Pretty soon Skinny came running back shouting for all he was worth, and believe me, he did look like an odd number. His streaky hair was all down over his forehead and his eyes were like a couple of camp fires. He was shouting: "_Don't go, don't go! I can go with you"_ We rowed over to shore and as he climbed in I could see that he was trembling all over, just for fear we wouldn't wait for him, I suppose. "I was going to swim out to you, I was," he said; "if you didn't wait." "You wouldn't want your scout suit to get all wet, would you?" I said. "Sit down and don't be so excited." "I like the water better than hiking, anyway," he said; "and I like _you_ best of all." I said, "The pleasure is mine," and then we all laughed. "You can make fun of me all you want," he said; "I don't care. I told them they could make fun of me all they want if they'd let me go with them, but they wouldn't let me go." "They wouldn't, huh?" Bert Winton said, and he studied Skinny awful funny like. "When I win them the badge, then they'll take me, won't they?" he said. "I guess so," I told him. "I'm going to win the cup for them in the contest, too," he said; "I'm going to win it for them before I go home. Then I'll be friends with them. I told them I'd win it if _you_ didn't try for it." "You should worry about me," I said, "I can swim, but _good night_, I'm not in the contest class. And maybe you're not either, so don't be too sure." He said, "I'm going to win them the cup, and I'm going to win them the badge. But I don't have to get to be a first class scout guy to win the cup, I don't. It's made of silver. Once my father stole a lot of silver. It's all fancy, that cup." "I know all about the cup, Alf," I said; (because, gee, I didn't like to be calling him Skinny) "but don't call the fellows scout guys. Just scouts--that's enough." He just looked at me kind of wild, as if he didn't understand, the same as he always did when anybody called him down, or tried to tell him something. For a few minutes nobody spoke and we just rowed around. Then Westy said, "So that's their game, is it?" I knew well enough what he meant. Every season Mr. Temple offers a silver cup to the best swimmer at Temple Camp. Once Mr. Temple had a son who got drowned because he couldn't swim, and that's why he's so interested in fellows being good swimmers. That silver cup hasn't got anything to do with the scout swimming badge. You can't win that (anyway they won't give it to you) till you've passed your first class tests. But anybody can try for the silver cup, and you can bet it's a big honor for any troop or patrol to have that. Most always they have the contest on Labor Day.