“Who? The skunk?” I asked. The back door opened, and Romeo set down a bowl of something that the animal lit right into.

“Romeo,” I called, “you better be careful.”

“So far he hasn’t sprayed anybody I know of,” he replied, coming down to join us. “And he’s been visiting regular for a couple of weeks now. And reforming fast. He hardly ever steals anything without first giving me a chance to offer it to him.”

Thief was a dainty eater, I had to hand him that. He picked up each piece of food and examined it carefully before popping it into his mouth. Except for what looked like a fish skin. That went in in one fast motion.

And he didn’t smell too bad, for a skunk.

“You can pet him if you want,” Romeo said. “Though you might want to wait till he’s done.”

“Oh, I think I can skip that,” I told him.

“Me, too,” Maggie said.

I asked her, “How’d you know about Thief?”

“Nate told me.”

Romeo said, “Most of the guys know. He’s going to be our camp mascot. We were going to tell you, but we wanted to get him good and tame, first. ’Cause if there was an accident—I mean, he is a skunk—we didn’t want any way that the captain could blame it on you.”

I almost said, You don’t need to look out for me. But I held it in. He hadn’t meant harm.

I just said, “So Cold Day Camp has got a skunk named Thief for a mascot.”

Maggie raised her eyebrows at Romeo, who looked like a kid caught red-handed at mischief.

“Actually,” he said. “We’ve got two mascots.”

He whistled, and a patch-eyed hound dog, all swayback and bones, slinked out.

“This here’s Beggar,” Romeo said. “He followed Thief here the other day, and I figured if he was hungry enough not to be scared of a skunk, he must need a handout pretty bad.”

“Do the other fellows know about him, too?” I asked.

Romeo nodded. “We were going to tell you, honest.”

“And who was going to tell the captain?”

“Oh, Sam’s got a plan for that.”

Sam’s plan consisted of a photograph that ran on the front page of the Monroe Herald. The story that surrounded it talked about the reservoir and conservation program. But the caption under the photograph said, “Meet Beggar and Thief, the unlikely mascots of Company 597. It’s a tribute to the CCC boys’ spirits and to their commanding officer, Captain Hakes, that the Cold Day Camp is such a friendly place even a skunk and a pooch can get along there.”

“Sam,” I said, after reading it through twice, “you’re not called the Senator for nothing. There’s politicians in the Austin statehouse, down home, who’ve got nothing on you.”