call him back."

But the sturdy little figure trudging down the hill paid no attention
to Warde's call. And the Silver Foxes, friendly and sympathetic as
they were, were too preoccupied to think much about this trifling
affair. Perhaps they had just a little disinclination to having
visitors, even the little mascot, participating in their private
councils just then.

The point of the whole matter was that Pee-wee had been unintentionally
eliminated; it was a sort of automatic process attributable to the
springtime. And he found himself alone. He was not out of the troop,
but he was not in any of the patrols, and in spite of all his
spectacular missionary work he had not been able to form a patrol.

Pee-wee's pride was as great as his voice and his appetite, and he
would not sponge on the patrols which had a full membership and were
busy with their own concerns. The rock on which he had stood all
winter had split in three and there was no place for him on any of the
pieces.

On Saturday morning the Silver Foxes went into the city to buy some
camping things and to see a movie show in the afternoon. The Ravens
went off for a hike. A Saturday spent alone was more than the soul of
Pee-wee could endure, so he conquered his foolish pride and went up to
Connie Bennett's house to find out what the Elks were going to do. He
would not join in with the Elks, he told himself, but he would pal with
any single Elk, or even with two or three. That would be all right as
long as he did not foist himself upon a whole patrol. "Eight's a
company, nine's a crowd, gee whiz, I have to admit that," he said to
himself. "It's all right for me to go with one feller even if he's a
scout but a patrol's different."

It was a wistful and rather pathetic little figure that Mrs. Bennett
discovered upon the porch.

"Connie? Oh gracious, he's been gone an hour, dear," she said. "They
all went away with Mr. Collins in his auto. I told him he must be back
for supper. How is it you're not with them, Walter?"

"I--I ain't in that patrol," said Pee-wee; "it goes by patrols. Anyway
I'm sorry I troubled you."

He turned and went down the steps and picking up a stick drew it across
the slats of a fence as he went up the street. The outlandish noise
seemed to act as a balm to his disappointment and to keep him company.

CHAPTER III

CASTLES IN THE AIR

The lonesomeness of Robinson Crusoe on his desert island was nothing
compar