Journal III: James and the Snipe

James was so excited to be going to camp for the summer! This was his first time away from home for any time longer then a night and now he was going to spend two weeks away at a place he had only heard about Camp Nerrew! According to the brochure they had hiking, archery, horseback riding and camping trips!
A young man of ten, he was tall for his age, wearing rimless glasses with shaggy long brown hair. He smiled often and was often in his own fantasy world. One of the things he was most excited about was the camping trip to the boundary waters.
When the campers first arrived they were quickly put into groups by age and then divided into cabins. James was with ten other boys his age and two counselors Peter and Tom. James was an intermediate, meaning that he was older then the youngest campers, known as the cubs (or cubbies if you were making fun of them) and the oldest campers, known as seniors. This was done on a green lawn, near a wood chipped path, overlooking a lake.
James unpacked his belongings and got onto the daily groove of things. Up at revelry, breakfast, service activity, morning activity, lunch, rest hour, afternoon activity, dinner, evening games, and bed time; day in and out it was the same thing over and over when suddenly the end of the first week came and it was time to pack for the camping trip.
The trip was three days and two nights long and there were all sorts of things to learn. James was not new to camping but this was different. Everyday the group would seek a new campsite and camp in a different place. One of the older kids told James about Snipe hunting while on a camping trip. James didn’t know what a Snipe was and so he asked his counselors, who seemed to think that a snipe hunt would be a fine idea. They explained that a Snipe is a flightless bird that only comes out at night and is so stupid it will flee towards a person holding a sack, thinking that the sack was the opening to its burrow. For some reason they told the cabin this information with large grins on there faces.
The first night out the group camped on a small island, with a large rock face looked out onto a lake. The island was covered with fur trees and pines and smelled of caramel. After pitching there tents and cooking dinner the group sat down and starting talking about the plans for tomorrow, showing the boys the map when James asked about going for a Snipe hunt. The counselors agreed, after a quick conversation. They told the group that for a snipe hunt you must not wear any bug repellent, or shirt, and that you need to go hunting only after midnight, without falling asleep. They offered the sack to James, teaching him the call of the Snipe coooowwwaaaacchhhhheehheeeee, and wished him luck in the snipe hunt.
Shortly after this most of the campers fell asleep from a hard day of paddling but not James, he fought the fatigue and when his watched beeped midnight he sprang up from his sleeping bag determined to catch a snipe! Stripping off his shirt he strode (well stumbled) into the woods, slapping bugs as he went. After a few moments he let out his first call coooowwwaaaacchhhhheehheeeee and there was no response, nothing happened, after another few moments he let out another call coooowwwa – aaacchhhhheehheeeee and still no response. This went on for an hour, then two, finally James was feeling discouraged give one last call coooowwwa-
Aaacchhhhheehheeeee before going home. Suddenly there was a flutter near him and he heard a call that sent shivers down his spine, coooowwwaaaacchhhhheehheeeee. Raising his sack he called again, and the call was returned when suddenly he felt a great impacted as something flew into his sack and started pecking at him. Frightened, James opened the sack and turned on his flash light, only to see a bird about the size of a hen, with no wings running away from him.
When James told his counselors about the snipe he had captured they became serious and took him aside. They told James that there is no such thing a snipe and that it was all a game…

James knew better….