mosquitoes come out--that's one good thing. I don't mean it's one good
thing, but anyway you know what I mean.

Pretty soon I could push the swamp grass out of the way and swim a
little. Oh, cracky, I was thankful for that tide I I knew it would keep
on coming when it once started 'cause the tide never goes back on you.
Of course it goes back, but you know what I mean. Sometimes if you're
on a hike and telling time by the sun it'll go under a cloud. Or
sometimes if you're lost and following the stars, it'll cloud up and
you can't see them any more. And crinkums, a trail will go back on you
sometimes. But the tide is sure. It's got to come up, and so I knew it
was coming up to rescue me and I knew I was all right as soon as I saw
that spark plug.

Pee-wee wanted to name this chapter "Saved By A Spark Plug" or
"The Hero Plug," but I said it sounded silly. Any way I'll never say
another word against the tide. Often when I saw motor boats stuck on
the flats I could hear the men in them saying things about the tide--oh,
gee, you ought to have heard some of the things they said.

But I'll never say anything, anyway. It seemed kind of, you know, like an
army coming to rescue me, slow but sure, and pretty soon I was swimming
around, and oh, didn't I feel good!

All of a sudden like, there was a little river there and it kept getting
deeper and wider and I knew it began away out in the ocean and it seemed
as if it was picking its way all the way up into these marshes, to give
me a chance to do what every scout knows how to do--swim.

Of course I was saved, but I didn't know how far I'd have to swim, only