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  Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

  a division of Random House, Inc., New York

  Text copyright © 1988 by Judy Delton

  Illustrations copyright © 1988 by Alan Tiegreen

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  eISBN: 978-0-307-77885-7

  v3.1

  For Jamie, Bandy, James, and Jim,

  No matter who, I worship him.

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 A Mountain of Donuts

  2 The Pee Wee Spirit

  3 Are We Almost There?

  4 Tiny Is a Hero

  5 Rat’s Knees!

  6 I Want My Mother

  7 Molly the Brave

  8 Badges

  CHAPTER 1

  A Mountain of Donuts

  At last it was Tuesday. Tuesday was Pee Wee Scout Day. It took forever for Tuesday to come, thought Molly Duff.

  Soon Troop 23 stood around the Scout table at Mrs. Peters’s house. On the table were boxes and boxes of Scout donuts.

  They were piled up like a mountain. A mountain of donuts. They had powdered sugar on them, like snow. Snow on the mountain, thought Molly.

  Molly rubbed her stomach. She wished the Scouts could eat them. Eat the whole mountain.

  “Now pay attention!” called Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Peters was their troop leader.

  “Today we begin to sell our donuts. You’ll go door to door on your own block. We must be very polite to people,” said Mrs. Peters. “Even if they don’t want to buy our donuts.”

  But they all will, thought Molly.

  “We must count the money and give them the right change. And you have to be careful not to lose the money.” Mrs. Peters explained everything to the Scouts so that they would know what to do. They all listened carefully. They were eager to get started.

  “How much do they cost?” asked Sonny Betz.

  “The donuts are one dollar a box,” said Mrs. Peters. “Tell the people the money is for our trip to camp. If we sell enough donuts, our whole troop will go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”

  All the Scouts cheered, “Yeah!”

  “And the one who sells the most donuts will get an award,” said Mrs. Peters. “It will be a special Scout badge. Are there any questions?”

  Molly crossed her fingers. She didn’t like questions. Questions took forever.

  Rachel’s hand went up. She always asked questions. Mrs. Peters called on Rachel. “Mrs. Peters, my mom says we should sell something that is more healthy. Donuts have sugar. Sugar isn’t good for your teeth.”

  A hex on Rachel’s mother. Rachel’s father was a dentist. Molly loved donuts.

  “Donuts are all right if you don’t eat too many, Rachel,” said Mrs. Peters.

  Before Rachel could say anything else and before any more questions, Mrs. Peters said, “Let’s get out there and sell donuts! Let’s sell enough to go to Pee Wee Scout camp!”

  Troop 23 dashed for the door. Each Scout held a mountain of donuts. “I am going to sell the most!” said Molly.

  “I am,” said Lisa Ronning. “I am going to ask my grandma to buy some.”

  Molly wished that her grandma lived nearby. It was too far to go to sell donuts to her grandma. She would have to sell donuts to her own block.

  “I’m going to sell a million donuts,” said Rachel. Rachel always had to do better than anyone else. Even if donuts were bad for your teeth.

  “You can’t sell a million,” scoffed Roger White. “Nobody can sell a million.”

  “I can,” said Rachel.

  “I’m going to go around a lot of blocks,” said Sonny Betz. “Not just my own.”

  “Is your mama going with you?” Rachel called out.

  Everyone knew Sonny was a mama’s boy. He couldn’t even walk to school alone. Lots of kids called Sonny a sissy. “So what if she is?” said Sonny.

  “Mama’s boy, mama’s boy!” shouted Rachel.

  “Stuck up, stuck up!” returned Sonny.

  “Let’s sell donuts together,” said Mary Beth Kelly to Molly. “It would be more fun, and we could go to more houses.”

  “Okay,” said Molly.

  When they got near their own block, Molly said, “Let’s start here.”

  Mary Beth looked at the old house. A window was broken, and the paint was peeling.

  “Mrs. Olson lives there,” said Mary Beth. “She’s mean. She doesn’t like kids in her yard.”

  They kept walking to the next house. “Mrs. Cox is mean too,” said Mary Beth.

  * * *

  “I’m going to the door anyway,” said Molly bravely. She marched up to the door and knocked. An old lady came to the door.

  “Do you want to buy some Scout donuts” asked Molly, “so we can go to camp?”

  “I don’t like donuts,” said Mrs. Cox, slamming the door. Molly wanted to put a hex on Mrs. Cox, but she remembered what Mrs. Peters had said. Be polite even if they say no.

  They went to the next house. Mary Beth went to the door. “Do you want to buy some Pee Wee donuts?” she asked.

  “I have no teeth,” said the old man who came to the door.

  “You don’t need teeth to eat these,” said Mary Beth politely.

  But he closed the door and did not answer.

  The next person was not home. And the next man told them that he makes his own donuts.

  “This is not as easy as I thought,” said Molly. “We may never get to camp.” She sighed.

