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 Communication Patterns
A Guide for Developers and Architects

With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—
the author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can
take advantage of these technologies long before the official
release of these titles.

Jacqui Read
Communication Patterns
by Jacqui Read
Copyright © 2024 Read the Architecture Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North,
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978-1-098-14048-9
 Part I. Visual Communication

When communicating software architecture and design your visual

elements communicate some of the key information. They are what
your audience’s eyes are naturally drawn to and may be the only
thing they look at in any detail.
Despite this, there is little guidance or training on creating diagrams
and visuals (except notation-specific courses, e.g. Archimate) and
especially not on how to effectively and successfully communicate
your message to your audience.
This is why I have created this section for you. The patterns and
antipatterns here are a guide for you so that you can produce
diagrams that not only communicate the message you intend but
also strike the balance between being accessible and understandable
and containing the information your audience needs.
The patterns and antipatterns are organised into categories which
form the chapters of this section. There are many connections
between the patterns and antipatterns which you can reference in
[Link to Come].
For any diagram or visual you create there will be many applicable
patterns and antipatterns in this section that you can apply to get
your message across to your audience successfully and get what you
need in return.
Chapter 1. Communication
Essentials

A NOTE FOR EARLY RELEASE READERS

With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—
the author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can
take advantage of these technologies long before the official
release of these titles.
This will be the 1st chapter of the final book. Please note that
the GitHub repo will be made active later on.
If you have comments about how we might improve the content
and/or examples in this book, or if you notice missing material
within this chapter, please reach out to the editor at
ccollins@oreilly.com.

This chapter contains the foundation that we build upon with the
other patterns and antipatterns in this section.
I highly recommend making sure you are employing the patterns
and antipatterns in this chapter, before building on them with all the
others. Think of it the same way as building architecture: you need
to get the foundations right before you can build the walls, floors
and finally the roof. Don’t start building on sand. Get these ones
right first.

Know Your Audience

This pattern is also known as Understanding your customer or Face
in the Crowd.
One of the essential things to keep in mind when creating and
editing a diagram is who is going to be viewing and reading your
diagram. The purpose of your diagram is to communicate
successfully with this audience, so knowing who they are and
designing the diagram to their needs is key to this purpose.
Some of the roles who could view your diagram are:

Developers (full-stack, front-end, back-end, database…​)

Architects (technical, solution, security, data…​)
Business analysts
Product owners
Project managers
Customers
Support teams

YOUR AUDIENCE
Make a list of who views your diagrams and then create groups based
on the types of diagrams you create. You will likely find that you have
different audiences for different diagrams. Use these lists with the
questions later in this section.

Consider who the following diagrams have been created for:

Figure 1-1 shows a UML class diagram. This is a diagram aimed at a
technical audience, including developers, architects and database
administrators. A product owner or project manager would be
unlikely to need the information in this diagram or understand it
without help.
 Figure 1-1. UML class diagram, aimed at a technical audience

The diagram shown in Figure 1-2 is a C4 context diagram. This is a

versatile diagram as it is useful for both technical and business
audiences to get an overview of a system. This diagram is equally
readable and useful to roles such as product owner, project manager,
architect, developer and business analyst.
 Figure 1-2. C4 context diagram, useful to most audiences

The domain story shown in Figure 1-3 is more aimed at business

roles, but also those technical roles that are involved in translating
business needs into technical solutions. Domain stories are created
to improve communication between business stakeholders and
technical roles so that the solution created meets the needs of the
business and any users. Domain or subject matter experts (SMEs)
would be involved in creating and verifying a domain story, along
with roles such as product owner (if not the SME), business analyst
and architect.
Figure 1-3. Domain story diagram, aimed at business roles and technical translator
roles such as architects and business analysts

There are several questions you should ask yourself about your
audience, once you have identified who they are.

