The visitors, unimpressed with these makeshift diversions of the off season, did not return, and so the good old springtime found Pee-wee still a scout indeed (with something left over) but a scout without a patrol.
And now the sturdy little missionary began to feel this keenly.

Patrol spirit is usually not much in evidence during the winter; the several divisions of a troop intermingle and form a sort of club in which an odd member is quite at home.

But with the coming of spring the patrol spirit becomes aroused.

It is a case of "united we stand, divided we sprawl," as Roy Blakeley was fond of saying.

Each patrol goes separately about its preparations for camping and hiking, does its shopping, repairs its tents, denounces and ridicules its associate patrols, and troop unity gives way somewhat to patrol unity.