His name
was Townsend Ripley.
Townsend began at the very beginning to take the irrepressible ex-Raven
very soberly indeed, and the more preposterous Pee-wee's schemes the
more in favor of them Townsend seemed to be. No doubt he got a great
deal of amusement out of Pee-wee. But Pee-wee never knew it.
CHAPTER XI
PLANS
It was quite characteristic of Townsend Ripley that he did not ask Roly
Poly anything about his extraordinary adventure. Amid the chorus of
exclamations and inquiries he preserved a quiet, whimsical demeanor,
glancing about as if rather interested in this desert island. There it
was, and that was enough for him.
"If this island is going to keep moving you'll have to put a license
plate on it, Roly," he drawled. "First thing you know you'll have the
inland waterway inspectors after you. You're blocking up the channel
too. Why didn't you drift down as far as Southbridge where the taxes
aren't so high?"
"I was--I was thinking about it," Pee-wee suddenly burst forth like a
cyclone, "and there are a lot of things we can do--I've got a lot of
ideas--there are seven things and we can do any one of them!"
"Why not do them all?" Ripley asked.
"That's just what _I_ say," Pee-wee shouted.
"Or we can each do a different thing," Ripley suggested. "There are
just seven of us. Anything suits me."
"Do you want to know how I discovered it?" Pee-wee said excitedly.
"No, as long as we know it's discovered, that's enough," said Ripley.
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