it alive.”
Oh, boy, there was some excitement. The next thing we knew a box of peanut brittle was going round. There was a crowd of people all around watching and reading what it said on our standard and laughing. Most always that’s the way it is with people when they see scouts. Somebody kicked a grocery box over to where we were and the man called, “Speech, speech.” I got up on the box and I said:
“Don’t anybody be afraid, we’re not going to hurt you.”
A girl that was standing there said, “The idea! Did you ever hear of such a thing? Hurt us? Do you think we’re afraid of a patrol of boy scouts?”
I said, “You knowest not what thou sayest, girl. We’ve devastated the whole country from Blakeley’s Hill to this spot. The only thing we’ve left alive is the grass. And even that we trod under our feet.”
“We’re invincible!” Pee-wee shouted. “Do you know what that is?”
“Do you think I haven’t got a dictionary, Mr. Smarty?” she said.
I said, “Silence. Take a demerit. Where is the police department of this town?”