So we gave him the banner, and oh, boy, that kid did look funny, holding it up. He was scowling as if he thought he could frighten buildings out of the way. The stuff he had inside of his patented megaphone kept rattling and he sounded like a junk dealers' convention as he tramped along. We decided that it would be best to go into regular formation so as to look more invincible and scare the civilized civilians in Bridgeboro. "We'll strike terror, hey?" the kid said. "I hope we strike a restaurant," Hunt Manners spoke up. "I don't care what we strike as long as we don't strike our colors," I told him. "Suppose three fellows walk together, and three others behind them, and Pee-wee and I will walk ahead because I'm the leader and he's the standard bearer. Fall in." "Into what?" the kid wanted to know. "Into line," I said. "You walk ahead with me and do as I tell you. You're going to be courier and envoy and a lot of things. You're my official body-guard. You're my staff. Only don't break your other garter. Don't give the enemy any advantage." So that was the way we fixed it. I marched ahead, with Pee-wee at my side holding the standard. He was a kind of a martial band, too, on account of his aluminum cooking set rattling and jingling in the phonograph horn. He looked very severe. I guess the women and children will never forget when he passed through poor, defenseless Bridgeboro. They're laughing yet. Talk about poor Belgium! I marched along beside my official staff. I guess you know what I look like. You can see me on the cover of this book. That laugh is caused by Pee-wee. You can only see it, but oh, boy, you ought to _hear_ it. Behind us came Westy and Dorry and Hunt Manners marching together, and behind them were Will Dawson and the Warner twins marching together. The expeditionary forces! Behind us, after we got into town, all the kids followed along to see what it was all about, so pretty soon we had a crowd of about a couple of dozen all around us, yelling and hooting. And all the grown up people stopped and stared and then began to laugh. All the while Pee-wee looked straight ahead and his face was very severe. We had two things to go by, the tree away off there on the ridge, and Pee-wee's compass. I carried that compass to help us in places where we couldn't see the tree. All we had to do was to go straight west.