Between the leaves, right where the rice cake recipe revealed itself to
the hungry inquirer, was a folded paper which dropped out as Pee-wee
opened the book. For all he knew it contained the recipe so he held it
under the lantern and read:
"Dear Mary:
"Since you butted in, Tom and I have decided that it would be
better for Pee-wee to go with _him_, and I'll stay home. Anyway,
that's what I've decided. So you'll get your wish all right and I
should worry.
"Roy."
Pee-wee read it twice over, then he laid it on the locker and sat down
and looked at it. Then he picked it up and read it over again. He did
not even realize that its discovery among Roy's things would indicate
that it had never been sent. Sent or not, it had been written.
So this was the explanation of Roy's invitation that he accompany them
on the trip. Mary Temple had asked them to let him go. Yet, despite his
present mood, he could not believe that his own patrol leader, Roy
Blakeley, could have written this.
"I bet Tom Slade is--I bet he's the cause of it," he said.
He recalled now how he had talked about the trip to Mary Temple and how
she had spoken rather mysteriously about the possibility of his going
along. So it was she who was his good friend; it was to her he owed the
invitation which had come to him with such a fine air of sincerity.
"I always--crinkums, anyway girls always seem to like me, that's one
thing," he said. "And--and Roy did, too, before Tom Slade came into the
troop.
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