Sure," I said, "they'd have you looking like Santa Claus. You should
worry."

"But I ought not to kick," he said; "because I'm to blame for this wild
goose chase. You see I wanted to get the kids out of doors. I wanted to get
their minds off patent sleds and go-carts, and goodness knows what all. I
was brought up in the country and I wanted them to have a taste of
adventure--the kind of stuff that isn't advertised, you know ."

I said, "You bet I know; and I have to admit you're right, too."

"Of course, there wasn't any chance of finding that fellow, Chandler," he
said; "but what's the difference? We had about seven dollars, and the kids
wanted to buy one of those moving picture machines, _'Boy Scouts,
Attention! Here is just what you want!'_ You know. So I just took the
seven plunks and brought them up this way on a hike. Something they _really
did_ want. I thought maybe there was one chance in twenty of finding that
Chandler, but I didn't say so. I let them think the chance was fair.
Anyway, we had a hike. We were out for adventure. They forgot about the
cornets and the clock-work gew-gaws that they really _didn't want_. We've
been scouting. We're broke, but we've been scouting. We hiked up to a
remote village after a missing person. Romance! Adventure! We've been
_scouting_. Hurrah, and a couple of bravos! That fellow Donnelle has the
right idea; and he's a brick."

"Believe _me_, that's the biggest compliment you ever paid a brick," I
said.

"So here we are," he said; "cleaned out and happy, and living on our scout
brothers. That's the idea, isn't it? Brothers? Poor relations, hey? But
we're real, honest to goodness, scouts. None genuine unless labeled
_Church Mice_. Boy Scouts, Attention! Here is something you _really_ want.
Hiking! Adventure! Some day or other we'll stumble into fifty or a hundred
dollars, but by the Big Dipper we'll get it _scouting_. That fellow
Donnelle has the right idea; he's a peach."

"Believe _me_, he's a whole orchard," I said

Then neither of us said anything for about a minute, only we kept wandering
along through the woods and we stopped and watched a chipmunk in a tree and
kept good and still so lie wouldn't be scared. And Brent Gaylong picked up
a locust, awful careful, and held it in his two fingers and showed Willie
Wide-awake how its wings went and how it was different from a bird. And
Willie Wide-awake held it in one hand, because he had the four-leaf
clover in the other