  THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT OF PEPSY’S REST HAD TWO STEADY EMPLOYEES. PEE-WEE HARRIS BY PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH Author of THE TOM SLADE BOOKS THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY H. S. BARBOUR Published with the approval of THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK Made in the United States of America Copyright, 1922, by GROSSET & DUNLAP TO THE ONLY ORIGINAL—THE REAL PEE-WEE HARRIS—THIS STORY IS DEDICATED. FOREWORD Hey, listen! A lot of scouts said I was put out of the Tom Slade Series and so I had to go into the Roy Blakeley Series. And a lot of them said I was put out of the Roy Blakeley Series and that on account of that I started a series of my own. They said I had to get the author who wrote up Tom Slade’s adventures to help me. And a lot of them said if I didn’t look out, I’d be put out of this series, too. That shows how much sense they have, because how can a person that’s the main thing in a thing put himself out of that thing? Anyway, I’d like to see anybody put me out of this series. If they tried that it would be the best part of all the stories. Maybe when this series is finished I’ll be the only one left in it, but a lot I care because the fewer fellers there are the more there will be to eat. Roy Blakeley said if I’m writing a series the most important thing is to write close to the paper—that shows you how crazy he is. Gee whiz! He looks like a laughing hyena on the covers of those books he’s all the time writing. Tom Slade isn’t so bad. I like Tom Slade. Only he doesn’t know anything about girls—that’s one thing—I know all about them. Last summer I went down to where my uncle lives and spent vacation there and I had a peach of a time and all the things I did are told in the first story, but there are a lot of things left over and I’m going to tell these in another story. There are snakes and peach orchards and everything down there. Then comes the second story and that’s about a dandy mistake I made. Gee whiz! I’ve made better mistakes than any feller in our troop. I didn’t make it on purpose, but anyway it led to a lot of dandy adventures. That’s one good thing about mistakes, anyway. But one thing sure, if I had got into the right automobile I would have just gone about two blocks. So that shows that the wrong one may even be better than the right one. Only you bet I’m not going to tell you all about that story here. Then comes the third one and that’s the one where I started the Pollywog Patrol. It didn’t last long, but that’s all right, because pollywogs don’t last long. It wasn’t a full patrol, except we were full of dessert—three helpings. If you want plenty of dessert you’d better read that story. After that story comes the fourth one and there’s where I made the dandiest mistake I ever made. Another feller helped me make it. On account of that mistake a girl was good and sorry for the way she treated me and I bet you’d say it served her right. But anyway we’re good friends now. Then comes the fifth story and that’s the craziest one of all because that’s the story where I didn’t go to a desert island on account of the desert island coming to me. After the fifth one the stories get crazier and crazier. Maybe there’ll be as many as a hundred because I’ve got lots of paper and a new fountain pen and I’m having more adventures all the time. I’ve got ninety-seven of them thought up already—I mean adventures that I really had. And I’ve got a hundred and fifty-two thought up that I’m going to have, and that’s not counting one big one that I’ve started on already. So the only thing that will stop me will be if I don’t have any more paper, but even then I can go on writing, because scouts can write on birch bark and you can see for yourself how many birch trees there are. As long as there are some birch trees left I can keep on writing, so don’t you worry. Pee-wee Harris. P. S. Scouts know how to make paper out of leaves, too, so as long as there are leaves I can keep on writing. CONTENTS
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