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Favorite Campfire Stories for all ages! These aren’t scary, but will be entertaining
all the same…
A TALE OF TWO PETS
I remember it was about that time that Jim Sloane used to work at the YMCA.
Now that was a character. He was, in my opinion, an unusual individual who was
interested in some rather exotic subjects. The most unusual thing about him
was his pet, (rumored to have been captured somewhere in Africa) which reminded
me of a piece of granite with eyes, which he called Teddy. Teddy typically just
sat there, doing nothing, but sometimes it lifted a lower edge and sucked in
powdered sugar. That was all it ate. No one ever saw it move, but every once
in a while it wasn’t where people thought it was. There was a theory that it
moved when no one was looking.
Tim Bellamy, a lifeguard, constantly ridiculed poor Teddy, saying mean and
nasty things about it. Laverty’s pet looked like an iguana, and to me, at least,
was the ugliest looking thing that you would ever want to see. He called this
‘iguana’ by the unlikely name of Dolly.
Well, one day Sloane had had enough of these comments, and challenged Bellamy
to a race. His Teddy against Bellamy’s Dolly. And to make things a bit more
interesting, he suggested a rather hefty wager on the outcome, which Bellamy
quickly agreed to. Soon everyone got into the act. Every one of them bet on
Dolly. At least it moved. Sloane covered it all. He’d been saving his salary
for some time (for some exotic project, no doubt) and put every penny of it
on Teddy.
The race course was set in the basement garage. At one end, two bowls were
set out, one with powdered sugar for Teddy, and another with ground meat for
Dolly. Dolly started off at once and began moving along the floor slowly toward
the meat. All in attendance cheered it on.
Teddy just sat there without budging.
“Sugar, Teddy, Sugar.” said Sloane, pointing. Teddy did not move.
It looked more like a rock than ever, but Sloane did not seem concerned.
Finally, when Dolly had ‘ran’ half-way across the garage, Sloane said casually
to Teddy, “If you don’t get out there, Teddy, I’m going to get a hammer
and chip you into pebbles.”
That was when people realized how truly different Teddy was. Sloane had no
sooner made his threat when Teddy just disappeared from its place and re-appeared
smack on top of the sugar.
Sloane won, of course, and he counted his winnings slowly and luxuriously.
Bellamy said bitterly, “You knew that it would do that.”
“No, I didn’t,” said Sloane, “but I knew he would win. It was
a sure thing.”
“How come ?”, said Laverty.
“It’s an old saying everyone knows. Sloane’s Teddy wins the race.”
FARMER JONES AND THE BIG QUAKE
On a bright and sunny morning in May, Farmer Jones went out to plow his fields.
He led old Bessie, his plow horse, out of the barn and hitched her up to the
plow. The aroma of newly plowed earth wafted behind him as he produced a ruler
straight furrow across the field. Suddenly his reverie was broken as a strong
earthquake struck. As the ground shook beneath his feet, he fell to his knees.
His plow fell over almost on top of him, as did old Bessie. But, beyond the
fence in the next field, the bull remained standing.
Farmer Jones stood, dusted himself off, and grabbed the reins to right old
Bessie. He pulled the plow upright, hitched up the horse again and began to
plow. Shaken somewhat by the strange experience, the furrow began to zig a little
from side to side as Bessie pulled the plow blade through the fertile ground.
After only a few seconds a strong aftershock rolled through the farm. Again
it was strong enough to knock Farmer Jones from his feet, topple his plow, and
with a loud protest, drive old Bessie to the ground. This time the farmer looked
back across the field toward the house and noticed that the goats and cows had
fallen over, too …. But, beyond the fence in the next field, the bull remained
standing.
Shaken and puzzled, Farmer Jones picked himself up and dusted off his overalls.
Righting the horse and plow, he quieted old Bessie as best he could. She seemed
more rattled by all this that he was. As strong as the two earthquakes were,
Farmer Jones could not understand how the bull remained standing. So he started
toward the other field to see if he could find out what was going on with the
bull. As he crossed the field, and climbed through the fence into the field
where the bull stood, a very strong aftershock struck — much worse than either
of the preceding earthquakes — putting him on the ground flat on his face.
Looking behind himself he saw Old Bessie and the plow had fallen down again.
