CHAPTER XXIX THREE OF A KIND

 The pigeon-holes in the station at Westover were not sufficiently¹ numerous, nor varied² in their contents, to send an aimless pilgrim to any great distance. Tickets for points along the main line and along the several branches were to be had there. By the grab-bag device one might find himself at the seashore or at some remote mountain hamlet. He could not go through to South Africa or to the island of Yap without change.

But this made no difference to Pee-wee. He included the heaven above and the earth beneath and the waters under the earth in his preparations. He was not going to take any chances of finding himself in the Klondike without snow shoes, so he devised a pair out of two old tennis rackets.

He built a camp-fire and got a huge tin can and stewed³ up an odorous concoction⁴, following a recipe for mosquito dope which he had seen printed in a camping booklet. This was for use in the tropics. A scout⁵ must be prepared. It would probably have driven all the tropical pests to cover for it certainly drove all the Goodale guests in from the porch. They barricaded⁶ themselves in the sitting room and closed the windows.

Pee-wee seemed to go on the principle that the less junk he carried in his brain the more he should carry in his duffel bag and dangling⁷ from his person. This stuff was all thoroughly⁸ edited by his two friends on the momentous⁹ day of their departure, and when they started, Pee-wee carried with him nothing but thirty-five dollars and a safety-pin. With this latter his mother pinned the bills within his shirt for safe-keeping. By pulling his shirt out from his neck he could look down and see that his fortune was all right.

“It’s too bad we know we’re going to Westover, hey?” he said. “But, gee¹⁰ whiz, you’ve got to know something to get started, or we’d just kind of keep going round and round the house maybe, like you did at that lake.”

“That’s the idea,” said Ray; “we leave all our plans and knowledge at the nearest station; from that point we go where the wind blows us.”

“I can tell which way the wind is blowing,” Pee-wee said.

“Don’t, it would be fatal,” said Fuller. “One little scrap¹¹ of knowledge might spoil all.”

“I’ve got a lot of little scraps,” Pee-wee said; “but I won’t bother with them, hey? I won’t even look up at the stars because I can tell which way I’m going by the stars. I wouldn’t look at the dipper—I wouldn’t even look at it if I was lost and famished—that’s the same as starving. Maybe we’ll get into, way into the woods, hey? Because up around Temple Camp if you count three houses, gee whiz, that might take you miles and miles and miles where the foot of white man never trod, it might. That’s how far apart they are. Maybe when we get out at somewhere or other the third house will be a hermit’s cave, hey? Gee whiz, you never can tell.”

“That’s the beauty of it,” said Fuller Bullson. “I went on a bee-line hike,” Pee-wee vociferated, keeping up a running fire of talk as he trudged¹² along, straining a cautious look down his neck occasionally, “and we had to make a resolution to go straight, and gee whiz, that resolution was a nuisance, because we were all the time thinking about it.”

“You should have left it home,” said Ray.

“Gee, I’ll never take one with me again,” said Pee-wee.

“You see,” said Fuller, “if you are lost you can’t get lost. Can you?”

“Sure you can’t,” Pee-wee agreed enthusiastically.

“If you don’t care where you go you can’t go to the wrong place,” said Ray. “Places aren’t wrong or right. How can places be wrong or right?”

“Gee whiz, they can’t,” Pee-wee agreed. “Anybody can see that.”

“A place can’t be incorrect,” said Fuller Bullson as if laying down a fundamental proposition. “What’s another place? Why, it’s the place you don’t go to, that’s all. Am I right?”

“Sure you are,” vociferated Pee-wee.

“And if you go to it,” said Ray, “why then the other place is the other place. So no place can be wrong. The mistake is in your head in wanting to go to a particular place when really there is no particular place. It’s like the fountain of perpetual youth. You’ve heard of that, haven’t you?”

“Maybe we’ll find it, hey?” said Pee-wee, excitedly. “Gee, I hope we get to a station that’s on the edge of a—a—a trackless wilderness¹³. Don’t you? Did you ever discover anything wonderful—by not knowing where you were going?”

“Positively, we discovered you,” said Fuller.

“And you didn’t know where you were going that night you discovered us,” said Ray.

“That’s a dandy argument,” Pee-wee said. “Suppose—suppose we get to the edge, kind of, of a forest and there are no houses for—for fifty miles—”

“That’s us,” said Ray.

“Just keep going,” said Fuller.

“One thing sure, I like you,” said Pee-wee.

“Three of a kind,” said Ray.

“Maybe it’ll be a desert, hey?” Pee-wee suggested. “Gee, I kind of hope we land at a fishing village, only I like deserts, too. Suppose—suppose,” he added in sudden terror. “Suppose we land at a school! But anyway I don’t care, because right near a school is usually a candy store and maybe it’ll be the third house, hey? Because I’m always lucky, that’s sure.”

1 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

2 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

3 stewed   

adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧

参考例句：

• When all birds are shot, the bow will be set aside;when all hares are killed, the hounds will be stewed and eaten -- kick out sb. after his services are no longer needed. 鸟尽弓藏，兔死狗烹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• \"How can we cook in a pan that's stewed your stinking stockings? “染臭袜子的锅，还能煮鸡子吃！还要它？” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

4 concoction   

n.调配(物)；谎言

参考例句：

• She enjoyed the concoction of foreign dishes.她喜欢调制外国菜。
• His story was a sheer concoction.他的故事实在是一纯属捏造之事。

5 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

6 barricaded   

设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守

参考例句：

• The police barricaded the entrance. 警方在入口处设置了路障。
• The doors had been barricaded. 门都被堵住了。

7 dangling   

悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果，那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
• The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上，摇晃着他们的双腿。

8 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

9 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。

10 gee   

n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转

参考例句：

• Their success last week will gee the team up.上星期的胜利将激励这支队伍继续前进。
• Gee,We're going to make a lot of money.哇！我们会赚好多钱啦！

11 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

12 trudged   

vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He trudged the last two miles to the town. 他步履艰难地走完最后两英里到了城里。
• He trudged wearily along the path. 他沿着小路疲惫地走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。