CHAPTER III
"HIT THE KNOT AND HIT IT HARD!"
"HOW are you coming on, Rufus?" asked Elmer, pleasantly, as he droppeddown on the log alongside the perspiring chopper.
Rufus laughed, a little unpleasantly, Elmer thought.
"Oh! I guess I was never cut out for a hewer of firewood, Elmer," heremarked indifferently. "Some fellows may take to that sort of thing,but I incline in the direction of less strenuous employment. I canfiddle with a surveyor's outfit all day long, tramp through the woodsand the brush, cut a path, and enjoy it all; but swinging an ax doesn'tseem to be my forte."
"Then if I were you, Rufus," the other told him, quietly, "I'd shut myteeth together and make it my forte. I never would let a little thinglike that get the better of me. Why, I couldn't sleep easy at night if Idid."
Rufus moved a little uneasily at that. He undoubtedly must have guessedthat the scout-master meant to reprove him for giving up so soon. Thenhe shook his head and frowned.
"Oh! there'll be heaps of other things I _can_ tackle around the camp,besides playing wood-chopper, Elmer, that's sure. I've given it a fairtrial, and don't seem to get the hang of the old thing. Why, it's lucky,I reckon, I didn't smash my foot. My hands don't seem to tackle the axproperly. Alec may be better suited to it."
"It isn't hard, once you learn," said Elmer.
"Well, I've given it a try, and I'm ready to call it off, though I knowyou don't like to hear that kind of talk," grumbled Rufus, actuallyturning redder than ever with confusion as he felt the eyes of the otherfastened upon his face.
"That's not the spirit in which a scout who has any respect for himselfshould act," Elmer told him, slowly and with a friendly slap on theshoulder. "Deep down in your heart, Rufus, you just know that you _can_master such a little job as learning how to handle an ax, if only youkeep persistently at it, and never give up. A scout on being baffledonce or twice just sets his teeth together, takes a fresh grip onhimself, and says he's going to do that thing, no matter if it meanstrying sixty-seven times. It's the old maxim of 'Pike's Peak, or Bust,'which the emigrants across the great plains years ago used to paint ontheir wagon-tops. And generally they got there, too, remember, Rufus."
Then Elmer got up and took hold of the offending ax.
"Now, if you watch me you'll see just how I swing it, and bring it downin the exact spot I want to strike," he went on to say, after which hemade several strokes and the stubborn piece of oak that had resisted allthe efforts of Rufus to split it fell into two slabs.
"Well, that was certainly fine," admitted the boy, wonderingly; "butyou're an old hand at it, Elmer. I'd never be able to do that sort ofwork."
"Get that notion out of your head in the beginning, Rufus," he was told,sharply. "There's no reason in the wide world why you shouldn't make agood axman, perhaps even better than any of us. You're strongly built,and can put a heap of muscle in the work. At first you'll strike poorly,until you grow accustomed to landing on a given spot. Practice makesperfect in that particular. And now, there's one great lesson for you inchopping wood, just as there is for every beginner. Take a look at thestick, see which way it will split easiest; and then if there's a nastyknot in it, as there was in the one you tackled, strike the blade ofyour ax straight into the centre of that knot _again and again_, untilyou succeed in making it give up the ghost. Hit the knot, Rufus, and hithard! That ought to be a maxim you'd find ringing in your ears everytime you feel tempted to be a quitter!"
That last word stung, just as Elmer meant it should. Rufus flushed, andjumped to his feet almost half angrily.
"Here, give me that ax again, Elmer," he said between his set teeth;"and pick out for me the toughest old chunk of oak you can find. We'llsee if I'm a _quitter_. I'll hit the knot, and hit her hard, to boot;you watch me!"
Elmer hastened to accommodate him. He was secretly congratulatinghimself on his success so early in the game. It chanced that a secondfragment of oak lay near by, and offered a fairly good test, as it, too,had a difficult knot in its heart. He showed Rufus just how to take theright sort of grip on the ax, and several times corrected him when hestruck violently. Of course the blows lacked much of the accuracy thatlong practice gives, and thus considerable energy was wasted; but afterhe had been working away for five minutes, a lucky stroke caused thethick bit of oak to fall apart. It had been done by keeping up aconstant pounding at the centre of resistance, which in this case wasthat tough knot.
Rufus was perspiring, and short of breath after his exertion, but therewas a look of extreme pride on his flushed face, and his eyes kindledalso. Indeed, there was good reason for his self-congratulation; he hadproven to himself that "where there is a will there is a way"; andpossibly for the first time in his life Rufus realized the power thatone may command when determined not to give in.
"Well, I did do it, didn't I, Elmer?" he chuckled, visibly pleased. "Andnext time I won't be so ready to throw up the sponge. I was a little bithuffed because you spoke the way you did, Elmer, but now I thank you. Iwouldn't be surprised but that I'd have caught that big fly last summerinstead of muffing it, and losing the game for our side, if only I'dmade up my mind I _could_ hold it, and must."
