, because of his
excitement.

They had some difficulty in convincing him that it was only a branch
that had caressed his ankle, and not a venomous serpent; for Noodles
confessed that if he dreaded anything on the face of the earth it was
just snakes, any kind of crawling varmints, from the common everyday
garter species to the big boa constrictor to be seen in the menagerie
that came with the annual circus visiting Beverly.

Again and again was Paul making good use of his handy little camp
hatchet, and Seth took note of the manner in which the blazed trail was
thus fashioned. It may be all very fine to do things in theory, but
there is nothing like a little practical demonstration. And in all
likelihood not one of these seven boys but would be fully able to make
just such a plain trail, should the necessity ever arise. When one has
_seen_ a thing done he can easily remember the manner of doing it; but
it is so easy to get directions confused, and make blunders.

Paul was not hurrying now.

A mistake would be apt to cost them dear, and he believed that an ounce
of prevention is always better than a pound of cure. If they could avoid
going wrong, it did not matter a great deal that they made slow
progress. "Be sure you're right and then go ahead" was the motto of the
famous frontiersman, Davy Crockett, and Paul had long ago taken it as
his pattern too.

Besides, it paid, for any one could see that they were steadily getting
in deeper and deeper. The swamp was becoming much wilder now; and it was
not hard to realize that a man getting lost here, and losing his head,
might, after his bearings were gone, go wandering at haphazard for days,
possibly crossing his own trail more than a few times.

It seemed a lonesome place. Animals they saw none. Perhaps there might
be deer in the outer portions, but they never came in here. Although the
scouts saw no evidences that wild-cats lived in the swamp, they could
easily picture some such fierce animal crouching in this clump of matted
trees or back of that heavy bush, watching their passage with fiery
eyes.

The scouts found their long staves of considerable use from time to
time. Had Noodles for instance been more adept in the use of the one he
carried he might have been saved from a whole lot of trouble. Perhaps
this might prove to be a valuable lesson to the boy. He could not help
but see how smartly the others kept themselves from slipping off the
narrow ridge of ground