What is their technical understanding? Your audience’s technical

understanding will determine what type of diagrams they will
benefit from. Consider if your project manager is a technical or
very non-technical PM. Does your product owner want to know
about the technology that has been selected, or just about how
well the requirements are met by the technology choice?
What level of detail do they need? Whether the detail is
technical or not, you need to consider what level of detail is
needed. Is this diagram for an architectural review board where
a lot of detail is expected? Do the development team need
implementation details or is that their job to determine those1?
What do they want from you? For this question consider what
your audience’s expectations and needs are. Meeting their
needs is key to successful communication. Is your audience
looking for specific information so they can make a decision or
report back to someone else? Keep your audience happy by
sending them away with the information and understanding
they need to do their job.
What do you want from them? This is something that is often
forgotten about when thinking about audience: what you need
from your audience. Do you need agreement or sign-off on your
design decisions? Do you need them to make a decision based
on your diagrams? You need to make sure the audience has all
they need to be able to provide whatever you need from them,
and understands what you need from them and by when.
Style Communicates
This is a pattern which is also known as Metastyle. You have likely
heard of metadata (data which provides information about other
data, such as image file dimensions, a category, or author name),
but what about metastyle? You are bombarded with visual meta
messages all the time through branding and advertising.
Think about your favourite drink. The branding has been designed to
appeal to people; to make them feel a certain way, to make them
think of certain things. The design of the packaging and the brand is
communicating to you without you even reading the words.
Diagrams and visuals in software do exactly the same thing, whether
you consciously design them to or not, just like software architecture
happens whether you have someone with the title architect working
on the software or not.
Consider the diagrams in Figure 1-4. What do the different styles say
about the stage the project is at? Early, late? What do they make
you think about the design and thought processes?
 Figure 1-4. Sketch & solid-line style comparison

Whether someone draws a diagram in either of these styles is

typically down to personal preference and the application they use to
draw it, rather than any conscious thought as to how the audience
will perceive the diagram.
Open your preferred diagraming application and create something
similar using the default settings. Now ask yourself the same
questions. What do the default settings communicate to your
audience? What do you actually want to communicate to your
audience?
When it comes to metastyle we can’t say that either one of these
styles is always better than the other, in the same way we can’t say
that any particular style of architecture is always the best choice for
a project, or indeed any type of diagram is always the best choice.
What we can do is consider what we are actually trying to
communicate to our audience and style our diagram to support this.

Mixing Levels of Abstraction

This is an antipattern that has a counterpart in the coding world. If
you have ever coded you will likely know mixing levels of abstraction
as a sin or code smell. All software is an abstraction, but in essence
levels of abstraction let us hide low-level details from high-level
concepts. A developer does not write software using 1s and 0s
(binary or machine code), they develop by writing in higher level
languages which abstract away the complexities of machine code
and all the levels in between (interpretors, compilers, etc).
If you think of the process of going to work as one level of
abstraction, the next level down could contain the concepts of
getting up, having a shower, getting dressed, having breakfast,
leaving the house, etc. The next level down for getting up would
contain push back the covers, sit up, stand up. There you have three
levels of abstraction (going to work, getting up, push back the
covers), but in software terms these should all be separate to avoid
confusion, unneeded complexity and to aid readability.
This principle applies to software architecture and diagrams in the
same way. In code we apply this principle to methods, classes,
layers in a layered application, etc. In diagrams and software
architecture we apply this to the structure of services, microservices,
etc, and the content of diagrams.
Typical levels of abstraction in coding, particularly a layered
architecture, are presentation, business, persistence, and database;
or presentation, application, domain, and infrastructure.
The C4 model2 is abstraction first, containing four abstraction layers
which define its core3 diagrams: context, container, component, and
code. We can use C4 to look at why we need these separate levels
of abstraction.
The diagram shown in Figure 1-5 isn’t a context diagram and it isn’t
a container diagram. It is a mix of two different levels of abstraction.
If you look at it closely it doesn’t make sense. The system in focus
seems to have been partially broken down into containers and the
relationship between the software system and containers doesn’t
make sense at the level the system is shown at.
 Figure 1-5. C4 diagram showing both context and container levels of abstraction

Figure 1-6 shows how the context diagram for Figure 1-5 should
look. This is where the software system in focus belongs, with its
related external systems and actors.
 Figure 1-6. C4 context diagram

The diagram shown in Figure 1-7 shows how the container

abstraction layer information in Figure 1-5 should be shown, in a C4
container diagram.
 Figure 1-7. C4 container diagram

The C4 model, being abstraction first, is an excellent way to illustrate

the need to keep levels of abstraction separate in diagrams, but this
rule applies to all types of diagrams. Apply it to your sequence
diagrams, data flow diagrams, diagrams with no formal notation,
etc. All your diagrams should follow this rule. This is one of the
reasons this is a Communication Essential.

