One thing, I hoped they’d all go home soon so I could sit down on a log and read some more in that book. Only lately I read it, but cracky, that doesn’t make any difference when it’s a good book, I thought I’d go back to the ditch pretty soon—as soon as El Sawyer came with the doctor. But, anyway, I wanted to be alone now.

So I stuffed the book in my pocket and strolled over to where we had been cutting the saplings. Then I went over close and looked at the one Skinny had been chopping. I guess I didn’t know what I was doing and thinking about. Anyway, now that I looked at it, I was sorry I made fun of him and got mad at him. It wasn’t only because I knew he didn’t take the two dollars, but anyway, I felt sorry for him.

I couldn’t see him anywhere around and he wasn’t in the ditch, I knew that. If he had been there then, you bet I’d have been all right with him. It made me feel bad when I looked at that sapling all hacked and standing up just as strong as ever. He must have chopped away on it for half an hour and about all the poor little kid did was to get the bark off. Right close by, I saw his belt-axe lying just where he left it. It had Skinny marked on it, and I guess he did it himself. It made me feel kind of sorry for him that he called himself Skinny. It was his axe, anyway. And I felt like kicking myself. And I saw how he had been trying to be a scout just like the other fellows, poor little kid. It wasn’t any of my business where he got the money. It was his, anyway.

Then I began kicking the chips around with my foot and saying, “Poor kid.” And I said I guessed he’d die before he could ever chop down a tree. Because, now since I had seen those red spots on his cheeks I knew how bad he was. I knew he didn’t have any strength at all, and all the time something he had said kept running in my mind. “I like the one about honor.” “Poor little Skinny,” I said. I was feeling bad, anyway.

All of a sudden I heard a sound and saw three or four fellows scrambling up out of the ditch. So I went over there and just as I got there, I saw something that I’ll never forget, you can bet.

First I thought it was a ghost, and all the fellows were flabbergasted. It was Skinny standing right near and clutching hold of a tree, and he was all trembling and I thought he was going to fall down. Honest, I never saw anything like the way he looked. His hair was all flying loose and it made him look wild, because it wasn’t cut. And his eyes were all like as if they were on fire.

“I got him,” he said, “I got him—he’s coming. He’s getting—out of—out of his automobile. I got him because I’m—I’m a swamp-rat!” That’s just the way he said it, and he hung onto the tree and his fingers were all thin like an old man’s and the spots were in his cheeks. “He’s coming!” he panted out.

Just then I could see Doctor Winters coming through the trees with a little black bag. He must have left his machine out on the road about a hundred yards away. And I guess Skinny must have jumped out and run in ahead to show him the way. And he just kept saying, “I got him, I got him. Because I’m a swamp-rat—everybody says so—and I know the short cut—now can I have a badge—maybe—sometime? Maybe am I a scout now?”

I just looked at him and it gave me the creeps. Because I knew what he had done. And I remembered now how people called him a dirty swamp-rat. Many a time I’d heard them call him that. Just a dirty little swamp-rat. And now, he was sort of proud of it.

First, I couldn’t move and I just couldn’t speak. Then I went up to him and I said—I didn’t care for the doctor or anybody—I said, “Skinny, there’s one fellow here who knows what the marshes are and that’s me. Because I came near getting swallowed up by them.”

“It’s—it’s—short—cut,” he just panted out. “All I want to tell you is,” I said, “there’s not another scout in the whole troop could do it—do you hear! You’re not a swamp-rat, you’re a swamp-scout,” I said.

Then I was going to say more, only Skinny seemed as if he was going to fall and the doctor kind of seemed to want me to move away. Anyway, I went over and got Skinny’s belt-axe to carry it home for him.