s. As Pee-wee stood upon
the cabin watching them, the swinging cans were brightened by the rays
of the declining sun, and there was a chill in the air as the familiar
grayness fell upon the heights, bringing to the boy that sense of
loneliness which he had felt before.

He was of the merriest temperament, was Pee-wee, and, as he had often
said, not averse to "being jollied." But he was withal very sensitive
and during the trip he had more than once fancied that Tom and Roy had
fallen together to his own exclusion, and it awakened in him now and
then a feeling that he was the odd number of the party. He had tried to
ingratiate himself with them, though to be sure no particular effort was
needed to do that, yet sometimes he saw, or fancied he saw, little
things which made him feel that in important matters he was left out of
account. Roy would slap him on the shoulder and tousle his hair, but he
would ask Tom's advice--and take it. Perhaps Roy had allowed his
propensity for banter and jollying to run too far in his treatment of
Pee-wee. At all events, the younger boy had found himself a bit
chagrined at times that their discussions had not been wholly
three-handed. And now, as he watched the others hiking off through the
twilight, and heard their laughter, he recalled that it was usually _he_
who was appointed a "committee to stay and watch the boat."

This is not a pleasant train of thought when you are standing alone in
the bleakness and sadness and growing chill of the dying day, with
tremendous nature piled all about you, and watching your two companions
as they disappear along a lonely road. But the mood was upon him and it
did not cheer him when Roy, turning and making a megaphone of his hands,
called, "Look out and don't fall into the gas tank, Pee-wee!"

He _had_ reminded them that they had better buy gasoline at Newburgh,
while they had the chance. Roy had answered jokingly telling Pee-wee
that he had better buy a soda in the city while _he_ had the chance, and
Tom had added, "I guess the kid thinks we want to drink it."

Well, there they were hiking it up over the hills now in quest of
gasoline and still joking him.

If Pee-wee had remembered Roy's generous pleasure in the "parrot stunt,"
he would have been much happier, but instead he allowed his imagination
to picture Tom and Roy in the neighboring village, having a couple of
sodas--perhaps taking a flyer at a movie show.

He did as much as he could towa