Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

1 86 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT—;It is hard on a fellow's nerves, I say, to hearthose dogs coming toward him, and to know fromthe racket that a bear is certainly ahead of them, but7iot to know w^here or when the' brute may emerge,nor what infernal trees or thickets and downwoodmay be in the way. Can you hit him ? That is thqquestion. The honor of the camp is on your shoulders.Ah, me ! it is easy to follow the pack on horseback—tochase after something that is running away.But to sit here clenching your teeth while at anymoment a hard-pressed and angry bear may burstout of the thicket and find you in his way—noth^ing but you between him and near-by freedomgentlemen, it tests nerve!Buck ague is not the effect of fear. In fact, fearhas nothing to do with it. It is a tremor and a gallopingof the heart that comes from over-anxietylest you should fail to score. Precisely the sameseizure may come upon you on the target range.That is the only place that I ever experienced it.There is no telling when it may strike. I haveknown seasoned sportsmen to be victimized by it.Yet, when the critical moment does come, it oftenturns out that the man who has been shaking likea leaf from pent-up anxiety suddenly grows cold andsteady as a rock. Especially is this apt to be thecase when a fighting beast comes suddenly in view.Instantly the man's primeval instincts are arousedhis fighting blood comes to the surface ; the spirit ofsome warrior ancestor (dead, maybe, these thousandyears) possesses and sways your mild-eyed modernman, and he who trembled but a moment ago nowleaps into the combat with a wild joy playing onhis heart strings.