I had to just pull his hand off my arm, he was holding so fast to it. Cracky, I didn't know what to tell him. Then I said, "I tell you what you do Alf." (I wasn't going to be calling him Skinny,) I said, "You go and ask Vic Norris if he's got an awl or a small gimlet--see? Then I'll fix it for you." Vic had charge of the locker where we kept the lights and oil and tools and all that kind of stuff. Pretty soon he came back with an awning needle and asked me if it would do. I think he would have gone crazy if I had told him no. I said, "Yes, I guess so. Come ahead, and let go my arm, do you hear? I'm not going to run away." Then he said, "I like you better than any of the scout guys." "We're not guys, we're just scouts," I told him; "you can cut out the guys. Didn't Mr. Ellsworth tell you that?" The fellows were sitting around on the deck, reading. Some of them were sprawling around on the cabin roof, killing time and jollying Pee-wee. I don't know where Mr. Ellsworth was, but I guess he was inside writing letters. Anyway, it was nice and sunny and you could see the sun in the water. Over on shore, in St. George, I could hear a church bell and it sounded clear. There weren't many boats out, except sometimes the boats to Coney Island went by and we could hear the music. I thought I'd rather be where I was, anyway. Maybe it was because it was Sunday and because it was so still all around that I had a good idea. Anyway, I thought it was a good idea, but _good night_, it got me into a kind of a scrape. That's one thing about me, I'm always getting in scrapes. So then I took Skinny and we climbed in through the galley window. I guess nobody noticed us; nobody said anything except El Sawyer. He asked me if I was going to get supper. "Supper!" I said. "Didn't you just have dinner?" Honest, that fellow never thinks of anything except eats. When we got into the galley, I said to Skinny, "Let's sit up on the board so we can look out and see the bay." So we sat on the board that was on two barrels. I used it to open cans on and slice bread and all that. And I always washed it good and clean, you can bet. Oh, but it was nice sitting there and it was just as quiet as it is in the woods. Sometimes a motor boat would go by and we could hear it chugging. "One thing, nobody'll bother us here," I said, "some fellows don't like Sunday, but I do." Skinny said, "I like Christmas best, because rich people bring baskets of food." Cracky, I felt awful sorry for him. CHAPTER VI TELLS HOW SKINNY AND I GOT TOGETHER First I bored a hole in the coin and hung it around Skinny's neck. He was all excited and said, "Now I've got a regular merit badge, ain't I?"