Down toward the house the goats and cows had fallen down again. In fact, this
aftershock was so strong that the chickens had fallen over as well. The front
porch on the farmhouse had crashed down and the walls looked as though they
would not last much longer. But, only a few feet away from him, the bull remained
standing.
He picked himself up, dusted off, and without bothering to right either horse
or plow, marched toward the bull. Shaken to the core, puzzled and angry, Farmer
Jones shouted, demanding to know why everything on the farm had been knocked
over by the earthquakes and the bull had remained on his feet. Much to Farmer
Jones’ astonishment, the bull replied, “We bulls wobble, but we don’t fall
down!”
HOW BEAR LOST HIS TAIL
Back in the old days, Bear had a tail which was his proudest possession. It
was long and black and glossy and Bear used to wave it around just so that people
would look at it. Fox saw this. Fox, as everyone knows, is a trickster and likes
nothing better than fooling others. So it was that he decided to play a trick
on Bear.
It was the time of year when Hatho, the Spirit of Frost, had swept across the
land, covering the lakes with ice and pounding on the trees with his big hammer.
Fox made a hole in the ice, right near a place where Bear liked to walk. By
the time Bear came by, all around Fox, in a big circle, were big trout and fat
perch. Just as Bear was about to ask Fox what he was doing, Fox twitched his
tail which he had sticking through that hole in the ice and pulled out a huge
trout.
“Greetings, Brother,” said Fox. “How are you this fine day?”
“Greetings,” answered Bear, looking at the big circle of fat fish.
” I am well, Brother. But what are you doing?”
“I am fishing,” answered Fox. “Would you like to try?”
“Oh, yes,” said Bear, as he started to lumber over to Fox’s fishing
hole.
But Fox stopped him. “Wait, Brother,” he said, “This place will
not be good. As you can see, I have already caught all the fish. Let us make
you a new fishing spot where you can catch many big trout.”
Bear agreed and so he followed Fox to the new place, a place where, as Fox
knew very well, the lake was too shallow to catch the winter fish–which always
stay in the deepest water when Hatho has covered their ponds. Bear watched as
Fox made the hole in the ice, already tasting the fine fish he would soon catch.
“Now,” Fox said, “you must do just as I tell you. Clear your
mind of all thoughts of fish. Do not even think of a song or the fish will hear
you. Turn your back to the hole and place your tail inside it. Soon a fish will
come and grab your tail and you can pull him out.”
“But how will I know if a fish has grabbed my tail if my back is turned?”
asked Bear.
“I will hide over here where the fish cannot see me,” said Fox. “When
a fish grabs your tail, I will shout. Then you must pull as hard as you can
to catch your fish. But you must be very patient. Do not move at all until I
tell you.”
Bear nodded, “I will do exactly as you say.” He sat down next to
the hole, placed his long beautiful black tail in the icy water and turned his
back.
Fox watched for a time to make sure that Bear was doing as he was told and
then, very quietly, sneaked back to his own house and went to bed. The next
morning he woke up and thought of Bear. “I wonder if he is still there,”
Fox said to himself. “I’ll just go and check.”
So Fox went back to the ice covered pond and what do you think he saw? He saw
what looked like a little white hill in the middle of the ice. It had snowed
during the night and covered Bear, who had fallen asleep while waiting for Fox
to tell him to pull his tail and catch a fish. And Bear was snoring. His snores
were so loud that the ice was shaking. It was so funny that Fox rolled with
laughter. But when he was through laughing, he decided the time had come to
wake up poor Bear. He crept very close to Bear’s ear, took a deep breath, and
then shouted: “Now, Bear!!!”
Bear woke up with a start and pulled his long tail hard as he could. But his
tail had been caught in the ice which had frozen over during the night and as
he pulled, it broke off — Whack! — just like that. Bear turned around to look
at the fish he had caught and instead saw his long lovely tail caught in the
ice.
“Ohhh,” he moaned, “ohhh, Fox. I will get you for this.”
But Fox, even though he was laughing fit to kill, was still faster than Bear
and he leaped aside and was gone.
So it is that even to this day Bears have short tails and no love at all for
Fox. And if you ever hear a bear moaning, it is probably because he remembers
the trick Fox played on him long ago and he is mourning for his lost tail.
