A LESSON IN WOODCRAFT.
"HELLO! hello! come this way, quick, both of you!" shouted the
sturdy-looking young fellow who had appeared so opportunely on the
scene, and whose coming seemed to inspire both Larry and Jasper with
renewed confidence.
He beckoned as he gave utterance to these words, and catching hold of
his companion's arm Larry hastened to obey.
There was indeed need of hurrying. Already the drops had begun to come
pattering down, like shot rattling through the thick leaves overhead.
And that furious combination of howling wind and descending rain was
almost upon them.
Stumbling along, the two boys reached the spot where stood Elmer
Chenowith, who was the assistant scout-master to the Hickory Ridge Boy
Scout troop.
"Here, get back of this upturned mass of roots!" cried the other, as he
pushed both the scouts ahead of him.
The tree in falling, years back, had lifted a great mass of earth with
its roots. This formed a bulwark at least seven feet in height. And as
luck would have it, the hole in the ground was just on the other side
from the direction where that wind howled now. This proved that the
previous storm, by which the king of the forest had been bowled over,
must have come from exactly opposite that quarter from whence the
present gale was springing.
Neither Larry nor Jasper thought anything about such a thing just then,
their one anxiety being to gain such shelter as the barricade promised
to afford. But Elmer was always on the watch for curious facts in
connection with the woodcraft he studied at every opportunity, and this
matter was of considerable importance in his eyes.
So the three lads cowered there, trying to make themselves as small as
possible.
"We're bound to get soaked, all right," called Elmer, as the rain
commenced to come down heavier and heavier; "but then, that doesn't cut
any figure in the case. So long as we keep from being carried away by
the hurricane wind, or have a tree squash down on top of us, we hadn't
ought to complain."
"That's what," answered Larry; "and I tell you we're both as glad as can
be to run across you up here, Elmer. This storm came on us just when we
had to admit we'd lost our grip of all the boasted woodcraft we knew,
and were at sea."
"Don't try to talk any more just now, fellows!" called Elmer. "The old
storm's making too much racket. Wait till the worst goes by."
Jasper was still shaking some. True, this shelter promised to be
comforting, but he found reason to fear, from words Elmer had let fall,
that the worst was yet to come, and that the storm would increase.
Otherwise, why should the scout leader, who was so well versed in
everything pertaining to outdoors, speak of it as a hurricane wind?
So poor Jasper held on to some projection of the fallen tree, and drew
his breath in little gasps. The uplifted mass of roots protected them in
some measure from the rain, and altogether from the driving wind, but by
degrees little rivers of water commenced to descend from the trees
overhead, and these soon completed the job of soaking the trio of
scouts.
The minutes passed, and nothing very serious happened. True, once or
twice Jasper believed he heard a crash as some weak tree yielded to the
strain, and went over. But this did not come to pass very near them, so
they did not incur any particular danger.
"Seems to be letting up a bit!" finally remarked Larry, raising his
voice in order to be heard, for the racket was still tremendous.
"Oh! do you really think so?" cried Jasper, excitedly.
"There's no doubt of it," declared Elmer, with a reassuring nod, for he
understood the nervous nature of the smaller boy, and in times past had
made it his particular business to build up Jasper's courage and
determination, always wabbly.
The crashes of thunder as a rule sounded further away, though now and
then one would break that seemed to outdo all the rest, as though the
storm might be trying to linger in the vicinity of the upturned tree.
Then the rain slackened.
"Not that it matters much," said Elmer, laughing; "because we're all
like drowned rats right now. But wait till it stops; then we'll build a
jolly big fire, and dry off."
"But how about matches--Larry forgot to bring any, and I lost mine?"
sighed Jasper, dolefully.
"Oh! that's all right," the scout leader went on. "I've got some safe
and sound in my pocket right now."
"But if you're soaked through to the skin, won't the matches be done
for?" asked the smaller lad, who was beginning to feel better already,
now that the storm had broken, and a rift appeared in the dark clouds
overhead.
"I could stay in the water ten minutes, and still have matches to burn,"
laughed Elmer, "because, you see, I make it a point to carry them in a
water-proof safe that has been tested, and found all right. Besides, I
know how to make a fire without a solitary match, and have done it
again and again."
