Green Mountain Boys

“ April 11th and 12th were blustery, and there was snow. A reaction of spirit took place among the brethren of the camp, or probably it would be more proper to say that another spirit came upon the camp—a spirit of great discontent. For a time it seemed as if it would break up the mission, but finally it was overcome, and all went well again.
On the 13th of April we set out on our journey, and went to Green River the first day, through rain and sleet part of the time. At Green River we found about thirty of the roughest kind of mountain men, engaged in drinking, gambling and carousing. ”

“ There is never any difficulty about filling in the idle time of the gang with these tribal activities, while there is no doubt that the rugged experiences of tramping, mountain climbing, and camp life, of hunting, fishing, and boating, with the almost infinite forms of manual training involved, wherever the boys do their own cooking and camp work, and care for their own rods, guns, and kits, afford one of the best, as it is one of the most natural, forms of manual education. There is, besides, for the city boy, a training in resourcefulness and gumption which he can hardly get elsewhere. ”

“ They appeared in no hurry, and under the mighty snow-covered shoulder of the mountain they moved along serenely, cropping the grass and from time to time skipping about playfully.
“Now!” shouted Mountain Jim suddenly.
Like one lad the three boys leaped to their feet. Four rifles cracked and two of the goats sprang into the air and crashed down again dead. Both Harry Ware and Persimmons had missed their marks. The goats wheeled in wild confusion. They snorted and snorted and mah-h-hed in a terrified manner. With a whoop Percy Simmons dashed toward them, yelling at the top of his voice. ”

“ In spite of his hurt Danny was getting interested. He crept up on the outer edge of the group and listened, wide-eyed, as the other boys eagerly accepted their several commissions.
"Roger and Ed," their leader was continuing, "bear south till you get below the drop of the cliff, and then separate and work that [Pg 22] territory between you"—with a sweeping gesture. "Alex and Biddie—let me see—you two go over the mountain to the right of Elsie—No, there's the Death Head trail—" He paused a moment in thoughtful survey of them, and the boys looked at each other apprehensively. ”

“ Next morning the camp slept late in spite of itself—that is, all save Lige Thomas. He was up with the sun, busying himself with getting the outfit ready for a prompt start.
At nine o'clock the guide routed them out, and the boys, after washing themselves in the cool, refreshing waters of a little mountain stream, announced themselves as ready to eat anything that might be placed before them. ”

“ BOY SCOUTS’ MOUNTAIN CAMP
Just so often as the reader draws a relieved breath at the escape of the Scouts from imminent danger, he loses it again in the instinctive impression, which he shares with the boys, of impending peril.
BOY SCOUTS FOR UNCLE SAM
Patriotism is a vital principle in every Boy Scout organization, but few there are who have such an opportunity for its practical expression as comes to the members of the Eagle Patrol. ”

“ THE BOY CHUMS IN THE FLORIDA JUNGLE;
or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard with the Seminole Indians.
The Broncho Rider Boys Series
By FRANK FOWLER
Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid A series of stirring stories for boys, breathing the adventurous spirit that lives in the wide plains and lofty mountain ranges of the great West. These tales will delight every lad who loves to read of pleasing adventure in the open; yet at the same time the most careful parent need not hesitate to place them in the hands of the boy. ”

“ Oftener than any other way he was some wild youth who, after an escapade in the society of his native place, sought safety from reproach or punishment in the wilderness. Or he was some disappointed man who, with feelings embittered towards his fellows, preferred the seclusion of the forest and mountain. Many were of a class disreputable everywhere, who gladly embraced a life not subject to social laws. A few were brave, independent, and hardy spirits, who delighted in the hardships and wild adventures their calling made necessary. ”

“ Rob, watching the ruffian at this innocent employment while the firelight played on his rough features, caught himself wondering what sort of childhood such a man could have had, and how he came to drift into his evil courses.
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“I’ll bet that the Boy Scout movement in big cities is keeping hundreds of lads out of mischief,” he thought, “and helping to make good men out of them. After all, or so dad says, most bad boys are only bad because they have no outlet but mischief for their high spirits.” ”

“ They can do stunts in the woods that probably would make you fellows green with envy if you could see them. If you were to come up there in the woods I expect that they would laugh at you behind your backs, just as you would laugh at them if they should come down here. As nearly as I can make out that seems to be the way with the world—to laugh at others who happen to be different in speech or ways or dress. You city boys call a country boy a rube and green just because his ways are different from your ways and he isn't wise to the things that you are. ”

“ It takes a great deal to hurt a rugged youth, who has no bad habits and is in sturdy training.
The active lad who had downed Jack when going at full speed, and nipped in the bud his brilliant attempt, was Fred Greenwood, only a few months younger. ”

“ The idea of Mountain Camp seems to please them."
"Goodness! I know dear Mrs. Littell doesn't feel that way about it," cried Betty.
"She's got girls," said Ted dryly. "You know it is us boys who are not appreciated in this world." ”

“ Jerry Hopkins for an instant or two was rather sorry he had urged the professor to continue on with him and his companions to Thunder Mountain. At first the scientist had planned to come only as far as Chicago with the boys, to get the benefit of riding in the open air.
But the trip from Cresville did him so much good and he seemed so happy at being back with his young friends and so glad of the chance to collect specimens, that Jerry had said:
“Why not come all the way to Montana with us? We shall be in the open air most of the time. ”

“ But such strenuous life proves the mettle of the right kind of young Americans. So, far from being discouraged, or sighing for the comforts of home, we next find our lads in Nevada, as related in "The Pony Rider Boys on the Alkali." Here they left grass behind for the glaring discomforts of the baked desert lands, where severe thirst was one of the least yet most constant perils. Roving from water hole to water hole, finding them all gone dry, nearly drove the youngsters mad. ”

