human
But I wasn't really responsible for what you did,
gpt
Nonsense! Of course, you were. I was your proxy, and you had to stand or fall by my actions. And I might have done something else--something for which I should have been very sorry afterwards--if I had been acting for myself only.
human
Did I do anything else last night?
gpt
Lots of things. You wheeled back to its old corner Pop Gan's peanut roaster, after some fellows--young kids who didn't know any better--had run away with it; and you enjoyed racing it back to its old stand as much as you could if you'd been running away with it. Pop's put a sack of goobers aside for you, against the day when you'll come around personally to call for it. And you took Mrs. Ginty's baby carriage, that had strayed downtown, and put a sack of potatoes in it, and wheeled that back home, too. And you stopped one youngster who was forgetting himself, and lectured him--oh, mightily eloquently--till he saw things a little clearer, and insisted upon joining your crowd. And you happened to be of service to your old landlady.
human
Mrs. Stone?
gpt
Yes, Mrs. Stone. Seems your trunk had been put out of your room, and you stopped to ask about it. She didn't quite understand that you'd be home shortly and make up the work you do to pay the rent of your room. There were lots of chores undone, and you got the crowd to pitch in and carry the wood to the shed, and cut some kindling, and clean up the yard; and then, over your protest, mind you, the fellows in your crowd agreed to come around daily and do the work you'd been doing, until you were able to do it yourself. You said--
human
The Boy Scouts are going to do it, you mean.
gpt
Well-l, yes. You said that would make you get well in a hurry, and Mrs. Stone said she hadn't realized how matters stood with you, and it didn't matter if the fellows pitched in as your work proxies or not. But they're going to, just the same.
human
Oh! said Clarence Prissler softly.
gpt
Oh!
human
And you ran across little Jimmy Bobbs, too, continued Bunny, smiling a little over the recollection.
gpt
He was standing on a corner and looking mighty lonesome, and when you invited him to fall in with the other fellows in the bunch he jumped at the chance and said 'Thank you!' away down in his throat. And he turned out to be a dandy sort of fellow himself. Seems he's wanted to know you for a long time; says you're the smartest boy in school. He's coming around to the hospital this afternoon to see if you'd mind his bucking up on his studies with you as an audience. He thinks it will help you to catch up and help him, too, at the same time. Want to see him?
human
Why--why, yes, I certainly do. I--I've been worrying a lot, Bunny, about my lessons.
gpt
You needn't any more, then. Because Nap Meeker is planning to do exactly the same thing. Wants to. And all the other Scouts are coming to see you, too, if you don't mind their crowding in here.
human
I--I don't mind,
gpt
Well, let's see. I think that was about all you did. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot Professor Leland. I think he was a bit suspicious of our actions. Anyhow, he loomed up suddenly in a dark spot and demanded to know if we had done or were planning to do any ma--malicious mischief. I just wish, Prissy, you could have been there in your own body to hear yourself--your proxy, I mean--deny any such intentions. Specs McGrew asked if he didn't understand that you, Clarence Prissler, were leading the crowd. Professor looked at me kind of funny, and I had to explain. He just smiled and begged our pardons, and said that if he had known you were at our head, even in spirit, he wouldn't have bothered to question us. He knew you!
human
Now that Rodman Cree is a member of the Black Eagle Patrol--you knew that, didn't you?--and almost ready to be promoted from tenderfoot to second-class Scout, he's beginning to worry about ever getting to be a first-class one. You see, Prissler, before he can be advanced, he must train some other boy to become a tenderfoot, and he can't find anybody in town who thinks enough of the Scouts to want to be one of them.
gpt
But when he does--
human
Bunny!
gpt
Yes?
human
Would--would he train me? gasped Prissler.
gpt
I--I think I am just beginning to understand you Scouts, and--and --the words came out in a torrent--
human
Why, Bonfire will be tickled to death to train you; yes, sir, plumb tickled to death! Do you mean it, Prissy?