dinner and pushed his plate away. "I did right to go to him, didn't I,
dad?"

"You'd have been foolish not to go," said his father.

Don stared hard at the tablecloth. He had entered joyously on his duties
as patrol leader, but one disagreement after another with Tim had
roughened his road. And now--now that he seemed powerless to stay this
latest folly--he suddenly felt very, very tired.

"Why will Tim be so headstrong?" cried Barbara.

"It's a way some boys have," Mr. Strong explained. "Tell them not to do a
thing, and immediately that is the one thing they want to do. As for
Tim--Well, I fancy he's disgruntled because Ted Carter dropped him. He
doesn't want to sit around and watch baseball today. He probably figured
that the best way was to go off and pretend he didn't care. If he could
add spice to the going off, it would make it seem all the more as though
he was really having a good time."

"And won't he have a good time?" Barbara asked.

"No boy really enjoys himself, when he knows he's doing wrong," Mr.
Strong answered.

Don roused himself from his dull, discouraged mood. "Is there anything I
could try, dad, to stop him? Just one more trial?"

"You might take him by the back of the neck and tell him you're boss."