wasn't I glad! We tied the houseboat to an old pier maybe a couple of
hundred yards above the regular landing, and had a good swim and then
breakfast before we started up to camp. Mr. Ellsworth let Skinny go in,
but he told him to be careful not to disobey his leaders or he'd have
to come out.
Jimmy, it was funny to see that kid. I don't know how to tell you about
it, but he seemed to kind of swim different from the other fellows, and
he couldn't help getting excited. They threw pieces of stick for him to
get, and he would swim out and bring them in in his mouth just like a
dog, and then wait for more, all anxious like. One thing about Skinny I
noticed, and that was that all the fellows, even in his own patrol, got
a lot of fun out of him, making him do things, but nobody exactly
seemed to make friends with him. Anyway, I guess he didn't care, he was
always so crazy about what he was doing. Even a lot of summer people
stood around on the shore, watching him in the water and saying he was
a wonder. I guess they didn't know what to do with themselves, hey?
Mostly that's the way it is with summer people.
I flopped some flapjacks for breakfast and El Sawyer (he's a Raven)
hung one of them around his neck for a souvenir. He's a fresh kid.
Maybe you think it's easy to flop flapjacks--I should worry.
Oh, boy, now comes the best part of this whole story. As soon as we
could get our stuff into the duffel bags and the boat all tied fast, we
started out on our hike for Temple Camp. You can bet I always like to
hike, but early in the morning, oh, it's simply great. Some fellows can
drink sodas early in the morning but I can't, but anyway, early hikes
are my middle name. You know, just when the sun is coming up, all red
like, and peeking over the hill, just as if it was stalking.
Oh, boy, if scouts could only sneak up as quiet as all that!
Now the way you get to Temple Camp is to hike up through Catskill
village till you get to the old turnpike road, and then go straight
along that till you come to a big boarding house, where there are a lot
of people sitting on the porch waiting for breakfast or dinner or
supper, or time to go to bed. Then you hit the road up through the
woods till you come to a turtle. I guess he isn't there now, but
anyway, he was there last year. Then you cut up through the woods and
follow the scouts' signs, and you'll come out at Leeds--that's a
village. You'll see all the summer people waiting for their mail at the
post office. Some of them will say, "Oh, there go some boy scouts,
aren't they cute?" They always say that. There's a stationery store
there too, where you can buy fishhooks and marshmallows, and other
things to eat. I don't mean you eat fishhooks.
Anyway, you go down Main Street till you come to a smell like rotten
wood and then you turn in where the willow trees are and you come to an
old sawmill. If you holloa from there, they can hear you at camp. Then
you cut through the woods and follow the trail till all of a sudden you
come plunk out on the edge of the lake and it's all surrounded by
woods. That's Black Lake, and believe me, black is my favorite color
when it comes to lakes. Then you go across in the boats to Temple Camp.