"I might if I happened to think of it. Let's talk about something pleasant. If I do that fourteen mile hike and close up on the first class tests, will you find me a boy to train as a tenderfoot! That'll be the only thing left to do. Maybe you could leave the scouts and then I'd start in training you--no?" "They wouldn't let us do that. Just the same we'll find some feller that's not a scout." "All right then, I guess I might as well take a hop, skip and jump into the first class. Will you go with me to-morrow morning and hold my hand?" "Sure I will; then I can tell them I was the one that went with you, hey? I can be the one to prove it." "Sure thing; you tell 'em." "Are you all excited about it?" Skinny asked. "Oh I think I'll sleep to-night." "And to-morrow you can write to your father that you're a full first class scout, hey?" "Don't forget about the boy I have to catch and train for a tenderfoot." "Yes, but that isn't exactly a test, kind of." "Now if you weren't such a little peach of a scout I might use you." "And I could go in your patrol, maybe; hey? Because my patrol wouldn't be mad if I did." "Oh, is that so? Well, we'll have to be careful not to make them mad. I suppose they'd beat us up if they got mad; and they wouldn't let us use your canoe." Skinny seemed to be thinking. "If you're breaking in a new feller then maybe you won't bother with me any more; hey?" "Then again maybe I will." "I bet when you get your first class badge, then you'll start getting a lot of merit badges; I bet you'll win a whole lot of them." "Six or eight at a time, huh?" "And when you've got your first class badge you can try for camp specials too. Those are things that are not in the Handbook, like the Mohawk Archery set for tracking; you get a target easel and a lot of targets and a real Indian bow and arrows and everything. You've got to track somebody, or an animal, five miles through the woods--then you get it." "I kind of like that." "First you've got to find tracks--I'll help you. There's a feller up here named Roy Blakeley; don't you let _him_ help you. He told one scout where there were some tracks and they were nothing but railroad tracks. So do you want to try for that prize after you get your full badge?" "That's the one for me. Tell me about this canoe; how did you win it?" "I was all kinder crazy like--kinder like my fingers were asleep. So I even couldn't hold myself back. Do you say a feller can be kinder good even if he's reckless. You don't have to be so terrible if you're bad, do you?" "Guess not." "If you like me a lot----" "That's it." "If you like me a lot and I do something--kinder--maybe--if I'm kind of not so good all of a sudden--then would you like me just the same?"