  Mary Beth sighed too.

  They went to the last house on the block. A mother with three children came to the door. “Why, I’ll take four boxes!” she said. “Two from each of you. We love donuts for dessert.”

  She gave the girls four dollars. “Have fun at camp!” she called.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Pee Wee Spirit

  Molly and Mary Beth sold donuts all week long. They sold ten boxes each, and then they went back to ask Mrs. Peters for more donuts. By the next Tuesday they had each sold twelve boxes.

  At three o’clock Molly went to Mary Beth’s house. Then they walked to the Scout meeting together.

  Everyone was turning in
their donut money. Lisa Ronning turned in five dollars. Tim Noon turned in one dollar. Roger White had sold sixteen boxes! But Sonny Betz and Rachel Myers had sold over one hundred boxes each!

  “Wow!” said Molly. “There aren’t even one hundred people on a whole block.”

  “That is really the Pee Wee spirit,” said Mrs. Peters. “I think we should all clap for Sonny and Rachel!”

  Everyone clapped their hands together, and shouted and whistled. Roger blew into his brown lunch bag. Then he punched it and the bag exploded. Pow!

  Molly did not clap. She did not feel like cheering. She wanted to win.

  “Maybe Rachel and Sonny will tell us how they sold so many donuts,” said Mrs. Peters.

  “My mom sold about eighty boxes at work,” said Sonny proudly.

  “Your mom!” shouted Roger. “That isn’t fair. You’re supposed to sell them yourself!”

  Leave it to Sonny, thought Molly, to let his mom do it. Big baby!

  “What’s the matter with my mom selling them?” asked Sonny. Mrs. Peters said it was all right to have your mother sell your donuts.

  “It doesn’t matter who sells them,” said Mrs. Peters. “The more boxes that are sold, the more money for Scout camp.”

  “Baby Sonny,” muttered Roger.

  “Now, Rachel, how did you sell so many donuts?” asked Mrs. Peters.

  “I sold them to my relatives,” said Rachel, with her chin in the air. “We went to a wedding, and my aunt and my grandma bought twenty boxes each.”

  All of Rachel’s family must be rich, thought Molly.

  “What will they do with all those donut?” ask mary Beth.

  “They’ll get fat!” shouted Molly, filling her cheeks with air. “They’ll turn into donuts if they eat twenty boxes!”

  Molly waddled across the floor, pretending to be Rachel’s fat relatives.

  Rachel looked very angry. Her face got red. “My grandma and my aunt are not fat!” she cried.

  “They will be when they finish all those donuts,” said Roger, holding his sides and chuckling.

  “They aren’t eating the donuts themselves,” said Rachel. “They will give them to hungry people.”

  “The main thing is that we have enough money for camp,” said Mrs. Peters. “And Rachel and Sonny get the award and the best donut seller’s badge.”

  After Scouts, Molly said to Rachel, “You didn’t sell a million boxes anyway. You said you were going to sell a million.”

  “Well, I sold a lot more than you,” said Rachel. “Your dumb twelve boxes.”

  Molly couldn’t argue with that. She wished a hex on Rachel’s aunt and grandma. And on Sonny’s mom. But she was glad that the Pee Wee Scouts (and their relatives) had earned enough for them to go to camp.

  CHAPTER 3

  Are We Almost There?

  The next Tuesday, Troop 23 met again. Mrs. Peters talked about Camp Hide-Away. She told them what to bring. She told them what to wear. And she sent notes home to their mothers with the address and telephone number of the camp.

  “We will leave Friday afternoon from the school,” Mrs. Peters said. “We will ride to camp in a bus. We will come home on Sunday evening.”

  * * *

  Lisa’s mother was coming along to help Mrs. Peters.

  During the rest of the meeting the Scouts told good deeds they had done.

  “I watered Mrs. Johnson’s plants for her,” said Tracy Barnes. “She’s my next-door neighbor.”

  “I washed my dad’s car,” boasted Roger. “All by myself.”

  “Good for you!” said Mrs. Peters.

  It was a short meeting. The Scouts sang their Pee Wee Scout song. Then they said the Pee Wee Scout pledge. Then they ran home to tell their parents about Camp Hide-Away.

  “I’ve got a new swimsuit to take to camp,” said Mary Beth at the park the next day. Some of the Pee Wees played there in the summer.

  “I have a new swimsuit for camp too,” called Molly from the top of the jungle gym.

  “I’ve got two swimsuits,” said Rachel. “My mom says everyone should have two. In case one is wet and you want to go in the water again.”

  Molly hung upside down by her knees. She tried to think of a worse word than hex. Molly learned “hex” from her grandma, but it wasn’t really bad. She wanted a really bad word to use on Rachel’s mother. Her mother was probably a show-off just like Rachel.

