Adventures of Pudge

A CAMPING TRIP

Was it ever going to stop raining? Pudge and Dan had prevailed upon their parents to let them go on a camping trip by

themselves. They had borrowed an old, leaky boat from their friend, Phil and had rowed it, with their camping gear, to an

island in the middle of Miller’s Pond. All they had seen since they arrived the night before was the inside of the tent, and that

leaked.

They had rowed to the island right after supper and immediately set up the tent. It was a good thing that they did, it

started to rain as soon as they had the tent up and hadn’t let up all night. Now, it was long past daylight, and they were

hungry. They wanted to get up and cook breakfast, if they could get a fire started. Then they planned to go fishing. What a

way to end summer vacation!

“Why don’t we go fishing anyway, even if it is raining,” said Dan. “We can’t get any wetter than we are.”

“Good idea,” Pudge replied. “We can’t start a fire anyhow, and we can eat a couple of bananas for breakfast.”

Once the decision was made they crawled quickly out of the tent, closed it carefully, and made their way down an

embankment to the boat. Ten minutes of rowing took them to the head of the pond where Miller’s Creek entered. They had

been told this was the best place to catch bass. In a few minutes they both had worms on their hooks and lines in the water.

It wasn’t long before Pudge felt a tug on his line and was able to reel in a small bluegill.

“Keep it for bait,” Dan joked.

Pudge grinned sheepishly and threw the fish back into the water. “You just wait,” he retorted.

In the meantime, the rain had abated somewhat so the boys felt a bit more comfortable. Except for their feet; the bottom

of the boat had several inches of water in it in spite of their frequent bailing.

“Why does water always leak into a boat and not out?” grumbled Pudge. “With as many holes as this boat has we’re

never gonna have dry feet.”

The boys fished for another hour, each managing to catch several more small bluegills when they suddenly noticed it had

stopped raining.

“Let’s go back to camp and start a fire,” said Pudge. “I’m too hungry to fish any more.”

“Okay with me, we’re not catching anything anyway.”

Constantly bailing, they rowed back to camp. When they pulled into the bank they couldn’t see their tent, although it

should have been visible from where they landed. Rushing up the hill to their campsite they discovered, to their consternation

that the tent was no longer standing. Not only that, closer examination showed them there was a large hole in the sidewall.

“What’s happened here?” yelled Pudge. “It looks like someone’s been in our tent. Why didn’t they use the door?”

As they drew closer Pudge noticed that the tent seemed to be moving. “There’s something in the tent,” he cried.

As he spoke a large skunk poked its nose out of the hole and scampered off. Pudge and Dan held their breath, not

daring to breath until the animal was out of sight.

“Whew, that was close,” exclaimed Dan. “I’m glad we didn’t try to go into the tent while he was in it.”

Pudge replied, “I’ve had enough of this camping. Let’s go home.”

It took the boys only a few minutes to pack everything into the boat and leave the Island.