Maybe it's selfish, but if it is I can't help it. I think sometimes a
feller might do something selfish and make up for it some other
way--maybe. But I don't think any feller's got a right to do something
selfish and then call it a good turn. I don't believe a long hike would
hurt Pee-wee. He's the best scout-pacer in your patrol. But I want to go
alone with you and I'd just as soon tell Mary so. I suppose it would be
selfish, but we'd just try to make up----"
"Oh, shut up, will you!" snapped Roy. "You get on my nerves, dragging
along with your theories and things. _I_ don't care who goes or if
anybody goes. And you can go home and sleep for all I care."
"All right," said Tom, rising. "I'd rather do that than stay here and
fight. I don't see any use talking about whether it's a good turn to
Pee-wee." (Roy ostentatiously busied himself with his packing and
pretended not to hear.) "I wasn't thinking about Pee-wee so much anyway.
It's Mary Temple that I was thinking of. It would be a good turn to her,
you can't deny that. Pee-wee Harris has got nothing to do with it--it's
between you and me and Mary Temple."
"You going home?" Roy asked, coldly.
"Yes."
"Well, you and Pee-wee and Mary Temple can fix it up. I'm out of it."
He took a pad and began to write, while Tom lingered in the doorway of
the tent, stolid, as he always was.
"Wait and mail this for me, will you," said Roy. He wrote:
"Dear Mary--Since you butted in Tom and I have decided that it would be
best for Pee-wee to go with _him_ and I'll stay here.
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