"That's the ticket, Rufus," the other told him. "Confidence is half thebattle, and the rest is in doing it. But you've chopped enough for awhile; better change work and give some other set of muscles a chance toget busy."
"Now, that isn't a bad idea, either, Elmer," Rufus went on to say. "I'dlike to take a little turn out of camp before evening comes on, becausesomehow I seem to have a sneaking notion we'll run across one of thesurvey lines close by here. You see, they run down from the bluff acrossthat wide stretch of country toward the setting sun; and by pushingalong the ridge we ought to find a slashing."
"Well, if you can coax George, here, to go with you, Rufus," the patrolleader remarked, "I've no objections. I can understand how eager youmust be to get your location fixed in the start; and I expect you'llsleep easier tonight if you learn that our camp happens to be near oneof the survey lines."
George upon being appealed to readily agreed to go with the greenhorn.He knew why Elmer had made this arrangement; for as Rufus was quite anovice in most things pertaining to woodcraft, the chances were he wouldget lost the first thing. If given an opportunity, George, as afirst-class scout, could begin the education of the tenderfoot thusplaced in his charge; and the first lesson would be upon various methodsof learning how to make his way through the densest forest when caughtwithout a compass, and unable even to see the sun so as to know eastfrom the west, the north from the south.
So George took great pride in explaining how the moss on the trees wouldserve as an almost infallible guide, all else failing.
"You see, in this section of country nearly all the big storms come fromthe southwest," he told Rufus as they walked on. "The moss is almostalways on the north side of the trees, veering just a little towardnortheast. Notice that fact well, Rufus, and never forget it. Some timeit may save you heaps of trouble; I know it has me, and lots of otherscouts in the bargain."
Finding that the tenderfoot seemed to show considerable interest, Georgewent on to tell of other facts connected with the important subject.
"Now," he observed, soberly, "you may think I'm going to a lot oftrouble telling you all this, Rufus; but if ever you do get lost in thewoods, and keep wandering around for hours, and then have to make alonely camp, and sit up most of the night listening to the owls andfoxes and such things, why, you'll understand why it's so important athing in the education of a scout."
Meanwhile Lil Artha and Alec were trying their hands at the woodpile;for as the elongated scout explained to the Scotch lad, they would haveneed of considerable fuel during the long evening, as they sat by theirfire and talked.
Alec proved to have enough stamina, at least; there was a stubbornstreak in his Scotch blood that would never allow him to give up easily.Nevertheless, Lil Artha knew Alec had faults that must be correctedbefore he could reach that c
ondition of excellence that all true scoutsaspire to attain.
He had a hasty temper, like most red-haired, impulsive boys, and was,moreover, a little inclined to be cruel, especially toward dumb animals.Lil Artha, himself, had once been the same sort of a chap, and couldreadily sympathize with Alec; but at that he meant the other should seethe error of his ways, and reform. So the tall member of the Wolf Patroltook it upon himself to be a mentor; and who so well fitted for the taskas a boy who had had personal experience? No one can preach temperanceso splendidly as the man who, himself, has passed through the fire ofunbridled passions, and learned the folly of giving way to them.
Alec was particularly interested in the subject of the reversal of hisbadge. He had, of course, followed the customary habit of all scouts byfastening this to his coat in the morning in an upside-down position,until he found some opportunity for doing a good deed toward some one,which act allowed him to change its position.
"That was easy enough at home, d'ye mind, Lil Artha," he was saying, ashe rested upon his ax, and recovered his breath, "because a fellow wouldbe a gillie if he couldnae find mony a chance to do something for saesweet a bairn as our little Jessie. But it's going to be a harder taskaway up here in the wilderness, I trow."
"Oh! I don't know about that, Alec," the other told him, encouragingly."All you have to do is to keep your eyes about you. There are four chumsaround, and if at any time, for instance, you took a notion to do mystint of wood-chopping, that ought to entitle you to turn your badgeover, because it would be a good deed, you see."
Alec looked queerly at him, and then laughed.
"But it would be depriving you of your necessary exercise, Lil Artha,"he hastened to say, "and that I'd hate to do."
"Well, seriously speaking then, Alec, there are endless ways of doinggood. You needn't be confined to lending a helping hand to humanbeings; a boy who takes a stone out of the shoe of a limping mule isjust as much a benefactor as the one who helps a poor old woman across acrowded street, or carries her heavy basket part of the way home frommarket. I've bound up the broken wing of a crow; yes, and I knew a scoutwho even helped one of those queer little tumble-bugs get his ball up alittle rise, after he'd watched him fall back a dozen times, and thenclaim the right to alter his badge. The rest of the troop laughed athim, but the scout-master hushed them up, and said the boy was right;and that not only had he done a good deed toward one of the humblest ofcreated things, but he had learned a practical lesson in pertinacity andnever-give-upitiveness that would be of great value to him all the restof his life."
