Woodland Tales Part 22

Aim or Limb-control

Take 25 medium-sized potatoes, and set up a bucket or bag whose mouth is round and exactly one foot across. Draw a line exactly 10 feet from the bucket or bag. Toe that line, and throw the potatoes, one by one, into the bag. Those that go in, then bounce out, are counted as in. Do it four times, then add up all the four totals of those that went in; that gives your _aim_ or _control_ number.

For example, suppose that in the 4 tries you got 10 in the first time, 15 in the second, 20 in the third, 19 in the fourth. Add these together, it gives your arm-control or _aim_ number as 64.

Now add up all these high numbers:

Farsight 88 Quicksight 50 Hearing 50 Feeling 84 Quickness 80 Guessing Length 82 Aim 64

Your aliveness number is 498

But very few can score so high. If you can score 400 you are surely alive; you can see like a hawk, you can take in at a glance, you can hear like an owl, you can feel like a blind man, you are quick as a cat, you are a good judge of size, and you can aim true; That is, you are as _alive as an Indian_.

TALE 92

A Treasure Hunt

Make 24 little white sticks, each about three inches long, and as thick as a pencil. They are easy to make of willow shoots, after the bark is peeled off. While the young folk hide their eyes, the Guide walks off in the woods, ties a white rag on a tall stake or limb, for the point of beginning. Then, one step apart and in a very crooked line, sets each of the little white sticks in the ground, standing straight up. Under the last stick should be buried the treasure; usually a stick of chocolate.

This the players are to find by following the sticks.

When the young folk get used to it, the line should be longer, the sticks farther apart, and the last one may be ten steps from the last but one.

When they are well trained at it, sc.r.a.ps of paper, white beans, corn, or even chalk marks on trees, instead of sticks, will serve for trail; and still later holes prodded in the ground with a sharp pointed cane will do.

This game can be played in the snow; in which case, the track of the Guide, when he hides the treasure, takes the place of the sticks.

Finally it makes a good game for indoors on a rainy day. In which case we use b.u.t.tons, corn, or sc.r.a.ps of white cotton for trail sticks. Of course the trail now should be upstairs and down, and as long and crooked as possible.

TALE 93

Moving Pictures

One of the best developers of imagination is the Moving Picture.

Sometimes called Pantomime, or Dumb-show which means all signs without sounds.

The one who is to put on the "movie" is given a subject and must then stand out on the stage or Council Ring, and carry all the story to the spectators, without using any sound and with as few accessories as possible.

The "print between the reels" is supplied by the Guide who simply announces what is needed to explain.

The following subjects have been used successfully (unless otherwise stated they are for one actor each):

Miss m.u.f.fet and the Spider--the well-known Nursery Rhyme Old Mother Hubbard Little Jack Horner Mary and her Little Lamb Red Ridinghood--walk through the woods, meeting the wolf, etc.

Robinson Crusoe--finding the track of a man in the sand A Barber Shop--shaving a customer (two actors) The Man's First Speech at a Dinner The Politician who was rotten-egged after vainly trying to control a meeting Joyride in a Ford Car--ending in a bad upset (two actors) The Operation--a scene in a hospital following the accident (two or more) The Professor of Hypnotism and His Subject (two actors) The Man who Found a Hair in His Soup The Young Lady Finds a Purse, on opening it a mouse jumps out and she remembers that it is 1st of April A Young Man Telephoning to His Best Girl A Man Meeting and Killing a Rattlesnake Lighting a Lamp Drawing a Cork Looking for a Lost Coin--finding it in one pocket or shoe A Musician Playing His Own Composition The Sleeping Beauty and the Prince (two actors) Goldilocks and the Three Bears William Tell and the Apple (best rendered in caricature with a pumpkin and two actors) Eliza Crossing the Ice The Kaiser Signing His Abdication The Judgment of Solomon (three actors) Brutus Condemning His Two Sons to Death.

TALE 94

A Natural Autograph Alb.u.m

If you live in the country, I can show you an old Woodcraft trick. Look for a hollow tree. Sometimes you can pick one out afar, by the dead top, and sometimes by noting a tree that had lost one of the biggest limbs years ago. In any case, ba.s.swoods, old oaks and chestnuts are apt to be hollow; while hickories and elms are seldom so, for once they yield to decay at all, they go down.

Remember that every hollow tree is a tenement house of the woods. It may be the home of a score of different families. Some of these, like Birds and Bats, are hard to observe, except at nesting time. But the fourfoots are easier to get at. For them, we will arrange a visitors' book at the foot of the tree, so that every little creature in fur will write his name, and some pa.s.sing thought, as he comes to the tree.

How?

Oh, it is simple; I have often done it. First clear and level the ground around the tree for three or four feet; then cover it with a coat of dust, ashes, or sand--whichever is easiest to get; rake and brush it smooth; then wait over one night.

Next morning--most quadrupeds are night-walkers--come back; and you will find that every creature on four feet that went to the tree tenement-house has left us its trail; that is its track or trace.

No two animals make the same trail, so that every Squirrel that climbed, every 'c.o.o.n or 'Possum, every Tree-mouse, and every Cottontail that went by, has clearly put himself on record without meaning to do so; and we who study Woodcraft can read the record, and tell just who pa.s.sed by in the night.

TALE 95

The Crooked Stick

Once upon a time there was a girl who was very anxious to know what sort of a husband she should get; so, of course, she went to the old wood-witch.

The witch asked a few questions, then said to the girl: "You walk straight through that woods, turn neither to right nor left, and never turn back an inch, and pick me out a straight stick, the straighter the better; but pick only one, and bring it back."

So the girl set out. Soon she saw a fine-looking stick close at hand; but it had a slight blemish near one end, so she said: "No; I can do better than that." Then she saw another that was perfect but for a little curve in the middle, so she pa.s.sed it by.

Thus she went, seeing many that were nearly perfect; but walking on, seeking one better, till she was quite through the woods. Then she realized her chances were nearly gone; so she had to take the only stick she could find, a very crooked one indeed, and brought it to the witch, saying that she "could have got a much better one had she been more easily satisfied at the beginning."

The witch took the stick, waved it at the girl and said: "then this is your fortune; _through the woods and through the woods and out with a crooked stick_. If you were less hard to please, you would have better luck; but you will pa.s.s many a good man by, and come out with a crooked stick."

Maybe some of our Woodcraft girls can find an initiation in this. Put it just as the witch did it, but let it be considered a success if the stick is two feet long and nowhere half an inch out of true line. Let me add a Woodcraft proverb which should also have its mead of comfort--The Great Spirit can draw a straight line with a crooked stick.

TALE 96

The Animal Dance of Nana-bo-jou

For this we need a Nana-bo-jou; that is, a grown-up who can drum and sing. He has a drum and drumstick, and a straw or paper club; also two goblins, these are good-sized boys or girls wearing ugly masks, or at least black hoods with two eyeholes, made as hideous as possible; and any number of children, from three or four up, for animals. If each has the marks, colours, etc., of some bird or beast, so much the better.

First, Nana-bo-jou is seen chasing the children around the outside of the circle, trying to catch one to eat; but failing, thinks he'll try a trick and he says: "Stop, stop, my brothers. Why should we quarrel?

Come, let's hold a council together and I will teach you a new dance."

The animals whisper together and the Coyote comes forward, barks, then says:

"Nana-bo-jou, I am the Coyote. The animals say that they will come to council if you will really make peace and play no tricks."

"Tricks!" says Nana-bo-jou, "I only want to teach you the new songs from the South."