Bob Hunt in Canada

"Hey there, Pud. Come here," yelled Bill Williams one day late in May to Pud Jones, as the latter sauntered across the athletic field.

"I'm coming," said Pud, as he rushed across, and grabbing Bill by the shoulders slammed him up against the fence around the track.

"What do you think this is?" asked Bill. "A football game, or do you take me for a tackling dummy?"

"Well, some kind of a dummy," replied Pud, as he held Bill so firmly that he could not get at him to punch his head.

"That'll do, you big rhinoceros," said Bill, as Pud released him.

"What's the news?" said Pud.

"I've just had a letter from Bob Hunt and he wants us to go up to Canada with him to a fishing and hunting camp there," said Bill.

"That would be fun but I don't know whether my father would let me go or not. He's been talking about having me work this summer," said Pud.

"Well, you see what you can do with your father and I'll get after mine," replied Bill. "I rather think that I won't have much trouble as father was saying just the other day that he thought the open air life was the only thing for a boy in the summer."

"All fathers think that, but some of them want to have us around during the summer," said Pud, rather gloomily for him.

"Yes, I've noticed that oftentimes they make cheap chauffeurs out of us," said Bill. "They tell us they cannot spare us during the summer and then make us drive them around at all hours. That's quite a snap for them, I think, but it doesn't get us any place."

"You're right," assented Pud. "I had a very poor time last summer for my family was always having me drive them some place where I did not want to go. They couldn't see that I would much rather get out on a lot in the hot sun and have a game of ball than take the finest drive there is."

"You ought to have been at Pontiac last year. We had a great time. There was something doing every minute," said Bill.

"Yes, I heard that you had a great summer," said Pud. "How did you get along without Bob as a pitcher?"

"We certainly missed him as he was a whole team by himself," said Bill. "That's one reason why I would like to go to Canada with Bob, for I haven't seen him since two summers now, and I would like to spend another summer with him."

"So would I," said Pud. "Whereabouts in Canada does Bob want to go?"

"Wait," said Bill, pulling a letter out of his pocket. "I'll read you what he says. Here it is: 'Father wants me to go up to a camp in Canada called Camp Tadousac. It is situated east of the Saguenay River and there is some wonderful fishing to be had there. I've decided to go and I hope that your father will let you come along. It will be a new experience for us. This camp has no permanent quarters but the members go from one part of the country to the other and live out of doors all the time. They use shelter tents sometimes but often they will be away for a week with only one's pack and sleeping bag as protection against the weather. I'm eager to try it for father says that it is fine sport. He's been up in that country and says it is a sportsman's paradise. He was farther west in the Lake St. John region, but it should be even better farther east. So, Bill, get busy. Talk it up with father and write me that you'll be with me.' That sounds good, don't it?" concluded Bill.

"It 'listens' very well," said Pud. "But, don't you let Professor Gary hear you say 'Don't it' again or you'll get into trouble."

"Doesn't it. Doesn't it, you boob," said Bill impatiently. "Mr. Shields told us a good one this morning about a boy who would write 'I have wrote' instead of 'I have written.' The teacher kept him in after school one day and made him write it out one hundred times. The teacher was called from the room and the boy got through his task. He waited a few minutes but as the teacher did not return, the boy wrote a note as follows. 'Dear Teacher, I have wrote "I have written" one hundred times. You have not came back so I have went home.'"

"Ha, ha, ha!" roared Pud. "That's a good one, but to get down to cases, are you really going up to Canada with Bob?"

"I am if I can get father and mother to let me go," replied Bill.

"Well, I'll see what I can do, for I think that a month or six weeks up in those Canadian woods would make me real husky."

"You, real husky," said Bill in a commiserating tone. "I suppose that you're not as hard as nails and nearly two hundred pounds in weight. Now, don't get in wrong at home by telling them that you would like to go to Canada to get husky. That would be no reason at all for you to go there. Tell them anything you like but that."

"I'll see them to-night and let you know to-morrow," said Pud.

The two boys then separated, Pud to go in to get his baseball suit and Bill to go out to the diamond, as he already had his suit on. Both boys were members of the school team. Bill was now the best player in the school, having made quite a reputation in scholastic circles as a pitcher. He was the captain of the team, which shows better than anything else how he had developed since first we met at Camp Pontiac's Junior camp.

Pud was waiting for Bill the next morning at the school gate.

"I'm going, I'm going!" cried Pud, as soon as Bill appeared.

"That's fine," said Bill in rather a gloomy tone.

"What's the matter?" asked Pud. "Don't they want you to go?"

"I'm not sure," said Bill. "Father is willing, but mother is making a big fuss. She's almost as bad as she was before I went to Pontiac."

"Gee, that's bad. I don't think they'll let me go unless you go," said Pud, and he too looked as if he had just lost his best friend.

"I'll just bet that your father persuades your mother to let you go," said Pud. "He did the other time, you know."

"Yes, that's so, but he told me as we walked down to school this morning that there really was some danger in such a trip as we planned and that he did not feel that he should persuade mother to let me go. He said that if he did and then something happened that he wouldn't have an excuse," said Bill.

"That's so," said Pud in a hopeless voice. "I guess it's all off, then, and I was counting on having such a fine summer."

"It's not all off. I'll have a chance to talk to mother this afternoon and I'll show her why she should let me go," said Bill.

"It's not so dangerous, is it?" asked Pud.

"No, of course not," replied Bill. "Mr. Waterman, the head of the camp, told me that he was always careful and that unless one got careless or foolhardy that there was little real danger. He said that they got tipped over now and then and were sometimes temporarily lost, but that these things only lent spice to the summer and were the things remembered in after years."

"He's right," said Pud. "Well, I hope that you can get your mother on your side for my parents did not raise any objections."

"It's going to help me tell mother that you're going and that your father and mother are contented about it. I'll bring her round all right."

"I hope you do," said Pud, as they separated to go to their classes.