"Nae doot, nae doot," muttered the Scotch lad, reflectively, as thoughLil Artha's interesting words had found a firm lodgment in his heart. "Ican see where it is a verra interesting subject, this scoutcraft, LilArtha. And ye ken I'm mair than glad now I took up with it."
"And as you get to be more intimate with the little animals of thewoods," continued the experienced scout, "you come to like them asbrothers. We usually have a pet squirrel ducking about the camp, pickingup the crumbs; and birds will come, too, if you're kind to them. Allthose little things help to make an outing more enjoyable, you'll find,Alec, the deeper you dip into them."
Alec scratched his head as though he found it just a little difficult tounderstand; he had been raised under such vastly different conditionsthat it would take some time to change his habits, Lil Artha realized.Still, he liked the tenderfoot very much, and meant to do all he couldto make him see things through another pair of spectacles than those hehad used in the past.
Already his lessons in handling the ax had borne fruit, and Alec gavepromise of soon becoming an expert at the job. His success also gave thegreenhorn a new-born ambition to excel in other branches of scouteducation. Lil Artha did not believe he would have much trouble inposting Alec; getting him to govern his temper, and be kind toeverything that had life, would be another proposition; but constantassociation with such a fellow as Elmer Chenowith was bound to work achange little short of miraculous, Lil Artha had faith to believe; forhe knew personally what the patrol leader was able to accomplish in hisquiet, persistent way.
"After you've finished with that log, Alec," he told the other, "we'llstart our fire. I want to show you just how to go about that task,because there are a hundred things connected with making a fire thatyou'll find mighty interesting."
"Ye don't say, Lil Artha? I didna ken that there was more than one wayto start a blaze, which was to sticket a match to the paper, and let itgo at that."
The tall scout laughed delightedly. Really, he would find great pleasurein showing this greenhorn how many curious ways there were of starting afire. Lil Artha had made this a sort of fad for some time past; andwhile several tricks were still beyond his comprehension, he hadmastered a number of others; so that he could start into the woods minusa single match, or even a burning sun glass, and make a fire in any oneof five different ways.
"Oh! I can see where you've got a whole lot to learn, Alec," he told theother. "I'll promise to show you some interesting things while we're uphere in the Raccoon Bluff camp. For instance, I'll make a blaze byrubbing flint and steel together, like the old Indians used to docenturies back on this continent. Then I've a little trick with a coupleof sticks and some dry tinder to catch the spark."
"Ye maun show me that, for a certainty!" cried the other, "because I'veread of it in Robinson Crusoe, or some ither book of travel andadventure amang the islands of the sea."
"Oh! there are lots of other ways for doing it in the bargain," pursuedLil Artha, now upon his most favored subject. "You'll think it a mostfascinating thing, Alec, I promise you. And once you wake up to thefact that a scout can learn a thousand facts, if only he uses his eyesand his head, you'll be more than glad you joined the troop. Why, welive in a world of our own, and the poor ninnies outside don't haveone-tenth of the fun that falls to us."
"There come Rufus and George," remarked Alec. "They look unco' pleased,as if they had discovered the slashing they went to look for. I'm alittle interested in survey work mysel'. Rufus is clean crazy over it,too, and sometimes his fash is all aboot theodolites and chains andcompasses and the like. They told me he was lazy, but if ye seed himworkin' at the business he loved, ye'd know they leed, they leed."
Alec turned back to his work of splitting the log he had attacked.Already he had a wedge well driven into its heart. A few more lustyblows of the ax and he had opened another cleft further along, intowhich he was able, with Lil Artha's directions, to place a second wedge.After that it was easy to continue lengthening the split until with adoleful crack the log fell apart, having been cleft in twain.
"That will do for now, Alec," said Lil Artha. "You have done splendidlyfor your first real lesson in wood-chopping, and I can see with half aneye that you bid fair to beat us all at the game, given a little time,and more experience. You've got a great swing, and seem able to hit aspace the size of a dime, every time you let fall. That's half of thebattle in chopping, to be able to drive true to the mark; becausethere's energy wasted in false blows."
Alec looked pleased. A little praise judiciously bestowed is always agreat accelerator in coaxing reluctant boys to take up their taskscheerfully; and wise Lil Artha knew it.
Just then Alec happened to catch a glimpse of something moving amidstthe branches of the tree over his head. Lil Artha had turned aside, anddid not chance to notice what the other was doing, as the Scotch lad,stooping down, snatched up a stout cudgel, and hastily threw it aloft.
His aim must have been excellent, judging from the immediate results.Lil Artha heard him give a satisfied cry, which, however, almostimmediately changed to a howl of alarm. Whirling around, the tall scoutsaw something that might have amused him at another time, for itpossessed the elements of comedy rather than tragedy.
Alec in hurling that stick aloft must have succeeded in dislodging someanimal from its hold on the limb. The beast in falling had alightedfairly and squarely on the shoulders of the astonished Scotch boy, andgiven him a severe case of
fright. Lil Artha saw that it possessed along ringed tail, and hence he knew instantly that it was only aharmless raccoon, and not a fierce wildcat, as he had at first feared.