The American Spectator

“I know how to tie that one.” “I think I do.”

“Alright, I want you to get in patrols now and make sure everybody knows how to tie the bowline. You’re going to need it if we do rock climbing. Darien and Jared, you guys know this, right? You’re responsible.”

The two groups divided off with the usual shuffling but soon they were absorbed in the task. “Mr. Newman, is this right? I can’t tell.”

“Well, you’ve got it around your waist, right Tom?. Now pull to see if it squeezes you. If it doesn’t then you’ve got it. If you’re pulling somebody up the side of a cliff, you don’t want it to slip. Otherwise it would squeeze them around the waist and hurt them real bad.”

In another ten minutes the boys were prancing around, secure in their new knowledge. “I did it! I did it! Two times in a row! Watch this.”

“Alright, you guys, let’s get together now. Just take your daypacks. Leave everything else behind. Take a lunch. And make sure you’ve got your ropes.”

And so with a minimum of bickering and high hopes for the day, they set off.

THE TRAIL TODAY was much different than the day before. Coming up the back of the mountain, there had been steady switchbacks up the side of the mountain, weaving in and out among the trees. Now they were swinging around on the north face, where the slope was much steeper and the trail more narrow, sometimes swinging perilously close to the edge.

“Be careful now, boys, watch where you’re walking,” Newman called behind him.

“Mr. Newman, what’s an Eagle project?” called Darien from somewhere back in the line.

“What’s an Eagle project?” Newman repeated. “Where’s you hear about that?”

“I was reading it in the Handbook.”

Newman fell back to the middle of the line so he could address then all. “Just stay on the trail there,” he said to Jared, who was now in the lead. “You’ll see the rock face when we come to it.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Newman,” the boy called back.

“Alright, what rank are you guys now, second class? First class?”