s
resourceful. Can't you pass out a little resourcefulness? We'll turn
into mummies up here."

"We'll sacrifice our lives for Brown's hats," Warde said.

So then we started to sing again, each scout singing something
different, but pretty soon we all got in line with this; it's a kind of
a sequel to "Over There":

"Way up here,
Way up here;
Just our luck,
To be stuck;
Way up here.
And we won't go home,
'Cause we're stuck away up here."

"Oh, here comes the painter!" one of the fellows shouted.

"Shaved!" I yelled.

"He was shaved before," Hunt said.

"I mean saved," I told him.

"He has reinforcements with him," Pee-wee shouted.

"There's one of Brown's hats with a man under it," Ralph Warner said.

I said, "I guess that's Mr. Wild Bull. Thank goodness, they'll relieve
the starving population."

"Anyway, we held out," the kid said.

"Sure," I said. "The battle of Brown's hat sign. Wounded, none. Killed,
none. Hungry, everybody."

Then we all set up a cheer for the painter and the other man. When they
came near enough I shouted, "Hey, mister, we're thinking of retiring
from the hat business."

"Hey, mister," Pee-wee shouted; "aren't we a part of this sign?"

"Absolutely," the painter said. "You're the best part of it."

"Now you see!" Pee-wee shouted down at the farmer, "You thought we were
just hanging around here. _Now you see!_ We're just as much on top as
the hats are."

"Except when we fall down," I said.

"A man's hat might blow off, mightn't it?" the kid yelled. "That
wouldn't prove his hat isn't on top, would it?"

"That's a very fine argument," the man who was with the painter said.

"I know some better ones than that," Pee-wee yelled down at him. "Do you
know we caught a bandit?"

"Hey, mister," I said, "haven't we got a right up here?"

"That's what it says," the man laughed.

Then the painter said, "Boys, I want you to meet Mr. Slinger Bull,
advertising man for Brown's hats. He is very much taken with the idea of
having scouts on top of our signs."

I said, "Believe me, we came near being taken. We're going to retire
from the business."

Mr. Bull said, "Too late, your pictures will soon be all over the
country."

"Mine too?" Pee-wee yelled.

"And we're going to use the scout idea--scouts on top; wood cut-outs, of
course."

"Wouldn't live cut-ups do?" I asked him. "Because that's us."

Mr. Bull, he just laughed and