  “I’m wearing my new bracelet to camp too,” said Rachel. She held out her arm. “It is fourteen karat gold.”

  Rachel’s bracelet sparkled in the sun. It looked very expensive. “My dad brought it back from New York with him,” said Rachel.

  * * *

  Molly had a bracelet. But it was too small. And it was not real gold. It made her wrist turn green.

  Rachel kept waving her arm so the bracelet would sparkle in Molly’s eyes. Molly watched her. She wished the bracelet were hers.

  The Pee Wees played in the park until suppertime. The next day they went there again. They had to wait and wait until Friday.

  They ran under the sprinkler at Molly’s house to make the time go faster.

  They rode their skateboards in Roger’s driveway to make the time go faster.

  And they made lemonade at Lisa’s, and tried to sell it on her front lawn, to make the time go faster. They sold only two cups. One to Lisa’s mother. And one to her little brother. But he couldn’t pay because he had lost his penny.

  At last Friday came. All the Pee Wee Scouts carried their camp bags to the school. The school was closed, but the bus was waiting! Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Ronning were waiting too. Everyone got on the bus. Even Mrs. Peters’s big black dog.

  “He is coming along as our mascot,” said Mrs. Peters. “His name is Tiny. He will be a watchdog in camp at night.”

  “Tiny!” shouted Tim. “His name should be Giant. Why would such a big dog be called Tiny?”

  “Sometimes you call things the opposite of what they really are,” explained Mrs. Peters. “Like sometimes if a man has no hair, they call him Curly.”

  The Scouts looked puzzled.

  Then Roger said, “My uncle is real tall and everybody calls him Shorty!”

  “That’s right,” said Mrs. Peters. “The opposite of what he is.”

  As the bus rolled along, the Scouts sang camp songs. They sang the Pee Wee Scout song too.

  Mary Beth showed Molly her new swimsuit. And her new birthstone ring she got for her birthday. “Emerald,” she said. “For May.”

  Rachel dangled her bracelet in front of everyone’s eyes. Mary Beth’s ring was almost as shiny.

  “I don’t feel so good,” said Sonny. His face looked white. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. He was sitting next to Lisa.

  “OOOOOOoooo,” he moaned, holding his stomach. “I think I’m carsick.”

  * * *

  Lisa leaned over into the aisle. She didn’t want to sit too close to Sonny. He might have an accident. All over her.

  Sonny groaned again, and the driver stopped the bus. He took Sonny off the bus until he felt better. But Sonny’s face was still white when he got back on.

  The Scouts looked out the windows. They watched the trees and telephone poles whiz by.

  “How much longer?” asked Mary Beth.

  “Are we almost there?” asked Roger.

  Just when the ride was getting boring and Roger and Sonny began to fight, Mrs. Peters said, “Here we are!”

  Tiny began to bark. The bus squealed to a stop. The Pee Wees hurried to get off.

  There were tall pine trees everywhere. There was a sparkly blue lake too. And right in the middle of the dark woods stood the tents.

  “Do we have to sleep in a tent?” whined Rachel. “I thought there would be a hotel or something.”

  * * *

  Roger laughed.

  Sonny cracked up.

  Even Mrs. Peters smiled. “This is a camp, Rachel. Camping is living outside, close to nature.”

  “Ugh, b
ugs,” said Rachel, making a face.

  “Bears!” said Roger. “Not just bugs!”

  Rachel screamed. “Are there bears, Mrs. Peters?”

  “There could be,” she said. “But we are safe with Tiny. And we must not leave food outside.”

  Rachel looked as if she wanted to get back on the bus and go home.

  “Scaredy cat,” said Molly.

  “Sissy,” called the boys.

  Four Scouts stayed in each tent. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Ronning were not far away. Tiny stayed in Molly’s tent. And Mary Beth, Rachel, and Lisa. Each Scout had a cot and a sleeping bag.

  After supper, Mrs. Peters and the Pee Wees built a campfire. Everyone held hands and sang around the campfire.

  The fire made shadows in the woods. The moonlight shone on the lake. It was very pretty at camp. But it was scary, too, thought Molly.

  The campfire burned low. Then it went out. Mrs. Peters led the Scouts in the Pee Wee Scout pledge. Everyone held hands while they said it. They always did that when they said the pledge.

  Lisa’s mother and Mrs. Peters helped the Scouts get tucked into the sleeping bags for the night. Then they went to their own tent.

  “It’s so quiet,” said Lisa.

  It was quiet. Except for the wind whistling around the tent, there wasn’t a sound.

  And it was dark. Pitch black, dark!

  “I’m not scared, are you?” whispered Mary Beth.

  “Naw,” said Molly. But her voice sounded like it was shaking.

  “We’ve got Tiny and Mrs. Peters and Lisa’s mother to protect us,” said Mary Beth with a quiver.

  And then, just when they decided to be brave, they heard a loud ghostlike sound.