Boy Scouts of America -- Juvenile fiction; Camps -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Hiking -- Juvenile fiction
Most of the scouts that were at camp that year don’t come now and, gee
whiz, you hardly hear anybody speak about it any more. It just happened
to pop out of my head when we were talking with those girls.
Now there’s one thing more I’ll tell you. You remember how one of the
scouts said the boat was near a light? When he was pointing it out to
me? That was only the reflection of a light away up on the mountain.
There were two grown-up fellows who had a camp up in the mountain across
the lake from Temple Camp. Often we saw their camp-fire at night. They
had it burning that afternoon way, way up there. And it made a spot of
light down on the lake. It was right close to that spot of light that
the boat upset. That was what the fellow meant. It wasn’t really a
light, it was only a reflection. That summer those big fellows up in the
mountain went away, and they never came back again. Gee whiz, you can’t
exactly say that the reflection of a light is a scout sign. Because when
the light goes away the reflection goes away, too.
So, after a while nobody seemed to know just where the boat upset. The
scouts who were there that summer knew. But after that it was a kind of
a—you know—a legend, sort of. I guess the trustees were glad of that
because scouts couldn’t go grappling any more.
It was all nice and forgotten, sort of, when all of a sudden last
summer, Harry Donnelle came to see us at Temple Camp. He’s a big fellow
and he lives near me and he’s especial friends with my sister, only she
says I have to cross this part out, but I won’t do it. That fellow was
in the war, and he just didn’t get killed as many as four times. He’s
been in South Africa, too. His middle name is adventure. Gee whiz, I
hope he marries my sister.
Anyway he heard about that accident because birds come and whisper
things to him, that’s what he says. Believe me, I think they shout at
him. Anyway he found out. So one dark, gloomy afternoon he took three of
us up to that old camp, and he made a couple of other fellows row around
in a boat down on the lake.
They built a big fire up at the old camp in the mountain and then the
fellows in the boat noticed just where the reflection hit the water.
Then they made a kind of a diagram on a map of the lake that showed just
exactly where the boat upset. First they tried to drive a pole in, but
the lake was too deep. So then they made notes on the map and dotted
lines and everything that showed that the spot was in a line exactly
southeast of the willow tree, I don’t know how far.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account