1 This can be a controversial topic as to how much detail is given in designs

handed to development teams. My general rule is to ask the development
team what they want, rather than going by any written or unwritten guides
the company gives you. If there are rules that don’t meet the development
team’s needs then this can be brought up with the appropriate person.
2 see c4model.com for more information

3 C4 also has some supplementary diagrams such as a Deployment diagram

Chapter 2. Clarify the Clutter

A NOTE FOR EARLY RELEASE READERS

With Early Release ebooks, you get books in their earliest form—
the author’s raw and unedited content as they write—so you can
take advantage of these technologies long before the official
release of these titles.
This will be the 2nd chapter of the final book. Please note that
the GitHub repo will be made active later on.
If you have comments about how we might improve the content
and/or examples in this book, or if you notice missing material
within this chapter, please reach out to the editor at
ccollins@oreilly.com.

You don’t want your audience to have to work hard to understand

your message, it drastically reduces the chances of your
communicating successfully.
Cognitive load is the amount of effort a person has to exert in order
to reason or think about something.
This chapter explores the patterns and antipatterns that will help you
to reduce the cognitive load of your audience by identifying and
eliminating elements of your diagram that are making it harder for
them to understand your message, or even splitting that message
across multiple diagrams.

Colour Overload
When talking about this antipattern I often refer to it as an Explosion
of Unicorns. In most cases, the colours used in diagrams are not
given much, if any, thought at all. Often many colours are used,
either to indicate the difference between different components, or
with no meaning at all. If a key is included it is long and takes time
and concentration from the audience to work out what is what.
This antipattern usually occurs because the author of the diagram
had no motivation to consider colour or no idea that colour is
important in visual communication. Either the default colours in a
diagraming application or randomly selected colours are used,
because that is quicker than taking the time to think about the
colours being used.

TIP
Here we have an example of being “penny-wise but pound-foolish”:
saving time creating the diagram will mean more time (or money) is
spent later either explaining to audiences, having to redo the diagram,
or even clear up the mess resulting from miscommunication. In the
same way as fixing bugs in code early, getting communication right
early will save you money and time in the long-run.

This antipattern applies not just to diagrams but to all visuals, except
those purely in black and white (that is black and white only, and not
greyscale). But don’t think the answer is to create all visuals in black
and white. The way to combat this antipattern is to consider colour
and use it to communicate.
Figure 2-1 shows an overpowering array of bright colours used to
show that each component in the diagram is different but without
any consideration for communication. Have a think about how you
would fix this before reading on.
 Figure 2-1. Rainbow sequence diagram

To fix this we must minimise the colour palette, only using the
number of colours needed to convey your message. You don’t need
a different colour for every component in your diagram. When
selecting colours consider which colours go well together (don’t
clash), and also the luminosity of the colours as too many bright
colours will overwhelm your audience.
Other than the selection of colours you need to consider what you
are trying to communicate to your audience via these selected
colours. You can use them to communicate things like function or
type by using the same colour for components that share this
feature. For example, see Figure 2-1 where colour has been used to
show that the UI, data store, APIs and services are different.
 Figure 2-2. Colours grouping by type

The example shown in Figure 2-2 is isn’t the only option for
improving the diagram shown in Figure 2-1, but it implements the
fixes just mentioned to produce a diagram that the audience can
understand and view without distraction from the message of the
diagram. Avoiding distractions from your message is key to
successful communication.

