She had a simple mind with a touch of superstition. It was
a kind of morbid dread of the institution she had left which had conjured
that ramshackle old bridge up on the highway into an ominous voice of
warning, She hated the bridge and dreaded it as a thing haunted.
Pee-Wee soon became close friends with these two, and from a rather
cautious and defensive beginning Pepsy soon fell victim to the spell of
the little scout, as indeed everyone else did. Pepsy did not surrender
without a struggle. She showed Pee-Wee the woodchuck hole and Pee-Wee,
after a minute's skillful search, showed her the other hole, or back
entrance, under a stone wall.
"There are always two," he told her, "and one of them is usually
under a stone wall. They're smart, woodchucks are."
"Are they as smart as you?" she wanted to know.
"Smarter," Pee-Wee admitted, generously; "they're smarter than
skunks and even skunks are smarter than I am."
"I like you better than skunks," she said. Wiggle seemed to be of
the same opinion. "I like all the scouts on account of you," she said.
No one could be long in Pee-Wee's company without hearing about
the scouts; he was a walking (or rather a running and jumping)
advertisement of the organization.
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