"Oh! yes, to be sure, I saw you do it once!" cried Larry.
"You mean by use of a little bow, and a stick that turns around in a
notch of some wood, don't you, Elmer?" asked Jasper, interested.
"Just that," replied the scout leader. "I might try it now, to show you
fellows how it's done; only it generally takes a lot of time, you know;
and the sooner we have a warm blaze after this rain stops, the better.
So we'll stick to the matches this round."
He was thinking of Jasper, who had never been very stout or strong, and
whom he could feel trembling whenever he chanced to touch the boy.
Excitement, and the wetting, might cause trouble, unless he found means
for warming the boy up ere long.
By degrees the wind died away completely, while the rain hardly amounted
to much--in fact, what water fell was now the drippings from the trees
overhead.
"Come, let's get a move on us," said Elmer, as he started to climb out
of the depression behind the upturned roots of the fallen oak.
"Wow! I'm standing in water half way to my knees!" laughed Larry, to
whom the affair was something like a picnic--now that they had run
across one who knew how to find a way out of the labyrinth, dry their
clothes, and generally create an atmosphere of cheer.
"Wait till I take a look in at this tree," observed Elmer, hurrying
around to where the broken pieces of the trunk lay.
"Whatever is he doing now?" asked Jasper, as he saw the scout leader
clawing at the heart of the fallen forest monarch.
"Well, I rather think he's getting some dry wood out of that log,"
replied the other. "I've seen him make a fire in a rain before, and that
was the way he got hold of some tinder for a start. Yes, there he picks
up a lot, and is coming this way with it. We'll soon have a bully blaze
started, and once she gets going why there's oceans of wood lying around
loose here that will burn."
"Yes, I guess there are oceans of it; anyhow there's been enough water
turned loose on it to swamp things. Elmer, is there anything we can do
to help?" asked Jasper, eagerly.
"Sure there is, both of you," replied the other, readily. "Get busy
breaking up some of those dead limbs there. We'll need a lot soon, and
besides, it's going to help warm you up. Jump around, and slap your arms
across your chest, Jasper, just like you would do on a winter's day, if
cold. Here goes for a start," and as he spoke Elmer applied a match to
the little pile of loose dry tinder he had heaped up.
A flash, and up sprang the flame, for the boy had made his preparations
carefully so as not to waste a single match. One of the first tests a
tenderfoot scout is put to, is to make a fire in the woods without
paper, and possessing only three matches. The careless new beginner
learns how to husband his resources, after he has been shown how
priceless even so common a thing as a match may become, under certain
conditions.
When the fire had taken a good hold, other fuel was added, dry so long
as it could be obtained, and then some of the wet stuff, which readily
dried off and burned fiercely.
"If I had only had a camp hatchet along," said Elmer, as he made Jasper
disrobe, so as to get his clothes hanging near the blaze, "I could have
done this affair up in better style; but I reckon none of us have any
reason to growl at the way things are going, eh, fellows?"
"Well, I should say not," laughed Larry, who had followed the example of
the others, and was hanging his garments on convenient roots of the
fallen tree, where the heat would reach them by degrees. "We're lucky
all the way through, and that's a fact. It was mighty good of you to
track us away up here, Elmer. Whatever made you do it?"
"Oh! I happened to have nothing to do, and while neither of you had the
politeness to ask me to go along, why, I thought I'd like to know just
how you made out. So I kept out of sight, and yet near enough to hear
what you said lots of times. And on the whole you did pretty well,
fellows. You can't expect to learn everything about woodcraft at once,
you know; and the time I was up in the Canada bush gave me a long start
over the rest of the bunch."
He did not want to confess that he had been a little worried lest the
two ambitious scouts get lost in those great woods lying northwest of
Hickory Ridge; but such was really the case. And as subsequent events
proved, his fears had after all not been groundless.
While their clothes were steaming and drying the boys jumped around, and
managed between thus exercising themselves, and keeping fairly near the
blaze, to ward off any chilliness; for after the storm the air had
become remarkably cool.
"There's the blooming old sun peeking out!" declared Larry, presently.