“ Tinny, as he guided his car along the mountain trail.
“We thought we had,” Ned remarked. “We hoped so, anyhow.”
“And they were watching us all the while!” ejaculated Jerry regretfully. “They just sneaked along and took the second section.”
“Well, he’d better not try any of his tricks out here,” threatened Tinny Mallison. “We don’t stand for any nonsense in Thunder Mountain. Of course, every man has his rights, and Noddy Nixon will be entitled to his. But if he starts anything that he can’t finish it will be all up with him.” ”

“ Few, indeed, are possessed of such sterling qualities, and it is only those who are that make real heroes.
But, as we have already stated, and the majority of our readers know, Young Wild West was a genuine boy hero of the Wild West, and that is only saying the truth. ”

“ He has learned to love nature, and to delight in his own handiwork. To walk in the woods, to climb mountains, to own the little camp which succeeds to the place in his affections once occupied by the rude, gang-built hut, to travel,—these are among the permanent satisfactions of life. If we except the group of instincts which lead the young man to found a family of his own, and to which, at the gang age, the boy should be a complete stranger, the tribal instincts of boyhood, wisely gratified and trained, are probably the greatest single factor in a happy life. ”

“ A youth in the situation of Fred Greenwood cannot reason clearly, even though he be right in his main conclusions. He had settled into the belief that Motoza, the Sioux, had determined to subject him to a lingering death through starvation; and yet if it were he—as undoubtedly it was—who rolled the boulder into the canyon, it indicated a wish to put the most sudden end possible to his existence. ”

“ They are yet in the Minnesota penitentiary at Stillwater. Jesse and Frank James were more fortunate; although so closely pressed that a hundred times they could see and hear the voices of their pursuers, yet they were not discovered. Day and night the James Boys continued their flight, unable to cook anything, subsisting on green corn and raw potatoes; never daring to show their faces, swimming streams, and confining their route to the least accessable sections of country. ”

“ Every boy will have a share in the work and be expected to do his level best in keeping the camp tidy, doing the chores, and, in fact, whatever is given into his charge.
“Mr. Rowland, who will have entire charge of the athletic proceedings, has arranged a splendid series of events that he expects will create a healthy rivalry among many of the boys who are now with us. Prizes will be given to those who excel in nature study, photography, swimming, diving, rowing, life-saving feats, woodcraft, and a number of other things along the same lines. ”

“ If it had been hard traveling by daylight through the forest, it was doubly difficult to make their way by night. But Jim appeared to possess in a superlative degree that wonderful sense of location peculiar to persons who have passed their lives in the great silent places of the earth. It has been noted by travelers that a young Indian boy, who has apparently not noted in the slightest the course followed on a hunting expedition into the great woods, has been able, without any apparent mental effort, to guide back to camp the party of which he formed a member. ”

“ I worked in a lumber camp for a year, and after you've been with a gang like that for a while, you'll understand the difference between them and college fellows. Those boys are bad eggs. They just haven't any morals, that's all. They turn into beasts every pay night; and bad as some of our college parties are, they aren't a circumstance to a lumber town on pay night. ”

“ It must not be supposed that the Black Boy is a house where villains of this breed meet and arrange their midnight maraudings, or that it is even a likely place for a desperado fleeing from the huntsmen of Scotland Yard to seek and find safe harbourage until the ill-wind has blown over, and the huntsmen are put off the scent. ”

“ The elder boys had to attend all; the younger were excused the evening practice. As far as I know, we have no such severe training now. Mr. Young likes to get his boys at eight; for two years, although they wear surplices, they do not sing. The sixteen boys receive free education, and board, pocket-money, and a present of £10 when their voices break. The younger boys are called "choristers," and wear surplices. The four senior boys are called "Burgersh-chanters," and wear black cassocks of a peculiar shape. In the town they are familiarly known as "black boys." ”

“ Of course, they might be trivial sights to these scouts, some of whom had actually been across the ocean; traveled to Mexico, and visited at the great Panama-Pacific Exposition on the Coast; but, then, like most boys, he felt that it was up to him to do the honors to the best of his ability.
So Rob and the others looked upon the high school with its campus; heard about the doings of the football team, and the baseball nine that represented Wyoming in the league; were shown the various mills and factories upon which the stability of Wyoming rested ”

“ Boys who start on such whimsical careers are never rightly prepared, and have no conception of the absurdity of their schemes until it is forced upon them by sad and woeful experience.
"Are you looking for any one?" asked the agent; respectfully.
"Yes, sir," replied Jack Dudley; "we are on our way to a ranch which lies to the eastward of Camp Brown, not far from Wind River."
"May I ask your errand thither?"
"My father is part owner of the ranch, and we wish to visit it for a few weeks."
"Ah, you are the young men that Hank Hazletine was asking about yesterday. He has charge of Bowman's ranch." ”

“ THE HICKORY RIDGE BOY SCOUTS
A Series of Books for Boys By Capt. Alan Douglas, Scout-master
The Campfires of the Wolf Patrol
Their first camping experience affords the scouts splendid opportunities to use their recently acquired knowledge in a practical way. Elmer Chenoweth, a lad from the northwest woods, astonishes everyone by his familiarity with camp life. A clean, wholesome story every boy should read.
Woodcraft; or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good
This tale presents many stirring situations in which the boys are called upon to exercise ingenuity and unselfishness. ”

“ When boys are very happy they think they must be doing wrong, and in a wood, of which they are among the natural inhabitants, they always take flight from the enemy, adults, if given time. For my own part, when I see a boy drop from a tree I am as little surprised as if he were an apple or a nut. But Gavin was startled, picturing these spies handing in the new sensation about him at every door, as a district visitor distributes tracts. The gypsy noted his uneasiness and resented it. ”