And you forgot all
about something else too, and it makes me laugh when I think about it;
when I think about you and your tracks."
"You think I'm a punk scout," Hervey sang out, gayly.
"I think you're a bully scout," Tom said.
"If I win the Eagle you'll say so, won't you?"
"Maybe."
"And do you mean to tell me that a scout can be any more of a scout
than that--an Eagle Scout?"
"Sure," said Tom uncompromisingly.
For a few seconds the young hero of the lofty elm was too astonished to
reply. Then he said, "Gee, you're a peachy scout, everybody says that,
but you're a funny kind of a fellow, that's what _I_ think. I don't get
you. The Eagle award is the highest award in scouting. It means, oh, it
means a couple of hundred stunts--hard ones. You can't get above that.
You're one yourself, you can't deny it. No, sir, you can't get above
that--no, _siree_.... Do you mean to tell me that there's anything
higher in scouting than the Eagle award?" he asked defiantly, after a
pause.
"Yop, there is," said Tom, unmoved.
Hervey paused in consternation. "Well, I'm for the Eagle award, anyway,"
he finally said. "That's good enough for _me_. And I'm going to get it,
too; right away, quick."
"You'll get it," Tom said.
"Think I will?"
"I don't think, I know."
"You mean you're _sure_ I will?"
"That's what I said."
"_Positive?_"
"That's what I said."
"Well, then I'd better get busy hunting for some tracks, hadn't I? I've
got to make good to _you_ as well as to my troop, haven't I?"
"You ask a lot of questions," said Tom in his funny, sober way.
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