Boxes in boxes in boxes

Boxes are used as the main way to communicate where an
component in the diagram is situated (conceptually, logically,
physically…) and also used for grouping components. When you
have too many boxes there are lots of lines which is visually
confusing, meaning the audience has to spend precious attention
and brain-power working out which line belongs to which box. A lot
of space is needed just to create enough whitespace to make the
diagram legible, leaving less space for what you actually want to
communicate.
This antipattern emerges through the diagram author using the
same form of delineation to represent different meanings in a
diagram. Either the author is unaware of other ways of expressing
meaning or they feel it is too much work to do anything differently.
Whatever the reasoning it leads to unsuccessful communication and
usually wastes time or money. Your audience will not appreciate
having to spend effort on working out your diagram and will either
not spend this effort or likely still not receive the message you are
trying to communicate even if they do try to understand your
diagram.
Many types of diagram can fall prey to this antipattern, but structural
diagrams that convey situation or location (e.g. logical location) are
the most common to have this problem. Diagrams such as data flow
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pee-wee Harris
in camp
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Pee-wee Harris in camp

Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh

Illustrator: Harold S. Barbour

Release date: November 25, 2023 [eBook #72220]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1922

Credits: Roger Frank and Sue Clark

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE

HARRIS IN CAMP ***
PEE-WEE HARRIS IN CAMP
“I’LL CLOSE MY EYES AND TRY TO GO STRAIGHT,” SAID PEE-WEE.
 PEE-WEE HARRIS
IN CAMP
BY
PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of
THE TOM SLADE BOOKS, THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
THE PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS

ILLUSTRATED BY
H. S. BARBOUR

Published with the approval of

THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK

Made in the United States of America

 Copyright, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
 Pee-Wee Harris in Camp, also in Dutch; also in hot water, in
cold water, on the stage, in politics, and in the raspberry jam.
Including the true facts concerning his size (what there is of it)
and his heroism (such as it is), his voice, his clothes, his
appetite, his friends, his enemies, his victims. Together with the
thrilling narrative of the rise and fall of the Hop-toad Patrol, as
well as other delectable particulars touching the one time
mascot of the Ravens, sometimes known as the Animal Cracker
Patrol. How he foiled, baffled, circumvented and triumphed over
everything and everybody (except where he failed) and how
even when he failed he succeeded. The whole recorded in a
series of screams and told with neither muffler nor cut-out.
 CONTENTS
I HE OPENS THE DOOR, THEN OPENS HIS MOUTH
II HE PLAYS HIS PART
III SUCH IS FAME
IV HE ADVANCES
V HE STORMS THE INNER FORTRESS
VI CARRIED BY A MINORITY
VII MENTAL TELEGRAPHY
VIII A PREDICAMENT
IX PEE-WEE’S PAST REVEALED
X PEE-WEE’S ENTERPRISE
XI BILLY SIMPSON’S CHANCE
XII ADVICE FROM THE VETERAN
XIII AN INSPIRATION
XIV THE AUTOCRAT
XV BON VOYAGE
XVI REGULATION SEVEN
XVII TEARS
XVIII THE BATTLE OF THE BURS
XIX SAIL ON, THOU BOTTLE
XX THE NIGHT BEFORE
XXI SCOUTS AND SCOUTS
XXII THE VOICE OF SCOUT HARRIS
XXIII MOBILIZING
XXIV A PROMISE
XXV BIG BUSINESS
XXVI MAROONED
XXVII RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL
XXVIII BRENT AND PEE-WEE
XXIX BRENT AND SIMPSON
XXX THE COMING EVENT
 CONTENTS

