Roy Blakeley's Adventures in CampFitzhugh, Percy Keese
General
Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp
Fitzhugh, Percy Keese
Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Camping -- Juvenile fiction
When we first got it, it was way up a creek in the marshes and Mr.
Donnelle (he's the man that owned it) took us there and showed it to
us. Just as we were coming near it, a fellow jumped out of it and ran
away through the marshes. We said he must be a tramp, because he was
all ragged. Anyway, he acted as if he was scared, that was one sure
thing.
"We should worry about him, anyway," I said; and Mr. Donnelle said he
was gone and that was the end of him.
But, believe me, that wasn't the end of him. That was only the
beginning of him. I didn't say anything more about him before, because
I didn't know, but believe me, that fellow was--what do you call it--
you know--_destined_--to cause a lot of trouble in our young lives.
That sounds like a regular author, hey? _Destined_.
When we began fixing the boat up, we found that one of the lockers was
locked with a padlock and as long as the boat didn't belong to us, we
didn't break it open, especially because there were plenty of lockers
besides that one. I bet you'd like to know what was in that locker. But
you're not going to find that out yet, so there's no use asking. All
the time we thought Mr. Donnelle had the key to it. But, oh, just you
wait.
Well, after we got it all fixed up, we couldn't decide how we'd get it
down into the bay and then up the Hudson to Catskill Landing. That's
where you have to go to get to Temple Camp. Temple Camp is a great big
scout camp and it's right on the shore of Black Lake--oh, it's peachy.
You'll see it, all right, and you'll see Jeb Rushmore--he's camp
manager. He used to be a trapper out west. You'll see us all around
camp-fire--you wait. Mr. Ellsworth says this story is all right so far,
only to go on about the boat. Gee, I'll go faster than the boat did,
that's one sure thing, leave it to me. But after we got down into the
Hudson we went fast, all right. Let's see where was I?
Oh, yes, we were wondering how we'd get to camp in it because we didn't
have much money in our troop, on account of being broke. Poor, but
honest, hey? And it costs a lot of money to be towed and an engine
would cost a hundred and fifty dollars. Nix on the engine, you can bet.
But, oh, boy, there's one thing Mr. Ellsworth said and it's true, I've
got to admit that. He said that good turns are good investments--he
says they pay a hundred percent. That's even better than Liberty Bonds.
You don't get it back in money, but you get it back in fun--what's the
difference?
Well, we did a good turn, and oh, believe me, there was _some_ come
back!
One day a tug came up our river on its way up to North Bridgeboro.
That's where the mill is. And there wasn't anybody there to open the
bridge so it could get through. Oh, wasn't that old tug captain mad! He
kept whistling and whistling and saying things about the river being an
old mud hole, and how he'd never get down the bay again, unless he
could get through and come down on the full tide. Oh, boy, but he was
wild.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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