By a peculiar17 optical effect produced by the angle of light in a dead calm at that time of the day, floating objects appeared magnified to many times their actual size, so that a launch some two miles distant, whose rapid put-put had drawn18 their attention when they first stepped from the train, appeared to be less than half that distance away.
Big Jim looked at it long and steadily19, shading his eyes with a big hand.
“Thet’s ‘Woodcraft Girl’ all right,” he said, “and I reckon they’re comin’ down fer us. Yer make yerself t’ home, son, while I run back up yonder t’ th’ hotel and rastle up some grub. We’ll be some hungry before we reach camp if I don’t.”
Walter seated himself on the end of the pier20 and drank in the beauty of the exquisite21 scene. Alongside a little mail boat was getting up steam, her crew busily stowing away express packages and supplies of all kinds for the various camps and hotels scattered22 along the lake. Half a dozen passengers were already aboard. Two Adirondack skiffs, each pulled [28] by a brawny23 guide, a fisherman lolling at ease in the stern, were just setting out for the fishing grounds. All was hustle24 and activity, in strange contrast with the quiet lake and the majestic25 calm of the mountains.
In a few minutes Big Jim returned with some sandwiches, which they promptly26 disposed of while they waited for the approaching launch. It was now near enough for Walter to make out the blue pennant27 with the magic words “Woodcraft Camp” fluttering at the bow, and a moment later there came a joyous28 hail of “Oh, you Jim!” from the figure in the bow, followed by a wild waving of a small megaphone.
“Oh, you Bob!” bellowed29 the big guide, swinging his hat.
The launch drew in rapidly and was deftly30 laid alongside. From it sprang two young fellows of seventeen or eighteen, in olive khaki trousers, flannel31 shirts and soft-brimmed hats, who straightway fell upon Walter’s companion and pounded and thumped32 him and shook both hands at once, and were pounded and thumped in return.
When their somewhat noisy demonstration33 [29] was over the one whom Jim had called Bob turned to Walter and held out his hand. “Guess your name is Upton, isn’t it?” he inquired with a pleasant smile. “My name is Seaforth, and this is Louis Woodhull, the best fellow in Woodcraft Camp. Dr. Merriam sent us down to look for you, but I see you were already in good company. The doctor was some worried for fear you might have missed connections at Upper Chain, but if he’d known that you were trailing in company with this old son of the backwoods his mind would have been easy. Jim, you great big stick of seasoned timber, it sure does a fellow good to look at you. Stow this young fellow and the duffle in the launch while I get the mail and do some errands, and we’ll be off. The whole camp’s a-looking for you, though they don’t expect you till to-morrow. You’re sure needed. Ed Mulligan is guiding over on Big Moose and won’t be with us this year, but his younger brother, Tom, is taking his place, and I guess he’ll make good.”
Bob’s errands were soon done, the supplies, duffle and mail pouch35 stowed away in the [30] launch, and her nose pointed36 down the lake. Bob took the wheel, while Louis ran the engine. Walter was up forward, “to be properly impressed,” as Bob put it. And if that was really the object in giving him the best post of observation, its success left nothing to be desired.
With eager eyes he drank in the wonderful panorama37 constantly unfolding—as the launch sped swiftly over the lake. Here the lake was less than half a mile wide, then abruptly38 it opened up great bays which made it more than twice that width from shore to shore. How he longed to explore those bays and coves40! Two big summer hotels on commanding bluffs41 were passed, showing but little life as yet, for the season had not fairly opened. On rocky points, or half hidden in sheltering coves, he caught glimpses of summer “camps,” most of them built of logs, but in many cases little short of palatial42, and the boy’s lips curled with scorn at this travesty43 of wealth upon the simple life. Gradually the camps became fewer and farther apart until only an occasional lean-to or a tent now and then, clinging on the very edge of the forest, was evidence of man’s [31] invasion, and Walter felt that now in truth he was entering the wilds.
From the good-natured chaff44 and talk of his companions he gathered that Big Jim had been chief guide at Woodcraft Camp ever since this famous school in the woods had been started, and that the two young men had been among his earliest pupils. With eager ears he drank in their talk of fish and lures45, of deer, rifles and hunting lore39. Occasionally, as they skirted an island or ran around a sunken reef, one or another would recall a famous catch of bass46 or a big laker taken there.
