After most everyone else had gone, the girls all crowded around Pee-wee before they went back to their canoes. Oh, you should have seen that kid! The girl in the red sweater said, "My name is Grace Bentley and my friends want me to tell you what a perfectly _lovely_ time we've had. And we think it's just _wonderful_ how boy scouts are so, you know, what you may call it----" "Sure," Pee-wee said; "resourceful, that's what you mean." She said, "But you must remember that the Camp-fire Girls are new and we'll catch up to you yet." "Oh, sure," Pee-wee said; "you'll catch up with us. All you have to do is try. First I couldn't learn scout pace. Gee, don't get discouraged. If you want to do a thing just make up your mind that you'll do it. And if you can't do it, do it anyway." Gee, the rest of us just stood there trying to keep from screaming, while Pee-wee stood in the center of that crowd of girls, looking about as big as a toadstool, and giving them a scout lecture. "All you have to do is try," he said; "did you notice where I was diving from the springboard?" "Oh, I thought it was just _dandy_," a girl said. "That was nothing," Pee-wee told her; "it looks hard, but that's nothing. There's no such word as fail; that's a what d'ye call it, a maxwell." "You mean a Ford," Connie said. "He means a Pierce-Arrow," Westy shouted. "He means a maxim, don't you?" the girl named Grace said. "And I think it's a perfectly _splendid_ maxim." "That's nothing," Pee-wee piped up; "I know a lot of maxims. I've got a collection of them." "He catches them in the woods," I said. "Don't you get discouraged," Pee-wee shouted. "No, we won't," Grace said; "and don't you mind them, either. They're just teasing you. And we want to ask you if you'll do us a favor--a good turn. Will you?" "_Sure_ I will," he said, very manly; "what is it?" "We want you to _promise_ to come over to _Camp Smile Awhile_ to-morrow and cook dinner for us. And we want to ask all the rest of you boys to come, too. We're just a lot of _greenhorns_ about cooking; isn't it _shameful_ to have to admit it? But we've got everything over there, food and utensils, and you can make us up a _feast_ and we'll spend the afternoon visiting. Say you will. Will you?" _G--o--o--d night!_ I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my feet. _Oh, boy_, you should have seen Pee-wee's face. You just ought to have seen it. CHAPTER XIV PEE-WEE ON SCOUTING "Absolutely, positively," I said; "he'll be there at ten-thirty. Do you want him to bring references?" "We should say _not_," Grace Bentley said; "the _idea_! What we saw in the pictures was reference enough." _Good night_, you should have seen Pee-wee's face. He just stood there, gazing about as if he were in a trance. One of the girls said, "Won't it be _adorable_! We're going to have chicken." "Cooking chicken is his favorite indoor sport," Westy said. "How do you like your roast chicken; fried or stewed? It's all the same to him."