And when they’re down, they’re down;
And when they’re only half-way up,
They’re neither up nor down.
“Alsen is a mighty nice place, what I saw of it,” Garry said. “I couldn’t see it on account of the station. The happiest ten seconds of my life were spent there.”
I said, “I wish I could have spent a nickel there.”
“Are you going to start for camp when we get to Catskill?” the kid wanted to know. “I’m getting hungry.”
“I thought you didn’t have to eat for four years, that’s what you said,” I told him.
“What are you talking about?” he yelled.
I said, “When we get back to Catskill you’re going to follow your gallant leader in an east westerly direction till we come to the—North Pole, I mean the clothespole, outside the cooking shack at Temple Camp. We’re going to reach the pole like Doctor Cook didn’t do. When I hang my patrol scarf on the clothespole outside the cooking shack that’s a sign our journey is over. From the West Shore Line to the clothesline, that’s our motto.”
“We’re starting,” Warde said.