First I didn't know what to say, and then I said, "Never you mind, I
guess you were kind of crazy. We all get crazy sometimes. I was crazy
when I thought Tom Slade was lying once. Never you mind."

"I guess I was crazy," he just said, and then he shut his eyes and I
didn't bother him any more--only just sat there. I don't know what made
him tell me, but anyway, I was glad.

Pretty soon I helped him to Dr. Winters' automobile because he limped
pretty bad. Skinny went in the automobile, too, and Doc Carson, but they
didn't ask me. All the fellows went along the road, too, because
nobody felt like hauling the saplings that day, and I didn't, that's
sure. I said I was going back to get Skinny's axe, and I was glad when I
was all alone in the woods. That's the best place to be if you've got any
troubles and you want to think.

And I kind of didn't want to think about Westy, so I thought about Skinny
just to keep everything else out of my head. Because I knew it wouldn't
ever be just the same again with Westy and I didn't want to think about
it. In the troop it would be all right, and maybe in the patrol too, but
it wouldn't ever be just the same again with Westy and me.

I was glad that I'd be interested in Skinny and now I could see he was
different from all of us kind of wonderful-I don't know how to tell you.
His eyes were so big, and wild, and starey. And he said things in such a
funny way and he got so excited. Up at Temple Camp, afterwards, Mr.
Ellsworth told Jeb Rushmore that Skinny was inspired, but I don't know
just what he meant. An I knew is we were even scared of him sometimes.
He never called any of us by our names--that was funny.

Pretty soon I went home. It was all dark in the woods and dandy for
thinking, and I was glad I had one friend, anyway, and that was Jim
Hawkins in the book. I guessed maybe that was the reason that Westy got
the book, because only lately I had read it, and I had told him so much
about it. All the way home I kept thinking about Westy and I wished I had
never found that out.

Mostly at night I sit on the porch with my mother and father, but that
night I went to my tent and lit the lantern and sat there. I like a
lantern because it reminds you of camping. Nix on electric lights up at
Temple Camp, that's what Jeb Rushmore says. Gee, he has no use for
electric lights--electric lights and umbrellas. But, anyway, I've got a
wire from our garage to Camp Solitaire (that's my tent) and a