The next afternoon after that last meeting, we all hiked over to Northside Woods to chop down the saplings.  You have to go across the bridge to get to Northside Woods and then you go up the road toward Little Valley.

Westy didn’t go with the rest of us because he wanted to get a book out of the library, for he thought the library might be closed when we got back.

“Have a heart,” I said, “and don’t be late whatever you do, because there’s been enough of that kind of thing in our patrol lately.”

“I’ll be Johnny—­on—­the—­spot, don’t you fear,” he said.  And I knew he would, only he’s one of those fellows that’s always trying to do too much.  He isn’t late much, I’ll say that for him, but he always comes running in at the last minute.

“Well, don’t get us in Dutch,” I told him, “that’s all I care about.”

We had a Dandy hike over to the woods.  My patrol got there first and pretty soon the Ravens came along and Doc Carson had his First Aid kit—­you’d think somebody was going to fight a duel, honest.  “Why don’t you start a base hospital and be done with it?”, I said.

Pretty soon the Elks came along and Skinny was with them.  As soon as I looked at him I felt kind of bad like, for I saw I was right about the two dollars.  I knew I was right all the time, but now I saw it and jingoes, it spoiled all my fun.  Because he had a belt-axe on and I could see he was very proud of it.  He came up to me and smiled that funny kind of a smile he had, and he said, “I got one; see, I got one.”

It was a new one all right, but not a regular scout-axe, and I guessed he must have bought it in the hardware store.  It was what they call a camp axe—­just the same only different.  His belt was loose anyway, on account of him being so thin, but the axe dragged it way down and made him look awful funny, but he had on the scout smile and that’s the principal thing.

“It’s a good one, ain’t it?” he asked me.

“It’s all right,” I said, but I just couldn’t take it and look at it.

“It’ll cut, too,” he said; “and I’m going to chop down a lot of trees.  And it’s my very own, isn’t it?”

Jiminy, I didn’t know how to answer that, so I didn’t say anything, only I told him not to chop down many because he wasn’t strong yet.  And I told him not to chop any that didn’t have chalk marks.  I told him to ask Connie Bennett, and to stay near him, because Connie is the Elks’ leader ever since Tom Slade went away.  “You do what Connie tells you”, I said.

Well, the way that kid started you’d think he was going to chop the North Pole in half.  “He’d be able to chop through the equator in a couple of hours at that rate,” I told Connie.  But anyway, he was getting fresh air and a whole lot of fun.  Some of the fellows chopped and some of them cut off the branches and tied the saplings together, three or four each, because we were going to haul them as far as the bridge and then float them down to the landing.