seven badges to begin with; maybe that's why they wished it onto me. I
had camping, cooking, athletics, pioneering, angling, that's a cinch,
that's easy, and, let's see--carpentry and bugling. That's the easiest
one of the lot, just blow through the cornet and claim the badge. It's a
shame to take it."

"You mean you've won thirteen more since you've been here?" Tom asked.

"That's it," said Hervey. "First I got my fists on the eleven that have
_got_ to be included in the twenty-one, and then I made up a list of ten
others and went to it. I chose easy ones, but some of them didn't turn
out to be so easy. Music--oh, boy! And when I started to play the piano,
they said I wasn't playing at all, but that I really meant it. Can you
beat that?"

Tom could not help smiling.

"So you see I've been pretty busy since I've been here, too busy to talk
to interviewers, hey? I've piled up thirteen since I've been here;
that's a little over six weeks. That isn't so bad, is it?"

"It's good," Tom said, by no means carried away by enthusiasm.

"I thought you'd say so. So now I've got twenty and I know them all by
heart. Want to hear me stand up in front of the class and say them?"

"All right," Tom said.

"No sooner said than stung," Hervey flung back at him. "Well, I've got
first aid, physical development, life saving, personal health, public