XXXI THE SAND-BAG

XXXII SOMETHING BIG
XXXIII AND SOMETHING BIGGER

PEE-WEE HARRIS IN CAMP

 CHAPTER I—HE OPENS THE DOOR, THEN
OPENS HIS MOUTH
“I’m going to brand a horse with a hot iron! I’m going to brand a
double cross on him! I’m going to brand it on his hip! I’m going to get
ten dollars!”
These were strange words to issue from the lips of a boy scout.
Yet they were uttered by no less a scout than Pee-Wee Harris, the
scout of scouts, the scout who made scouting famous, the only
original scout, the scout who put the rave in Raven Patrol. They were
uttered by Scout Harris who was so humane that he loved butterflies
because they reminded him of butter and who would not harm a
piece of pudding-stone because it aroused his tender recollections of
pudding.
“I’m going to brand him to-morrow night!” he repeated cruelly. “Is
there any pie left in the pantry?”
What act of inhuman cruelty he meditated against the poor,
defenseless pie only his own guilty conscience knew. Before his
mother was able to answer him from upstairs he had branded a
piece of pie with his teeth.
Pee-wee’s mother did not come down, but she put her foot down.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she called, “but you’re not going to
do it. There is one piece of pie in the pantry unless you have eaten it
already.”
Pee-wee ascended the stairs armed with a dripping slice of
rhubarb pie which left a scout trail up the wild, carpeted steps and
through the dim, unfathomed fastnesses of the upper hall.
“I’m brandhorse,” he repeated, wrestling with a large mouthful of
pie, “I’mgngtendlrs.”
The bite of pie conquered, Pee-wee proceeded to enlighten his
mother as to his latest enterprise.
 “You know the—”
“Don’t eat while you’re talking,” said Mrs. Harris.
“You know the Punkhall Stock Company?” Pee-wee continued
excitedly. “They’re coming to the Lyric Theatre next week. They’re
going to play New York successes. They advertised for a boy to
brand a horse and I went to see the man and his name is
Rantrnetolme—”
“Stop! Wait a minute; now go on. And don’t take another bite till
you finish.”
“Mr. Ranter he’s manager and he said I’d do and I only have to be
in that one play and I only have to be on the stage one minute and I’ll
get ten dollars and everybody’ll clap and I bet you’ll be glad and it—
anyway, it isn’t a hot iron at all, but it’s painted red so it will look hot
and it doesn’t hurt the horse only it looks as if it did, so can I do it?”
he concluded breathlessly. “You can’t say that red paint will hurt a
horse,” he added anxiously. “Gee whiz, I wouldn’t be cruel, but red
paint can’t hurt anybody.”
“What is the name of this play?” Pee-wee’s mother asked.
“The name of it is Double-crossed and I’ll tell you all about it, it’s a
dandy play, a man has a double cross for trade-mark, see? And he’s
a villain and he gets a kid to crawl through a hole in the fence, it’s out
west in Arizona, and that kid has to brand one of the other man’s
horses so the man will admit the horse belongs to the other man and
the other man can take him, see? That’s what you call a plot. The
man beats me if I say I won’t do it, so I do it and I don’t say anything
at all and after the play is over I get ten dollars, so will you come and
see me?”
“Where is the boy who usually does that?” Mrs. Harris asked,
rather ruefully.
“They get a different boy in every town,” Pee-wee said, “because
Mr. Ranter, he says it’s cheaper to do that than it is to pay his
railroad fare all over the country, so can I do it? The iron isn’t really
hot. So can I do it? Roy Blakeley and all the troop are coming to see
me and maybe they’re going to get a flashlight and they’re going to
clap a lot. So can I do it? I’m going to do good turns with the ten
dollars so if you stand up for good turns like you told Mr. Ellsworth,
you’d better let me do it or else that shows you don’t believe in good
turns. So can I do it?”
In the interval of suspense which followed, Pee-wee strengthened
his spirit with a bite of pie and stood ready to take still another upon
the first hint of an adverse decision.
“I don’t like the idea of you going on the stage with actors,
especially with the Punkhall Stock Company,” said Mrs. Harris
doubtfully. “What would your Aunt Sophia say if she should hear of
it?”
“How can she hear of it when she’s deaf?” said Pee-wee.
“Anyway, they never hear of things in North Deadham. I only have to
