them," he said.

"Well, well both handle them," said Scoutmaster Ned.

A little farther along the road Safety First said, "I don't see why the
road was closed off. It seems to me to be all right."

Pee-wee was now sufficiently subdued to think and speak calmly, and he
said, "That feller with the shirt put it there; he said he read the
signal. I guess he's crazy, hey?"

"Oh, the fellow with the shirt?" queried Fido Norton, humorously.

"I seem to remember a shirt," said Nick.

"That was it," Pee-wee said.

"He was just a little rube," said Charlie Norris.

"He's the one that said I was a thief," said Pee-wee. "I told him I
could prove I was a scout by eating a potato a certain way."

"And be didn't take you up?" said Scoutmaster Ned.

"He didn't have a potato," Pee-wee said.

"It's best always to carry potatoes with you," said Scoutmaster Safety
First.

"After this I'm always going to carry five or six," said Pee-wee.

"The proof of the potatoes is in the eating," said Nick.

"I know nine different ways to cook them," said Pee-wee; "and I can eat
them raw so that makes ten. I can eat potato skins too, so that makes
eleven."

"If you could eat potato-bugs that would make twelve," said Charlie
Norris.

"If you eat lightning bugs, that will make you bright," said Pee-wee;
"that's what Roy Blakeley says; he's in my troop. He's crazy and he says
he's glad of it. We've got three patrols in my troop and I'm a member of
the Ravens but I'm kind of in all of them. I know all about camping and
everything. In the fall you're supposed to camp east of a hill, do you
know why?"

"No, break it to us gently," said Nick.

"When you said _break it_, that reminded me that I can break an apple
into halves with one hand."

"Do tell," said Charlie; "what do you do with the other half?"

"What other half?"

"The other one."

"If they're both the same how can there be another one? I eat them."

"Really?"

"I eat mushrooms too, only if they're toad-stools they kill you."

"Why don't you eat a couple?"

"I _will_ not, because you bet I'm going to stay alive. I'll show you
how you can tell the difference when we get to that island. I'll show
you a lot of things. Do you know how to pump water with a
newspaper--rolled up? Gee, that's easy, I learned that when I was a
tenderfoot."

"What are you now, a second hand scout?"

"I'm a first class scout and I'm a first aid scout and--Do you know how
to make things out o