Chapter 2
Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen
âUh-oh,â said Scout Brother when he saw Ralph Ripoff setting up his little swindle table right there in the center of town near the police station. Brother and his fellow scouts had come to do some merit-badge research at the library, which was next to the police station.
âHeâs been warned to stay out of town with those crooked games and tricks of his,â said Scout Fred.
âLooks like heâs selling something,â said Scout Sister.
âLetâs go see what it is,â said Scout Lizzy.
A small crowd had gathered around Ralph. The Bear Scouts joined the crowd. âFour-leaf clovers for sale!â cried Ralph. âFour-leaf clovers for sale! Get your four-leaf clovers here! One for a dime! Three for a quarter! Step right up and buy yourself a million dollarsâ worth of luck for one thin dime!â
Brother stepped right up and said, âHereâs a dime, Ralph. Iâll take one of those four-leaf clovers.â
âWhat are you doing?â whispered Sister. âYou know what a cheat Ralph is!â
âI know exactly what Iâm doing,â said Brother, holding out his dime.
âWell, if it isnât my favorite cubs, the Bear Scouts,â said Ralph. âHere you are! One genuine four-leaf clover, guaranteed to bring you luck. Why donât you get some for your friends? Theyâre three for a quarter,you know. Then youâll have enough for the whole troop.â
âNo thanks,â said Brother. âOne will be enough for my purposes.â
âWhat purposes?â asked Sister.
Brother led the troop off to the side and looked closely at the four-leaf clover. âJust as I thought!â he said. âLeave it to Ralph to know how to make a three-leaf clover into a four-leaf clover!â
âA three-leaf clover into a four-leaf clover?â said Fred. âThatâs impossible.â
âNot for Ralph,â said Brother. âHere, look.â The rest of the troop looked.
âWell, Iâll be!â said Sister.
âHow about that!â said Fred.
Hereâs how Ralph made three-leaf clovers into four-leaf clovers:
1. An ordinary three-leaf clover.
2. Split one of the three leaves down the center.
3. Round off the corners of the split leaf.
4. A guaranteed Ralph-style four-leaf clover.
âRalph better get moving,â said Lizzy. âSomebodyâs going for Chief Bruno.â
âLet me have your notebook, Fred,â said Brother. Fred handed it to him. Brother opened it to a blank page and wrote a short note. He pushed through the crowd, tore off the note, and handed it to Ralph.
This is what the note said:
âGood grief!â said Ralph. âI must leave you good folks. A personal catastrophe has called me away. My houseboat has broken loose and is roaring down the river.â
It was a lie, of course. Lies flowed from Ralphâs lips like water from a tap. Ralph did live in a houseboat, but it was stuck in the mud so deep that it would have taken a tugboat to pull it loose.
Ralph folded up his swindle table, stuffed his fake four-leaf clovers into a plastic bag, and made a fast getaway. The scouts followed.
âI want to thank you chaps,â said Ralph as the Bear Scouts caught up and fell into step with him.
âReally?â said Brother.
âAbsolutely!â said Ralph. âYour timely warning may have saved me considerable inconvenienceâperhaps even a night in the hoosegow.â
âWhat about embarrassment?â said Brother.
âEmbarrassment?â said Ralph.
âYes,â said Brother, âthe embarrassment of trying to sell those poor, pitiful, fake four-leaf clovers.â
âBrotherâs right. You couldnât fool a fire hydrant with those four-leaf clovers,â said Sister as they passed a fire hydrant.
âOr a gumball machine,â said Fred as they passed a gumball
Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson