Oh, gee, you should have heard the silence—I don’t mean _heard_ it—but there wasn’t a sound.
Then Westy said, “I haven’t got anything to say.” And then he sat down.
I knew that it was time then for me to do what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t get up because I felt all shaky. I was holding to the pole of the Silver Fox emblem that was right beside me, and, oh, cracky, I felt funny. All of a sudden I heard Mr. Ellsworth say that he wouldn’t say anything to Roy Blakeley because the patrol was going to have an election and then I heard Will Dawson, of my patrol, say under his breath, sort of, that there’d be only one fellow to vote for me, and I knew he meant Westy Martin. Gee, I’m glad I heard him say that because it gave me a kind of an idea what to say and it made me mad, and when you’re mad you have courage—you know what I mean, you can get up and talk. Jiminy, I knew I couldn’t make a speech like Mr. Ellsworth with all long words, and besides I had to be careful that it didn’t seem as if I was just answering him back.
So then I grabbed tight hold of the emblem pole because, I don’t know, it seemed to give me courage kind of, and it was _my_ emblem and _my_ patrol for a few minutes yet, anyway. But oh, didn’t my hand tremble. Anyway I could see that Mr. Bennett was sort of listening and I wasn’t so much scared after I got up.
This is what I said, only I didn’t say it as well as it sounds here on account of being nervous, but I should worry as long as I knew I was right, hey?
“I heard a fellow in my patrol say just now” that’s the way I began, “that there is only one Silver Fox would vote for me because I went away and didn’t come back. I know he meant Westy and he’s the one fellow I’d want to vote for me, anyway, you can bet. I don’t care what happens, I don’t, if Westy will only vote for me. Because he’s one real scout and none of the rest of you know anything about scouting alongside of him—you don’t. And anyway I don’t care so much if I’m not leader any more, if I could only be sure you’d elect _him_ leader——”
“He stands a tall chance,” I heard a fellow say.
“About as tall as Pee-wee,” another fellow said. He was trying to be smart.
“Maybe he’ll have a tall chance, as tall as the Woolworth Building,” I said; “you’d better keep still. I want to ask Mr. Ellsworth if I can say something—while I’m still Silver Fox leader, that’s all.”