Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/256

 You've got to take a lot of it later, and maybe it's a good thing to keep chaps from getting the swell-head. You know some freshmen in college have to be taken down a peg for their own good. Get me?"

The boys took the lesson in good part, and the jollity went on till the refreshments were exhausted. Then the lads were off to get their packs in final trim.

Jimmy was the first to finish and make his appearance. He took his seat at the table and began to scribble, when Turner, who had been chatting with Hardy on the porch, came in.

"Look here, Jimmy," he asked, "just a little curiosity on my part, but, if I swear not to let it out, can't you tell me what shut Cat Miller up so quick the other day when he thought he had the joke on you about the whales' egg?"

"Sure I'll tell you if you won't give it away," said Jimmy, looking up slyly from his paper. "You see, Cat's people didn't move to Newport News [sic] till he was about seven years old. Well, I ran across a fellow at the Springs from the town Cat lived in before and he let it out that Cat's mother used to call him 'Buttercup' when he