LOGIC

The man came around in front of the sign and looked up and said, “Well, now, what do you youngsters think you’re doing here?”

I said, “Well, we’re not so sure but we think we’re sitting here.”

He said, “Anybody give you permission to come on this land?”

Westy said, “No, but we know lots of people cross here and we thought it was all right. We always heard this was a short-cut to Addison.”

Then he asked us if we were going to Addison.

Westy said, “No, but it’s just the same crossing your land in one place as another. You can’t blame us for thinking it was all right.”

The man said, “Well, ’tain’t right, by no manner o’ means. You’re trespassin’, that’s what you’re doing.”

Dorry said, “We’re sorry.”

The man said, “Well, so’m I, because I’m goin’ to make an example of you, that’s what I’m goin’ to do. I’m goin’ to learn you a lesson.”

I said, “No lessons, this is vacation.”

He said, “Haow?”

Westy said, “We’re sorry, we can’t do any more than say that. We thought it was all right. I don’t see what harm we do.”

“Well, you’ll find out,” the man said, good and cross.

All of a sudden Pee-wee shouted down at him, “Anyway, we’re not on your land, we’re on this sign. Has the sign got a right here?”

The man said, “Well, you youngsters, the people that pay me to let this sign stand here don’t pay me to let you climb all over it. Now you come down off there, every one of you, and we’ll see what’s what. We’ll see what the jedge has to say.”

“Don’t go down,” Dorry whispered.

“That shows how much you know about law,” Pee-wee shouted down. “My uncle’s got a friend who’s a lawyer. If this sign has a right here we have a right here because we’re part of the sign. You can, ask Mr. Bull who works for Brown’s Hats if we’re not. Do you see what it says on this sign? Always on top? That means us. It means us just as much as the hats. We belong here, so there.”

The man said, “Haow did you get here without trespassin’?”

I said, “That isn’t the question. We’re here because we’re here. The question is has the sign got a right to be here?”

“Sure,” Pee-wee yelled down, “that’s logic.” He looked awful funny sitting up there and shouting down at the man. “Suppose a thing has a right to be in a place but the people that own that thing don’t own the place. If you’re on the thing——”

“You ain’t got no right there,” the man shouted up.

“Lift the ladder up,” Westy said.

“Sure, that’s strategy,” Pee-wee said.

So we hauled the ladder up out of the man’s reach.

“Do you admit that somebody can own a place that has a thing on it that belongs to somebody else that has something on it——”

“Shut up,” I said. Then I said to the man, “It says on this sign that we’re on top. You see it? That means us. This kid is right; we’re part of this sign, just as if we were painted here.”

“Put that ladder down,” the man shouted.

“Does it belong to you?” Westy said.

“It’s on my land,” the man hollered at us.

I said, “Well, we just took it off your land.”

“If you want to take the sign away go ahead and do it,” Westy said.

“We should worry,” I called down.

“We can stand on the law, can’t we?” the kid piped up.

“We can sit on the sign, that’s better,” I said.

The man said, “Are you going to put that ladder down here?”

“No, we’re not,” Westy said.

“We’re part of this sign and we’re going to stay here,” the kid said. “If anybody paid you money for letting the sign be here, that includes us. We’re an advertisement of Brown’s Hats, that’s what we are. We’re on top. It says so. If a thing belongs to a thing, it belongs to that thing and not the land that thing is on, doesn’t it? If you rent out a place to put a thing then the thing that’s on that thing isn’t trespassing on the land that was rented out for the thing underneath it, is it?”

“It’s as clear as mud,” I said. “We’ve got as much right here as a man’s hat has got on top of his head even if his head is in the wrong place.”

“That’s logic,” the kid shouted.

“It’s as true as a false alarm,” Westy said.

“Truer,” Warde put in.

“A sign is something that’s got something on it,” our young hero shouted. “Let’s hear you deny that.”

“And it doesn’t make any difference what’s on it,” Dorry said. “An ad’s an ad, isn’t it?”

“Most always,” I said. “It says here we’re on top, so there’s the proof. We’re here because we’re here. You can do that by long division.”

“We’re secure,” the kid said.

“As long as we don’t fall over backwards,” I told him.

“Anyway, we’re not trespassing now,” Hunt put in.

“Posilutely not,” I said.

The man said, “All right, if you’ve got a right there, stay there. Only don’t come down on my land. If you’ve got a right on top, you haven’t got any right down here. I’ll let you see some logic, whatever that is. You can set up there and I’ll set down here, and you can stay till the sign rots. You’re such clever youngsters. Always on top, huh? Well, you can stay up there with Brown’s hats and see how you like it. This land down here belongs to me, by gum!”

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