“I don’t mean it that way,” I told him. “Only why should you be putting up a half a dollar for something you won’t have anything to do with? Anyway that’s against the rule in this camp, taking up collections like that. Gee, I should think you’d be glad your mother did that--sending you up here like that.” He said, “Do you live in a big house?” “Sure,” I told him, “but what’s the difference? They’re all the same size when you get on the outside of them--the outside of every house is the same size. You go outside your house and you’ve got just as much room as I have when I go outside of my house. Let’s hear you deny it.” “Tell that to Pee-wee,” he said, kind of laughing. “Look out, you’ll crack your face laughing,” I told him. He said, “When I go outside my house I just have to sit in the gutter. There used to be a lot but they’re building on it.” “When I go outside of my house there’s a big lawn I have to mow,” I told him. “Jiminies, you’re lucky--you don’t have to cut the sidewalk.” He said, “You crazy Indian, you make me laugh.” “Sure, why not?” I said to him. CHAPTER XXII SOUNDS IN THE NIGHT He was talking like that all the way round to the other side of the lake. Over there the woods are thick. We stood looking across the water at the camp--all we could see were the lights and the camp-fire blazing. We could see it upside down in the water. I said, “That big light is the cooking shack. Now you just look to the left of that. Do you see a little bit of a light? That’s outside my patrol cabin. The three cabins of our troop are there. They’re just a little way up the hill from the camp. They’re just outside the inside. You never came up there like we asked you to.” Dub said, “You fellows are lucky all right. Those cabins belong to your troop, don’t they?” “Sure they do,” I said, “and there’s a tent there too, because we have four patrols now. Pee-wee used to be a Raven but he started a declaration of independence and now we’ve got the Chipmunks. We’re more to be pitied than blamed. We keep a lantern out so on very dark nights we can find our way. They’re all at camp-fire to-night, my troop.” “I bet you wish you were there,” Dub said. “Believe me, I’m glad to get rid of them,” I told him. “There’s an old Scout there to-night who’s telling yarns about the Northern Pacific Trail. The Atlantic and Pacific Trail is good enough for me--gee, I’m always chasing to that store when I’m home. You think _we’re_ lucky! Good night, I wish we had an Eagle Scout in my patrol.” Dub said, “You’re all right coming away with me alone to-night. I don’t know, I just wanted to get away from the crowd.” “The pleasure is mine,” I told him. “I should worry about the crowd. But you’re a funny kind of a gazzink. You want to get away from the crowd and all the while you want to stay at camp.” He said, “I guess that’s just it, it makes me sore to be there and think how I can’t stay.”