Of the two young men, Seaforth was the more talkative. He was dark, with sparkling black eyes and a merry, likable face, which, for all its irrepressible good-humor, had in it a strength and purpose which denoted a solid foundation of character. He was broad-shouldered, deep-chested, finely-developed, a splendid type of young American manhood.
His chum was rather slight in build, but wiry, with light hair and a rather thin, clean, serious face which gave the impression of tremendous nervous energy habitually47 under control. He took but little part in the [32] conversation, but his quiet smile at the sallies between Bob and the guide was of a peculiarly winsome48 sweetness. His slight reserve drew rather than repelled49 Walter, who instinctively50 felt that the friendship of Louis Woodhull was something well worth the winning.
They had now come some twelve miles down the lake, and presently Bob pointed out a long pier jutting51 out from the eastern shore, and beyond it, just to the left of a giant pine, a flagstaff from which Old Glory was fluttering limply in the light breeze just beginning to ripple the surface of the lake.
“There you are, Upton, your first glimpse of Woodcraft,” he said. “I hope you’ll——”
But what he hoped Walter never knew. A shrill52 “Hy-i-i-i-i! We want that tenderfoot!” cut him short, as a canoe manned by two youngsters of about Walter’s own age shot out from an island the launch was just passing. Both boys were in trunks and jerseys53 and paddling like mad to intercept55 the launch. Suddenly the one in the stern caught sight of the guide. For an instant he stopped paddling, while a look of pleased surprise passed over his face, and then with a wild yell of [33] “Jim, oh, you Jim!” he redoubled his efforts.
Seaforth put the wheel over to port a couple of spokes56. “No you don’t, Billy!” he called with a grin. “This boat carries Uncle Sam’s mail, and it can’t stop to pick up tows.”
“Aw, Louis, slow her down, won’t you?” begged Billy.
Louis smiled good-naturedly; but the engine slowed down not a bit.
“Ta-ta,” called Bob. “The Indian attack is foiled, Billy. I’m ashamed of you! Your paddling is abominable57. Where’s that new stroke that’s going to win the championship? See you later.”
And then it happened. One moment two boys were frantically58 digging up the water with their paddles and the next a canoe was floating bottom up, one boy white-faced and frightened, clinging to the bow, and the other, with a malicious59 grin on his freckled60 face, swimming at the stern.
The instant it happened Seaforth put the wheel hard over and, describing a short circle, headed for the canoe. Walter’s heart had been in his mouth, but the others seemed not [34] a bit disturbed. Louis stopped the launch, and while the guide righted and emptied the canoe, he and Seaforth hauled the victims aboard.
“You little beggar!” growled61 Bob as he grabbed Billy by the slack of his jersey54, “I’ve a mind to duck you until you howl for mercy. You did that purposely.”
Billy grinned. “You didn’t suppose I was going to let you land Big Jim and I not be there, did you?” he asked.
“That’s all right, Billy, but this is going to be reported,” broke in Louis.
“Don’t, please don’t, Louis,” begged the culprit.
“Sorry, son, but it’s got to be. We love you, Billy, and because we love you we’re going to report. You addle-pated little scamp, when will you ever learn that whatever risks a man may run himself he has no right to involve others in danger? How did you know that Allen there would be able to take care of himself, plunged62 unexpectedly into the water? He’s been in camp only three days, so what did you know of his powers of resource? No, my son, we hate to tell tales, but we’ve a duty to you to perform, so prepare to pay the penalty.”
[35] The launch was now once more under way with the canoe in tow. Walter was duly introduced to the penitent63 Billy and his victim, Harry64 Allen, like himself a new recruit and therefore a tenderfoot.
Several boys had gathered on the pier to size up any newcomers the launch might bring, and Walter felt himself the target for a battery of eyes. The ordeal65 was light, however, compared with what it would have been at nightfall or earlier in the day, for it was now nine o’clock and the boys were largely scattered in the duties and pursuits of camp life.
As the launch was made fast Billy whispered, “Here comes Dr. Merriam; isn’t he a peach?”
Walter looked up with just a little feeling of awe66 to see the man of whom he had heard so much—a scientist, explorer, author and lecturer, honored by many scientific societies and institutions of learning both at home and abroad, and now content to bury himself in the north woods as the founder67 and head of the most unique school in the world—a school with a purpose which was, as he himself whimsically expressed it, “to make big men of little boys.”