"For goodness' sake don't scare it off," said Jasper, who was now busily
engaged getting inside his clothes. "Oh! say, look here, somebody's
changed with me."
"What's the matter?" asked Elmer; although he gave Larry a wink as he
spoke, as if he knew very well what ailed the other.
"Why, I've got the wrong trousers, that's what! They look like they'd
been made for my younger brother," complained Jasper; then seeing Larry
smiling he continued: "Now, what are you grinning at, Larry? Trying to
play a joke on me, are you?"
"Well, since both of us are a heap bigger than you, whose clothes d'ye
think you've got hold of anyway, eh?" demanded Larry. "Fact is, they've
shrunk, that's all. Had 'em too near the fire, after being wet. They'll
stretch again in time, Jasper. Mine are in the same fix, you see."
Amid considerable merriment then, the three scouts finished dressing.
"I'll never forget this, never," declared Jasper, after he had completed
this operation in the best way possible.
"And just think what a fix we'd still be in if Elmer here hadn't taken a
notion to look us up!" observed Larry. "It's a fine thing to have a
scout leader, who feels a personal interest in his men. Because, honest
Injun, I don't yet know in just which way home lies. That's about west
over there, because the sun is heading yonder; but where's Hickory
Ridge?"
"Give it up," said Jasper, shaking his head as though the problem were
too much for him. "I'm like you, Larry; I know the cardinal points of
the compass only because the sun happens to be shining now. When it was
dark I couldn't have told north from south."
"Well, you must get over that failing," declared Elmer, positively.
"Now, just take a good look at all these forest trees; you notice that
nearly every one has a certain amount of green moss, as we call it, on
one side, and also that it decorates the same side of every tree!"
"Sure enough it is, Elmer; and if a fellow only knew _which_ side, he
could always find out how he stood," cried Jasper.
"In nine cases out of ten that moss is on the north side of the tree. If
it varies at all, it will be found on the northwest bark. Remember that,
fellows, and you need never want for a compass when in the woods,"
suggested Elmer.
"Well, now," remarked Larry, chuckling, "what a couple of silly geese we
were after all, Jasper, to think of coming away up here in the woods,
and never carry even a compass."
"That's a fact," replied the one addressed, with a sickly grin; "but the
trouble with us, Larry, was our being so dead sure we knew all about it.
After this I'm going to buy a neat little trick of a compass, and carry
it along with me. Honest, now, I never knew it was so easy to get
twisted around. Some day I'll turn up missing on my way to school."
"Here's a compass, all right; I seldom go without one," remarked Elmer;
"though it's mighty seldom a fellow, who is wide awake, would ever need
such a thing where the trees grow. Now, out on those tremendous prairies
where hundreds of miles of open country surround you on every side, and
one section looks exactly like another, it's a different question."
"I've heard it said that a fellow can use his watch, if he's got one,
for a compass; how about that, Elmer?" asked Larry.
"It's a fact," replied the scout leader, "though I don't ever remember
of being put to that test. Still, I can explain just how it's done,
though we haven't time right now to take the matter up. I reckon we'd
better be heading toward home."
"That suits me to a dot," declared Jasper, cheerfully.
He was feeling quite chipper after the recent terrifying experience. In
a great measure it had done the boy good. His confidence had been
strengthened, and in many ways Jasper saw how necessary it was in times
of emergency to retain both determination and assurance.
They were soon walking briskly through the woods, with Elmer promising
that in a short time he would surely take his comrades to the road over
which they could make their way to Hickory Ridge.
"I've got a little news for both of you," said the scout leader of the
Wolf Patrol, as they journeyed on, chattering like so many jackdaws.
"I hope it ain't bad news then?" remarked Jasper.
"That remains to be proven," Elmer continued, gravely. "It may turn out
good or bad, as happens to enter the active mind of one Matt Tubbs."
"Oh! the bully of Fairfield--the fellow who did more to break up the
baseball games with our rival town than all other causes bunched
together. Now, what under the sun has Fighting Matt gone and done,
Elmer?" demanded Larry, eagerly.
"Well," replied the scout leader, calmly, "what do you expect, but get
in line, and organize a new and rival troop of Boy Scouts!"