n do justice to the provisions and
furniture which Pee-wee brought.

One revolving police traffic sign
One large phonograph horn
One dishpan full of crullers (taken in a masterly
assault upon the Harris pantry)
One tent
One duffel bag with cooking set
Part of a vacuum cleaner
One scout belt axe
One Thanksgiving horn
One automobile siren horn.
One lantern
Two long clothesline supporters
A towel-rack that opened like a fan
A skein of clothesline
A small kitchen-range shovel
Two boxes filled with canned goods
One box filled with loose edibles
One ice cream freezer

"Didn't you bring a cow?" Townsend asked. "We can never make ice cream
without cream."

"We're in reach of the mainland, aren't we?" Pee-wee retorted
thunderously. "It isn't as if we were going out of sight of land; gee
whiz, then I'd have brought quite a lot of stuff."

"Oh, I see," said Townsend.

"I just picked up a few odds and ends," Pee-wee explained. "I'm going
to make a couple of more trips to-morrow."

"If you happen to think of it bring a lawnmower," said Townsend; "they
come in handy. And a few life preservers if you happen to have any, in
case the island goes to pieces."

"How can it go to pieces?" Pee-wee demanded. "Islands don't go to
pieces, do they? Australia is an island, isn't it? It's just where it
always was, isn't it? You're crazy! All we need is one more scout and
I know one by the name of Keekie Joe, and I'm going to try to get him
and then we'll be a full patrol and I decided to name it the
Alligators, because they belong on land and water both and we're sea
scouts on the land kind of, so maybe I'll decide to name it the
Turtles, maybe."

"Discoverer," said Townsend, "we're with you whatever you do, but there
is a mystery about this island which I would like to fathom before we
organize----"

"I fathomed lots of mysteries," shouted Pee-wee.

"I don't know whether you know what erosion means----"

"Sure I know what it means," said Pee-wee; "it means getting rusty,
kind of."

"It means land being washed away by water. If you put a piece of land
in the water, the water will dissolve it and it won't take long either.
It isn't like an island that has always been where it is--a kind of
hill sticking up out of the water. This is just a piece of land and
the roots of this little tree won't hold it together long.

"The question is, should we go hunting for new members un