Boy Scouts in the White Mountains: The Story of a Long HikeEaton, Walter Prichard
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Boy Scouts in the White Mountains: The Story of a Long Hike
Eaton, Walter Prichard
Boy Scouts -- Juvenile fiction; Hiking -- Juvenile fiction; White Mountains (N.H. and Me.) -- Juvenile fiction
“Well, we’re going on after lunch. Won’t bother you to-night,” the men
said. “Don’t mind our being here for lunch, do you?”
“Depends on what you’ve got to eat,” said Peanut, with a laugh.
“Not much,” the tall man answered. “Enough for two men, but not enough
for a huge person like yourself.”
Peanut grinned, as the laugh was on him, and the boys set about getting
their lunch ready, also.
The two newcomers had come up from Jackson that morning, they said, and
were bound for the top of Washington via the head wall of Huntington
Ravine. They spoke as if the head wall of Huntington were something not
lightly to be tackled, and of course the boys were curious at once.
“Where’s Huntington?” asked Art. “Mr. Rogers, you’ve never told us
about that.”
“I never was there myself,” said Mr. Rogers. “I can’t have been
_everywhere_, you know.”
“Well, neither have I been there,” said the tall, thin man, “but my
friend here has, once, and he alleges that it’s the best climb in the
White Mountains.”
“Hooray, let us go, too!” cried Peanut.
Mr. Rogers smiled. “We’ll go along with these gentlemen, if they don’t
mind, and have a look at it,” he said, “but I guess we’ll leave the
climbing to them. I don’t believe I want to lug any of you boys home
on a stretcher.”
“Aw, stretcher nothin’!” said Peanut. “I guess if other folks climb
there, we can!”
The short, stout man’s eyes twinkled. “Maybe when you see it you won’t
be so keen,” he said. “Come along with us and have a look.”
CHAPTER XIII
Up the Huntington Head Wall
Luncheon over, the two men packed their knapsacks again, while Art put
some dehydrated spinach in a pot to soak for supper. He covered the pot
carefully, and stood it in the ashes of the fire, where it would get
the heat from the rock, even though the fire was put out. Then falling
into line behind the two men, the boys and Mr. Rogers started off,
apparently going backward away from the mountain down the path toward
Crystal Cascades and the Glen road.
“We just came up here,” the tall man said. “Came out of our way a bit
to see the shelter camp, as I want to build one like it near my home.”
“So do we,” said the Scouts.
The two men walked very fast, so that the boys had hard work to keep up
with them. They were evidently trained mountain climbers. After half a
mile of descent, they swung to the left, by the Raymond Path, and after
a quarter of a mile of travel toward the northeast, they swung still
again to the left, up the Huntington Ravine Trail, and headed back
almost directly at right angles, toward the northwest, where the cone
of Washington was, though it could not be seen. The path now ascended
again, rather rapidly, and the Scouts puffed along behind the tall man
and his stout companion, who walked just about as fast up-hill as they
did down.
“Say!” called Peanut, “is there a fire in the ravine?”
The tall man laughed. “Sure,” he said. “Four alarms!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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