“Isn’t that perfectly lovely!” said one of the girls.

“If the woods should wander away while you’re in them,” said Townsend, “send up a smoke signal and we’ll come and rescue you.  Don’t hurry back, Discoverer; remember, these girls come first of all.  We’ll tie the island to a tree and have a game of mumbly peg.  You’ll find us here when you get back.”

“Well,” said Townsend, after he had securely fastened the island to shore by a piece of rope, “let’s make hay while the sun shines and get supper.  In an hour or so it may be too late.  After all our adventures I feel that another hunter’s stew——­”

“If the island saw another hunter’s stew it would run away,” said Brownie.

“We’ve had quite a week of it, hey?” said Billy.

“Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever been around so much in a week before,” said Townsend; “I feel like a pinwheel.”

“Or a top,” said Brownie.

“Something like that,” said Townsend.  “Well, Joe, what do you think of us?” he added, sprawling on the ground as was his wont.  The others began preparations for supper.

“How about some spaghetti?” Roly Poly asked.  “Could you eat some spaghetti?”

“I might if I were coaxed,” said Townsend.  “How about you, Joe?”

Townsend had made it his religious duty all through that week to consult Keekie Joe about every meal, and indeed about everything that was to be done.  He jealously saw to it that Joe had a voice in everything.  Not that any of them denied Joe these rights, but Joe felt out of place among these strange boys and the boys sometimes forgot about him.

It was exactly like Pee-wee to drag poor Joe head over heels into scouting, and then forget all about him.  It was exactly like Townsend Ripley to take the poor little hoodlum quietly in hand and be his friend and sponsor.  He treated him always as an equal and as a comrade.  What the others forgot, he remembered.

He agreed with Joe, or disagreed with him, as pals will agree and disagree.  He always took him seriously.  He allowed Joe to teach him to play craps and then said he didn’t see much fun in it, and such was his magnetic power over poor Joe that Joe said he didn’t see any fun in it either.  And there was an end of it.

So it was with all the wretched hoodlum games and tricks that poor Joe had known; one by one they failed in the test, and he became ashamed of them.  It is no wonder that Keekie Joe worshipped this keen, easy-going patrol leader, who seemed to be no leader at all.  Even Pee-wee was sacrificed in the good cause and Townsend made fun of Pee-wee for Keekie Joe’s amusement.

As they sprawled about the fire that Saturday night, the last night but one of their outlandish vacation, and ate spaghetti from tin platters, the trend of the talk showed somewhat the effects of the week’s outing upon the poor little derelict of Barrel Alley.