Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Camps -- Juvenile fiction; Relay racing -- Juvenile fiction
“Lizzie, did you hear what he said?” said Townsend.
“Squeeeeeak,” said Lizzie.
It now became increasingly evident that they were in territory which
Pee-wee had long since conquered and subdued, and as they approached,
and passed familiar landmarks he let his voice out in a series of
informatory screams.
“Oh, we’re getting there, we’re getting there, _we’re getting there_!”
he shouted. “There’s the barn that Hervey Willetts rolled off the top
of—hello, Mr. Berry!”
“Hello, yourself,” called farmer Berry from his field.
“Gee whiz, they all know me,” said Pee-wee proudly. “Lots of times we
walk to Catskill.” Going through the little village of Leeds it was like
a triumphal procession, Pee-wee waving his-hand and shouting to this
storekeeper and that, his excitement continually increasing.
“Oh, we’re getting there, we’re _getting there_!” he yelled. “You go
straight up this next road till you come to a smell kind of like a
stable only there isn’t any stable and then you keep going—I’ll show
you—oh, we’re coming nearer!”
They reached the smell and verged a little to the west. “Keep on this
road till you come to a turtle,” said Pee-wee excitedly. “Maybe he isn’t
there now but anyway—I’ll show you—you can’t drive right down to camp on
account of the woods—”
“Why can’t I?” Townsend asked.
“Because you can’t on account of the woods.”
“Let’s see the woods,” said Townsend.
“We’re coming to them, we’re coming to them,” said Pee-wee. “I’ll show
you.”
There had been many uproarious arrivals at Temple Camp but never such a
one as that. And Scout Harris nearly fell out of the car, he shouted so.
For Townsend paid not the slightest heed to the woods when he reached
it.
The way to reach Temple Camp is to go along the road till you reach an
old bench covered with carved initials. Here is where they wait for the
bus and the mail wagon. Right near that rustic bench is a beaten path
(Jeb’s Trail, they call it) which goes down through the sparse woods to
the lakeside where the camp is. No four-wheeled vehicle had ever dreamed
of going down there. Wheelbarrows had made the trip, but never a wagon,
much less an auto. These went on a few hundred feet and were parked at
the Archer farm.
“Don’t turn in there, don’t turn in there!” shouted Pee-wee. “It’s all
woods.”
“I thought we were going to camp,” said Townsend.
“You’ll bump into trees and everything,” warned Pee-wee, amazed at the
direction Townsend was taking, “and the last part is steep and you’ll
run right into the lake, that’s what you’ll do—Townsend.”
“Giddap, Liz,” said Townsend. “I’m not going to bust up the party.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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