be on the stage about one minute and I don’t have to talk and I’d
rather do it than—than—have a bicycle on Christmas. So can I do
it?”
“I hope you don’t impersonate a scout,” said Mrs. Harris,
weakening gradually.
“I’m the son of a cowboy that owns a ranch,” Pee-wee vociferated,
“and his name is Deadshot Dan, and he gave me some peanuts
when Mr. Ranter was talking to me. Gee whiz, you can tell from that
that he’s not really bad, can’t you? Mr. Punkhall was there too, and
he said I’d do it fine and they’ll show me how to do it at a rehearsal
to-morrow morning and it doesn’t really hurt the horse, so can I do
it?”
“You remember how scandalized your Aunt Sophia Primshock
was when you kept a refreshment shack by the roadside? We have
to think of others, Walter. Aunt Sophia would be—I can’t think what
she’d be if she knew you joined the Punkhall Stock Company. And
your cousin Prudence who is going to Vassar! I had to listen to their
criticisms the whole time while I was visiting them, and your father
thought they were right.”
Poor Mrs. Harris lived in mortal terror of the Primshock branch of
the family which occupied the big old-fashioned house at North
Deadham. No stock companies, no movies even, ever went there.
No popular songs or current jokes or wise cracks of the day
penetrated to that solemn fastness. All that ever reached there,
apparently, were the tidings of Pee-wee’s sensational escapades, his
floundering around the country in a ramshackle railroad car, his
being carried off in an automobile, and, worst of all, his epoch-
making plunge into the retail trade when he had sold and sung the
praises of hot frankfurters by the road-side.
“I’m afraid she’d think it—unwise,” Mrs. Harris said in her gentle,
half yielding manner.
“Ah now, Mudgy,” Pee-wee pleaded; “I told those men I’d do it and
a scout has to keep his word, gee whiz, you have to admit that. And
Aunt Sophia doesn’t have to know anything about it and I promise, I
promise, not to tell her, and anyway Prudence has joined the Girl
Scouts and maybe by this time she’s got to be kind of wild—kind of;
and anyway I’ll never tell them so they can’t jump on you and if I say
I won’t, I won’t because a scout’s honor is to be trusted. So can I do
it? I won’t buy gumdrops with the ten dollars if you’ll let me do it.”
“Good gracious! Ten dollars worth of gumdrops!” said Mrs. Harris.
“Sure, that’s nothing,” said Pee-wee.
 CHAPTER II—HE PLAYS HIS PART
We need not dwell upon Pee-wee’s career on the stage. It was
almost as short as he was. He crawled through a hole in a fence and
had no difficulty in finding the right horse, since there was only one
there.
He held the iron (painted red) against the horse’s hip, then
withdrew across the stage and was seen no more. The deed of
villainy had been done, the double cross of the thieving ranchman
had been branded upon the horse he coveted and was resolved to
win “by fair means or foul.” Those were the tragic words he had
used.
There was nothing so very terrible about Pee-wee’s new
adventure and Mr. and Mrs. Harris were rather proud of the way in
which he acquitted himself. He broke his ten dollar bill in Bennett’s
Fresh Confectionery, where he treated the members of his troop with
true actorish liberality. Two sodas each they had, and gumdrops flew
like bullets in the play.
“Roy’s got your picture,” said Westy Martin; “I hope it comes out
all right. He’s going to hang it in the cellar.”
“How did it seem not speaking for thirty seconds?” Roy asked.
“He timed you with his stop watch,” Artie Van Arlen said. “Did you
see us in the front seats?”
“Now you see, it’s good to be small,” Pee-wee said. “They chose
me because I could get through that hole in the fence. Fat Blanchard
wanted to get the job but they wouldn’t give it to him because they
were afraid he’d get stuck half way through the hole. That horse is
awful nice, he likes being branded I guess; anyway he wasn’t mad
about it because he licked my hand twice.”
“If I had my way I’d lick you a couple of dozen times,” said Roy.
“Did you tell him about how you won the animal first aid badge?”
 “Who?”
“The horse; did you tell him how that makes you a star scout?”
“What does the horse care?” Westy asked. “He’s a star actor,
that’s better than a star scout.”
“I guess he had to go on the stage on account of the automobile
driving him out of business, hey?” Roy said.
“Anyway, I like horses,” Pee-wee said.
“Sure,” said Roy, “and you like horse radish and horse chestnuts
