-wee said.

One of the other girls said, "I bet you have lots of fun, you boys."

"We eat it alive," I told her. "There's a scarcity of fun in Bridgeboro
because we used it all up. That's why we have to explore the country.
The next thing we're going to do is a zigzag hike."

She said, "Did anybody ever tell you you were crazy?"

"Nobody has to tell us," I said, "because we know it. Anyway, I guess we
have to be going now."

We had dandy fun sitting around there talking. Girls are all right, only
they're kind of funny, they keep giggling all the time--giggling and
fixing their hair. But anyway, they know how to do good turns. Most of
them like algebra and they're funny in other ways too. But gee whiz,
everybody has _something_ the matter with him. I know a girl who stuck a
safety pin on a stump for a scout sign. But they're strong on being kind
and all that, I'll say that much.

Those girls took us out across the lawn in back and when I pointed out
the big poplar tree away up there on west ridge they said they'd like to
be going with us. And Dora Dane Daring said she was glad her father
owned that house, so she could help us to keep to our bee-line. They
stood there at the fence waving to us until we got away over pretty
near to Westcott's Hill. One of them threw a kiss to us then. Girls
always wait till you get far away before they do that so that you can't
be really sure whether they meant it that way or not.

But I was sure, all right.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE NEW SCOUT

Now comes the part of our bee-line hike that I like best because we had
to go through woods and open country. Houses and villages are all right,
but me for the open country. There wasn't any one following us now,
there were no buildings or anything like that ahead, and it seemed quiet
and lonely. Up to that time our hike had been sort of like a circus,
only more so. But pretty soon, oh, boy, it wasn't much like a circus,
because something pretty serious happened.

It was beginning to get dusk by that time and there were kind of like
little dabs of dark red on the top of the ridge. Away up on the peak of
the big poplar tree was a dab of red and all the rest of it was dark. It
seemed awful clear against the sky, that tree. I kind of thought how all
day long the sun had been on a bee-line hike too, going straight west.
"If the sun can do it, we can do it," that's what I said. It would be
nice up there under that tree in the dusk. I was h