“Surely you may, Roy,” he said, kind of pleasant.
“Because there’s one more thing I’m going to say for my patrol. I—I started that patrol and——”
Oh, gee, then I broke right down, not exactly crying, but you know, there was something in my throat and I just couldn’t talk for a minute.
“Go on, Roy,” Mr. Ellsworth said, and he was awfully nice, I have to admit that.
So I said how I started that patrol and did the best I could and always told the fellows to be loyal and how disgrace spills all over just like Mr. Ellsworth himself told us.
“Anyway, Mr. Ellsworth,” I said, “I can’t say it as good as I’d like to, because—you know——”
“Anyway, you remember how you spoke about the laws.” I was holding tight to the Silver Fox standard and it kind of helped me to speak, and I guess pretty soon my voice didn’t shake. “I know all the laws,” I said, “and I think more about them than I do about stunts and adventures and things——”
“How about baseball?” a fellow said, but I didn’t pay any attention to him, and Mr. Ellsworth frowned at him.
“And only to-night I looked at them,” I said, “and I made marks next to two of them.” Then I fumbled in my pocket and got out the Handbook, and I reminded myself of a lawyer. Anyway I could see Mr. Bennett smile at Mr. Ellsworth. “Gee, I wouldn’t say anything against the laws, that’s one sure thing,” I said, “because they’re all dandy laws, you can bet. But maybe a fellow might not know which one to obey because he can’t obey them all at once, can he?”
Mr. Ellsworth said he didn’t know about that and he looked kind of surprised. I should worry, I wasn’t scared now. “Suppose he’s on his way to obey Law 8 and keep his word and be loyal to his troop and his scoutmaster,” I said. “That’s Law 8, isn’t it?”
Mr. Ellsworth looked surprised and said, “Yes.” And Mr. Bennett was smiling with an awful funny kind of a smile.
“And suppose while he’s on his way he runs plunk into another law. _Good night!_ What’s he going to do? Maybe you don’t know which law I mean by another one. It’s number 3, and I can say it without even looking at the book. Even if they elect——”
I guess Mr. Ellsworth could see my voice was trembling, because he said, “Take your time, Roy, you have us interested.”