too. No wonder you like horses, you’re always kicking.”
“Maybe some day I’ll play—maybe I’ll play Julius Caesar,” said
Pee-wee proudly.
“Sure, maybe you’ll play checkers,” said Roy; “come on home, it’s
late.”
“Let’s have one more soda,” said Pee-wee.
“Which one of us will have it?” Roy asked.
“One each,” said Pee-wee; “I’ll treat. The first ones were on
account of my acting in that play, kind of to celebrate, and these will
be on account of my getting to be a star scout. Will you?”
“For your sake we will,” said Roy, as they all lined up again at the
soda fountain. “I hate to think what will happen when you get to be
an eagle scout.”
“We’ll have a soda for every badge, hey?” said Pee-wee,
immediately enthusiastic over the idea.
“That’ll be twenty-one sodas each.”
“Good night!” said Roy.
“And we’ll have chocolate ones on account of that being my patrol
color, hey? Only I’m going to start a new patrol before that and
maybe I’ll have red for our patrol color so we’ll have strawberry
sodas, hey? Because, anyway, I’m going to be an eagle scout next
summer.”
“Tell us all about that,” said Dorry Benton of the Silver Foxes.
“I’ve got a lot of plans,” said Pee-wee, between mouthfuls of
dripping ice cream.
“Have you got them with you?” Wig Weigand asked.
 “I’m going to start a patrol up at Temple Camp and I’m going to be
the leader of it on account of being a star scout and I’m going to
enter one of my scouts for the marksmanship contest—”
“G-o-o-d night!” interrupted Roy.
“A tall chance a tenderfoot stands of winning that,” Dorry laughed.
“I—I bet you I can think of a way, all right,” Pee-wee vociferated.
“Didn’t I fix it so Worry Chesley could get the gold cross?”
“Yes?”
“Sure; didn’t I fall off the springboard so he could save my life?”
“And the raving Ravens will have to go on raving without their little
mascot?” Doc. Carson asked.
“Sure, let them rave,” said Pee-wee; “gee whiz, I can rave without
them.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Roy said.
“If I’m a star scout that means I’m a hero, doesn’t it?” Pee-wee
asked, his soda glass tilted up so that he might capture the last
dregs. “If a scout has ten merit badges—”
“That means he has to treat to soda ten times,” said Roy; “it’s on
page forty-eleven of the handbook. If he treats to soda fifteen times
he’s a soda scout and he can wear the soda badge, all down the
front of his coat, just like you. Come on, let’s go home, Mr. Bennett
wants to shut up.”
“I wouldn’t shut up for anybody,” Pee-wee said.
 CHAPTER III—SUCH IS FAME
Pee-wee’s plans, indeed, were more numerous than the
miscellaneous possessions which he displayed upon his scout
regalia and which set him off like a sort of animated Christmas tree.
If his active brain could have been revealed to view it would have
been found decorated with plans of every description; schemes and
enterprises would have been seen dangling from it, as his jack-knife
and his compass and his cooking pan and his watch and his coil of
rope were seen dangling from his belt and jacket. His mind was a
sort of miniature attic, full of junk. An artist familiar with rummage
sales might picture our scout hero in all his glory. But alas, no artist
could picture his brain!
At the time of the beginning of this odd train of happenings, Pee-
wee had cause to be both proud and satisfied. For one thing he had
eight dollars and sixty cents, the rest of his ten dollars having gone
to Bennett’s.
The animal first aid badge which he had lately won, being his
tenth award, had made him a star scout. The badge itself had not yet
been tendered him but this would be done by the exalted powers
when he reached Temple Camp. It would be done with befitting
ceremony. It was not necessary for anyone to tell Pee-wee that he
was a hero; he admitted it. After he had received his rank of star
scout all of the pioneer1 scouts at camp would rally to his standard,
clamoring for admittance to his new, and altogether unique, patrol.
So Pee-wee’s path of glory was mapped out, as far as it was
possible for the human imagination to map it. The new patrol was to
be called the Hop-toad Patrol, because it was by tracking a hop-toad
to its savage lair that Pee-wee had won the stalking badge, one of
the stepping stones to his pedestal of glory.
But the fame of Scout Harris had already gone further than he
knew; it had penetrated to North Deadham, and had appealed to