"Yes, I guess he is," that's what Mr. Ellsworth said, "Skinny's too much for me. If the boys would only teach him a little scouting, I'd be better pleased. He wants to be a swimmer now; he's not thinking about being a scout. He thinks of the badge only as something to wear." "I tried to teach him some things out of the Handbook," I said, "but the Elks didn't like it. I tried to tell him some things about scouting and all I got was a good lecture from Connie. Nix on teaching fellows in other patrols." Mr. Ellsworth seemed awfully worried, kind of; he just sat thinking a minute. Then he said, "I'm afraid Skinny is going to be hard to tame. He'll make a fine swimmer and a fine stalker--" I said, "He calls that sneaking." Mr. Ellsworth laughed and said, "But the principal thing is to make him a good scout. Has he done any good turns?" I said, "The only good turns I know about, are the good turns he made in diving; he turns every which way." "Well, I hope he can forget about swimming long enough to eat his supper," Mr. Ellsworth said. But just the same Skinny didn't. CHAPTER X TELLS ABOUT SKINNY AND THE ELKS Well, that was the way it was with Skinny and I could see that the Elks were rushing him through, so that he'd get the badge. That used to be one trouble with the Elks and I don't care if they do know I said it. They got one good lesson to cure them, that's sure. The trouble with them was they were making a collection of badges and when you're out for badges, you skip at lot of pages in the Handbook, that's sure. The next day I said to Connie Bennett--this is just what I said; I said, "I hope you won't get mad at me again if I say something about Skinny, because, anyway, it's none of _my_ business, that's sure. But as long as you fellows are busy teaching him stunts and things, I don't see that there would be any harm in it, if I read some things in the Handbook to him--some other kind of things, I mean." He said, "What kind of things?" "Oh, just about the laws and things like that, like about being honest and obedient--you know." "You keep your hands off my patrol," that's just what he said; "and you needn't start hinting that the Elks are dishonest--" "Who's hinting that?" I said, kind of mad; "you remind me of an airplane, you're always going up in the air." "If any of my patrol are dishonest, they'll be thrown out," he said, "and maybe they'll be welcome in the Silver Foxes." "Sure," I said, "we make a specialty of burglars and pickpockets; we eat 'em alive. All I was asking you was that you let me teach Skinny some of the 'idea' stuff--you know what I mean." "You're jealous because he's a genius," Connie said; "and you want to fill him up with grandmother stuff. Why don't you let the kid alone? We'll take care of him." "All right," I said; "I should worry. Only there's no use getting mad; we're all one troop." "Yes, but we're three separate patrols," he said.