The Berenstain Bears in Maniac Mansion (10 page)

The Bear Scouts met with Scout Leader Jane about once a month. They usually met on merit badge business. That's what today's meeting was about.

“We've decided to try for the Good Government Merit Badge, Scout Leader,” said Scout Brother.

“Goo goo,” said Sister.

“I should know better than to ask,” said Jane, “but why are you talking baby talk?”

The troop grinned.

“That's slang for ‘good government,'” said Scout Fred.

Scout Leader Jane almost smiled, but kept herself from doing so. The troop liked to make jokes. Especially Scout Sister, who was a bit of a smarty. But Jane thought it best to be serious. She was not only a scout leader, she was a teacher at Bear Country School as well.

In fact, both Scout Sister and Scout Lizzy were in her class. The other two members of the troop were Scout Brother and Scout Fred. They were two grades ahead of Sister and Lizzy.

But girl or boy, younger or older, they were all scouts together. “One for all, and all for one” was their slogan. It came from a book Scout Fred had read—it was called
The Bear Musketeers
. It told about some soldiers from olden times. They would cross their swords and shout, “One for all, and all for one!” Then they would rush off to rescue a princess or slay a dragon. There weren't any princesses in Bear Country, or any dragons—at least as far as anyone knew.

Nor did the Bear Scouts have swords to cross. But they crossed other things when they said their slogan—like straws one time when they were having milkshakes at the Burger Bear, or rulers or pencils at school, or even sticks when they were gathering wood for a campfire.

Brother, Sister, Fred, and Lizzy liked being Bear Scouts. They liked having Jane as their leader, too. One of the reasons was that she trusted them. The scouts knew that other scout leaders fussed about everything their troops wanted to do. But not Jane. She didn't even know where the troop's secret clubhouse was. The only person besides the scouts who did know was Farmer Ben. That was because the scouts' secret clubhouse was an old chicken coop that Farmer Ben wasn't using for chickens anymore.

From the outside it still looked like a broken-down old chicken coop. It looked much better from the inside. It wasn't fancy. There wasn't much furniture, and what there was was very simple. The table was an old door that rested on sawhorses. There were two old kitchen chairs that Farmer Ben had given them. But mostly the scouts sat in the small grandstand they had made from the chicken roost. They had done this by nailing boards to the poles that the chickens had roosted upon.

The scouts had been able to keep their clubhouse secret because nobody ever saw them going into it. Farmer Ben had built the chicken coop onto an old hollow tree. The scouts went in through the hollow tree. There were bushes around the opening, so the scouts were able to slip in without ever being seen.

It hadn't been easy turning the chicken coop into a clubhouse. The scouts had been very happy when Farmer Ben told them they could have the place. But when they first went in, they were shocked. It was the dirtiest place any of them had ever seen—and the smelliest! At first they couldn't stop yelling “Pew!” over and over again. Their eyes teared and their noses burned. But they rolled up their sleeves and went to work. They carried out bag after bag of chicken feathers. They scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. After a lot of cleaning up and fixing up, the place began to look like a real clubhouse.

You'd hardly know that it had once been a chicken coop, except for two things: It still had a funny smell on rainy days, and once in a while a chicken would show up and make itself at home.

One wall of the Bear Scouts' clubhouse was special. They called it their honor wall. On it were the merit badges the troop had already earned. There were three of them: a Good Deed Merit Badge, a Water Safety Merit Badge, and a Recycling Merit Badge.

They had earned the first by helping the Widder McGrizz when she was ill with the flu. They had done her grocery shopping and other helpful things. They had earned the second by learning the dead bear's float, the doggie paddle, and the sidestroke. They had earned the third merit badge by putting paper, glass, and metal in different cans for trash pickup.

The three merit badges were pinned to a ribbon that was tacked to the honor wall. It was a long ribbon. There was room on it for more merit badges.

But the most important thing on the honor wall was the Bear Scout Oath. This is what it looked like, and this is what it said.

The Bear Scout Oath hung on the wall of Scout Leader Jane's office as well. It was exactly the same, except for one thing. There were five names at the bottom instead of four. The fifth name was that of Scout Leader Jane.

Jane was proud of her troop. One of the things she was most proud of was the way they did things on their own. Take merit badges, for instance. They got them the old-fashioned way: They
earned
them.

Leader Jane got up from her desk and took a book from the shelves. It was the
Official Bear Scout Handbook
. “Hmm,” she said. “Let's see what you have to do to earn the Good Government Merit Badge.” Jane read aloud, “The Good Government Badge can be earned in a number of ways: one, by studying the workings of government; two, by helping during an election; three, by interviewing at least three important government officials. The troop will then report to the troop leader. The leader will decide whether or not to award the Good Government Merit Badge.”

The scouts thought it over. They couldn't choose “helping during an election” because it wasn't election time. They couldn't interview three important government officials because Beartown didn't have three important officials. It had only two: Mayor Horace J. Honeypot and Chief of Police Bruno.

“I guess studying the workings of government is all that's left,” said Scout Sister. “But how are we going to do that?”

“You will do that by going to an important meeting at Town Hall this evening,” said Jane. She took a piece of Bear Scout letter paper and began writing.

“Say, wait a minute,” said Scout Fred. “I know about that meeting. My parents are going to it. But they couldn't find a sitter because everybody else is going to that meeting, too.”

“Our parents were having the same problem,” said Scout Brother.

“Mine too,” said Scout Lizzy.

“Well,” said Jane, “they won't need sitters, because you'll be going, too. They don't usually allow cubs at town meetings. So here's a letter telling Gus the doorkeeper to let you in. He was in my class when he was a cub. He knows better than to not do what I say.”

“Leader Jane?” said Sister.

“Yes, Scout Sister.”

“What's this big important meeting about?”

“You'll find that out soon enough,” said Jane.

STAN AND JAN BERENSTAIN
began writing the Berenstain Bears series in 1962, with
The Big Honey Hunt
. Since then, more than 250 Berenstain Bears books have been published and sales of the series are nearing 300 million. Stan and Jan have left behind a legacy of arguably the best-selling children's book series ever. Making the books has long been a family affair, with son Mike Berenstain writing and illustrating new stories about everyone's favorite bear family. You can visit the Berenstains online at www.berenstainbears.com.

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