about the signal, either. I didn't exactly ask them, but I could tell
it all the same. So I told them all about everything that happened,
about how I got caught in the marsh and all that, and especially about
Wig being such a hero. Then she cried a little, kind of, and I said
there was no use crying because I was home all right. But anyway, she
cried just the same, and hugged me awful tight just as if everything
hadn't ended all right. That's a funny thing about mothers.

So then I went to bed and I lay awake thinking about everything that
happened. What I thought about most was why Jake Holden hadn't come
and told my mother and father like I heard him say he was going to
do. You remember how I heard him say that. So that was a mystery--that's
what Pee-wee would call it. And I was wondering why he hadn't come to
the house to give them that note he had found. Because I knew Jake Holden
(he always called me "Scouty") and he liked me, too, and I knew he
would sure have come to the house if something hadn't happened.

Now that I was all calmed down, as you might say, I wasn't surprised
any more about no one reading the signal, because maybe it didn't show
very plain in Bridgeboro and anyway, most grown people seem to think
that signalling and all that kind of thing are lots of fun for scouts,
but not much use except when grown people, and especially the navy, do
it.

Anyway, I should worry about grown people, because we have plenty of
fun.

Oh, boy, didn't I sleep that night! When I got up I made up my mind
that I'd go to Jake Holden's shanty, just for the fun of it, and find
out why he didn't come and tell my family that I was dead. Because, if I