The Sugar Creek Gang Digs for Treasure — John Shaqi
The Sugar Creek Gang Digs for TreasureHutchens, Paul
General
The Sugar Creek Gang Digs for Treasure
Hutchens, Paul
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Treasure troves -- Juvenile fiction
“Do you suppose that map with invisible ink on it was only maybe
showing somebody where a fish cemetery is?” Poetry asked, and I felt
terribly saddish inside. We all looked at each other with saddish eyes,
and felt even sadder.
“Then Tom’s daddy is only up here on a fishing trip, and he’s maybe
rented the old cabin from somebody for a while,” I said.
We went back to camp feeling terribly blue.
Well, after supper and when it got almost dark, it was time for Eagle
Eye’s blood curdling Indian story. We knew that he being a Christian
Indian, would tell us a Bible story too, which is one reason why
our parents had wanted us to come on this camping trip in the first
place. Every night before we tumbled into bed, we would listen to a
short talk from the Bible, and then somebody would lead us in prayer.
Sometimes somebody gave us a talk about boys and what boys ought to
know about themselves and God, and how God expected everybody in the
world to behave themselves--things like that. Not a one of the gang was
sissified enough to be ashamed of being a Christian, and as you know,
every single one of us nearly always carried his New Testament with him
wherever he went.
We started our evening campfire, which was going to be what is called
an Indian fire. It was after Eagle Eye’s story that I found out about
Little Tom’s terribly sad heart, and I was even gladder than I was that
he hadn’t been with us in the afternoon. I’ll tell you about that in
the very next chapter.
7
I think I never felt so sorry for anybody in my life as I did for
Little red-haired Tom Till at the close of our camp fire that night.
It was fun having our big Indian guest, Eagle Eye, whom we all knew and
liked very much, take charge of our meeting. He showed us how to build
an Indian fire, which was like this: First he made a little wigwam of
some dry tinder and slender sticks, and also some larger sticks all
stacked up in the shape of an Indian tepee, with the top ends lapping
over each other a little. Then he had us boys drag five or six big long
poles from a little shelter nearby, where there was a place for keeping
wood dry.
It was interesting to watch him ’cause just for fun he was wearing real
Indian garb, with a headband filled with long pretty, different colored
feathers, and clothes that looked like the kind I’d seen in pictures of
Indians in our school library.
As soon as the little wigwam fire was laid, but not started yet, he
took his bow and arrow and a board which he called a fire board, and in
almost no time had a smallish fire started. It was a pretty sight to
watch that little wigwam of tinder and sticks leap into flame and the
long reddish-yellow tongues of fire go leaping up toward the sky. The
smoke rose slowly, and spread itself out over our camp and sort of hung
there like a big lazy bluish cloud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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