"I like you better than all of them," Pepsy said. "Sometimes I'm
kept after school too, you can ask Miss Bellison."

"One thing sure, I like you well enough to be partners with you,"
Pee-Wee said. "Do you want me to tell you something? I thought of a way
to make a lot of money, and if I do I'm going to buy three new tents
for our troop. Do you want to go partners with me? We'll say the tents
are from both of us and we'll have a lot of fun."

"I had a dollar once and I sent it to the heathens," Pepsy said,
"and I'd rather help you than the heathens, because I like you better."

"Heathens are all right," Pee-Wee said, "and I'm not saying anything
against heathens, especially wild ones, but we're just as wild. You
ought to go to Temple Camp and see how wild we are."

He did not look very wild as he sat upon the narrow seat with his
knees drawn up and his scout hat on the back of his head showing his
curly hair.

The girl gazed at his natty khaki attire, the row of merit badges
on his sleeve, the trophies of his heroic triumphs. She was not the
first to feel the lure of a uniform. But it was the first uniform she
had ever seen at close range, for in the wartime she had been in that
frowning brick structure which still haunted her.

"I'll help you because you can do everything and you know a lot,"
she said.

In the fullness of her generosity and loyalty to Pee-Wee's prowess