either. That was one good thing.

CHAPTER VIII

TELLS ABOUT OUR TRIP UP THE HUDSON

He said, "If they get mad when I talk to you, I'll talk to you on the
sly. It's all right to like a fellow that isn't in your patrol, isn't
it?"

"Sure it is," I told him, "you have to like everybody. But you do what
they tell you and then nobody'll get mad."

He said, "The swimming badge is a good one, isn't it?"

"It's a dandy one," I said. Then he told me that was the one they
wanted him to try for. He said, "Can I try for it now?"

I thought I'd better watch my step--safety first, hey? So I said, "You
ask Connie. I shouldn't think there'd be any objection to trying now;
then after you've passed your first class tests you could just scoop
the badge right up, see?"

"I looked at all the pictures of the badges," he said, "and I like the
one with the picture of a rooster best. Is the swimming one better than
that?"

I said, "Yes, because every scout has got to know how to swim. Anyway,
Connie knows best; and he's your patrol leader, so you do whatever he
tells you to."

"Will I be able to beat everybody swimming?" he said.

I told him maybe, if he tried hard, and then I told him he'd better go
to bed. He said he wouldn't be able to sleep now, on account of
thinking about the swimming badge. Anyway, he went and I noticed how
skinny his legs were. It made me feel awful sorry for him, because his
suit didn't fit him and looked kind of funny. His eyes were funny,
anyway, and gave me the fidgets, but in the dark you could just see
them shine. I told him to go inside and go to sleep and not think about
the swimming badge.

One thing about Skinny, I knew he'd never make a good all-around scout,
like some fellows. You know what I mean. Now you take Artie Van Arlen--
he's got eleven merit badges and he's got the bronze medal. Maybe you'd
say photography was his bug, but he never went crazy about it, that's
one sure thing. Take _me_, I've got nine merit badges--the more the
merrier, I don't care.

But Skinny could only think about one thing and he'd go clean crazy
about it. Mr. Ellsworth says he's _intense_--hanged if I know what that
is. All I know is that he couldn't think about a lot of things. He just
couldn't read the Handbook through. All of a sudden, when he'd be
reading it, he'd see something that he liked, and good night, he'd
forget everything else. Mr. Ellsworth said Skinny would never do
anything except _one_ thi