[36] Woodcraft Camp was the outgrowth of years of study and observation of boy life and the needs of the tremendous army of youth annually68 turned loose upon the country for three months of idleness and mischief69. It was, in effect, a vacation school, so cleverly masked in the guise70 of a camp that probably not one among the pupils, save a few of the older boys, recognized it as such. Its courses were manliness71, self-reliance, physical and mental health, strength of character, simplicity72 of desire and love of nature. The curriculum embraced all forms of athletic73 sports, swimming, canoeing, fishing, shooting, forestry74, the rudiments75 of civil engineering, woodcraft in all its branches from the pitching of a tent or building of a lean-to to the cooking of a good meal, the shooting of a rapid and the way to live off of the country in an unknown wilderness.
Botany, ornithology76, the rudiments of physiology77, as taught by a knowledge of first aid to the injured—all these things and more were taught, while the boys, all unconscious that they were being systematically78 trained and developed, thought only of the jolly good times they were having. Timid, nervous, [37] under-developed youngsters entering the camp at the beginning of the summer vacation went forth34 to their studies in the fall brown, hearty79, well muscled and with a quiet confidence in themselves and their own abilities to do things which won immediate80 recognition among their fellows. And not one among them but held in the secret places of his heart as his ideal in life the man whom Walter now saw approaching with a quick, elastic81 step.
He was about fifty years of age, medium height, thin, but sinewy82, a human dynamo of nervous energy. He was clean shaven, slightly gray at the temples, with firm, square jaw83, rather large mouth, prominent nose and eyes which seemed to see all things at once yet from which a smile seemed ever ready to leap forth. It was far from a handsome face, save in the beauty of strength, but was a face to love, a face once seen never to forget.
It was now all alight with pleasure at the sight of Big Jim. The guide leaped forward to meet the doctor, and in the greeting there was plainly evident a mutual84 respect and liking85 between these men, so far apart in the social scale, yet beneath the veneer86 produced by [38] circumstance, so closely bound in a common brotherhood87.
Turning from the guide the doctor held out his hand to Walter. “Upton,” he said with a kindly88 smile, “let me welcome you as a member of Woodcraft Camp. Buxby,” turning to Billy, “you show Upton the way to Wigwam No. 1 and where to stow his duffle and wash up. By the way, Buxby, you and your canoe look pretty wet. Have an accident?” Then without waiting for Billy’s reply he added, “You may police camp for the remainder of the day, Buxby. Carelessness and recklessness are equally reprehensible89, and neither should ever go unpunished. Upton, please report at my office in an hour. Buxby will show you where it is.”
“And I never said a word; you can’t fool the doctor,” whispered Woodhull to the discomfited90 Billy, as the latter stooped to lift a package from the launch.
Billy made a wry91 face and then, good-naturedly shouldering Walter’s duffle bag, started up the trail toward a long log cabin.
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收听单词发音
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1
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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counterfeited
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| v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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5
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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8
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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15
devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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16
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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17
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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21
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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25
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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pennant
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| n.三角旗；锦标旗 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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29
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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31
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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32
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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36
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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37
panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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38
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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39
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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40
coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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41
bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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42
palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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43
travesty
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| n.歪曲，嘲弄，滑稽化 | |
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44
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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45
lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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46
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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47
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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48
winsome
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| n.迷人的，漂亮的 | |
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49
repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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50
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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51
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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52
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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53
jerseys
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| n.运动衫( jersey的名词复数 ) | |
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54
jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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55
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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56
spokes
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| n.（车轮的）辐条( spoke的名词复数 )；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 | |
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57
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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58
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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59
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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60
freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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62
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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63
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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64
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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65
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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66
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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67
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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68
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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69
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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70
guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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71
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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72
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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73
athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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74
forestry
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| n.森林学；林业 | |
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75
rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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76
ornithology
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| n.鸟类学 | |
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77
physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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78
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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79
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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80
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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81
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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82
sinewy
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| adj.多腱的，强壮有力的 | |
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83
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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84
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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85
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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86
veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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87
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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88
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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89
reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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90
discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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91
wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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