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The Boy Scouts in a Trapper's Camp
By Thornton W. Burgess
Author of "The Boy Scouts of Woodcraft Camp", "The Boy Scouts on SwiftRiver", "The Boy Scouts on Lost Trail"
Illustrated by F. A. Anderson
The Penn PublishingCompany Philadelphia
COPYRIGHT1915BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
To W. H. T., A lover of the open, and his three boys, this book is affectionately dedicated
HE SAW SOMETHING MOVE]
Introduction
To those who have read the preceding volumes in this series, "The BoyScouts of Woodcraft Camp," "The Boy Scouts on Swift River," and "The BoyScouts on Lost Trail," some of the characters in the present volume willbe familiar. To me they are old friends in whose struggles andadventures I have taken the keenest personal interest.
In this, the fourth and concluding volume, I have endeavored to portrayin some small measure the life of the trapper who in solitude andloneliness pits his skill against the cunning of the fur-bearers, andhis courage and fortitude against the forces of Nature in her harshestand most relentless mood; to bring to my young readers a sense of themystery of the great life eternal that broods over the wilderness to aneven greater degree when its waters are fettered in ice, and its wasteplaces wrapped in snow than when it rejoices in its summer verdure; toshow that the standards a man or a boy sets for himself are as bindingupon him in remote places where none may see as in the midst of hisfellow men; and lastly to demonstrate what a powerful factor in thedevelopment of character and true manhood are the oath and law of theBoy Scouts of America when subscribed to in sincerity andconscientiously observed.
Man or boy is never so true to himself as when in intimate contact withnature. Adventures such as herein described may not fall to your lot,oh, boy reader, but be assured that whenever you heed the call of theRed Gods and hit the long trail you will find adventure of a degreeawaiting you, and you will return stronger physically and mentally forhaving come in closer contact with the elemental forces which we termnature.