idn't take the two
dollars, but anyway, I felt sorry for him.

I couldn't see him anywhere around and he wasn't in the ditch, I knew
that If he had been there then, you bet I'd have been all right with him.
It made me feel bad when I looked at that sapling an hacked and standing
up just as strong as ever. He must have chopped away on it for half an
hour and about all the poor little kid did was to get the bark off. Right
close by, I saw his belt axe lying just where he left it. It had Skinny
marked on it, and I guess he did it himself. It made me feel kind of
sorry for him that he called himself Skinny. It was his axe, anyway. And
I felt like kicking myself. And I saw how he had been trying to be a
scout just like the other fellows, poor little kid. It wasn't any of my
business where he got the money. It was his, anyway.

Then I began kicking the chips around with my foot and saying,
"Poor kid." And I said I guessed he'd die before he could ever chop down
a tree. Because, now since I had seen those red spots on his cheeks I
knew how bad he was. I knew he didn't have any strength at all, and all
the time something he had said kept running in my mind. "I like the one
about honor." "Poor little Skinny," I said. I was feeling bad, anyway.

An of a sudden I heard a sound and saw three or four fellows scrambling
up out of the ditch. So I went over there and just as I got there, I saw
something that I'll never forget, you can bet.

First I thought it was a ghost, and all the fellows were flabbergasted.
It was Skinny standing right near and clutching hold of a tree, and he
was all trembling and I thought he was going to fall down. Honest, I
never saw anything like the way he looked. His hair was all flying loose
and it made him look wild, because it wasn't cut. And his eyes were all
like as if they were on fire.

"I got him," he said, "I got him--he's coming. He's getting--out of--out
of his automobile. I got him because I'm--I'm a swamp-rat!" Thats just
the way he said it, and he hung onto the tree and his fingers were all
thin like an old man's and the spots were in his cheeks. "He's coming!"
he panted out.

Just then I could see Doctor Winters coming through the trees with a
little black bag. He must have left his machine out on the road about
a hundred yards away. And I guess Skinny must have jumped out and run
in ahead to show him the way and he just kept saying, "I got him, I got
him! Because I'm a swamp--rat--every