Climbing the Mountain

 

 

 

Search  Inquiry Net

Home ] Up ] Next ]

Climbing the Mountain
Woodcraft Badges
1st Class, 1927-1940
Woodcraft Coups&Degrees
Advancement Ceremonies
Tracking Sheets
Webelos Transition
Traditional Scouting
Bushman's Cord
Senior Scouts
Do Program!
Traditional Award Badges
1st Year Summer Camp
TF-FC Requirements in 1911
Journey Requirements

Scout Books

Site Contents

by Ernest Thompson Seton

Afar in our dry Southwestern country is an Indian village, and in the offing is a high mountain towering up out of the desert. It was considered a great feat to climb this mountain, so that all the boys of the village were eager to attempt it. One day the Chief said, "Now, boys, you may all go to-day and try to climb the mountain. Start right after breakfast and go each of you as far as you can. Then when you are tired, come back, but let each one bring me a twig from the place where he turned."

Away they went, full of hope, each feeling that he surely could reach the top.

But soon a fat, pudgy boy came slowly back and in his hand he held out to the Chief a leaf of cactus.

The Chief smiled and said, "My boy, you did not reach the foot of the mountain; you did not even get across the desert."

Later a second boy returned. He carried a twig of sagebrush.

"Well," said the Chief, "you reached the mountain's foot, but you did not climb upwards."

The next had a cottonwood spray.

"Good," said the Chief, "you got up as far as the springs."

Another came later with some buckthorn. The Chief smiled when he saw it, and spoke: "You were climbing; you were up to the first slide rock."

Later in the afternoon one arrived with a cedar spray, and the old man said, "Well done. You went half-way up."

An hour afterwards, one came with a sprig of pine. To him the Chief said, "Good; you went to the third belt, you made three-quarters of the climb."

The sun was low when the last returned. He was a tall, splendid boy of noble character. His hand was empty as he approached the Chief, but his countenance was radiant, and he said, "My father, there were no trees where I got to--I saw no twigs, but I saw the Shining Sea."

Now the old man's face glowed, too, as he said aloud and almost sang.

"I knew it! When I looked at your face, I knew it. You have been to the top. You need no twigs for token. It is written in your eyes, and rings in your voice. My boy, you have felt the uplift, you have seen the glory of the mountain."

Oh, ye Woodcrafters, keep this in mind, then--the badges (the coups and degrees) we offer for attainment are not "prizes"--they are merely tokens of what you have done, of where you have been. They are mere twigs from the trail to show how far you got in climbing up the mountain.

BLACK WOLF.
Chief.

The Birch Bark Roll

 

 

   

 

 


Additional Information:

Peer- Level Topic Links:
[ Climbing the Mountain ] Woodcraft Badges ] 1st Class, 1927-1940 ] Woodcraft Coups&Degrees ] Advancement Ceremonies ] Tracking Sheets ] Webelos Transition ] Traditional Scouting ] Bushman's Cord ] Senior Scouts ] Do Program! ] Traditional Award Badges ] 1st Year Summer Camp ] TF-FC Requirements in 1911 ] Journey Requirements ]

Parent- Level Topic Links:
Traditional Scouting ] Patrol Method ] Adults ] Advancement ] Ideals ] Leadership ] Uniforms ] Outdoor Skills ]

The Inquiry Net Main Topic Links:
 [Outdoor Skills]  [Patrol Method [Old-School]  [Adults [Advancement]  [Ideals]  [Leadership]  [Uniforms]

Search This Site:

Search Amazon.Com:

When you place an order with Amazon.Com using the search box below, a small referral fee is returned to The Inquiry Net to help defer the expense of keeping us online.  Thank you for your consideration!

Search:

Keywords:

Amazon Logo

 

 

Scout Books Trading Post

Dead Bugs, Blow Guns, Sharp Knives, & Snakes:
What More Could A Boy Want?

Old School Scouting:
What to Do, and How to Do It!

To Email me, replace "(at)" below with "@"
Rick(at)Kudu.Net

If you have questions about one of my 2,000 pages here, you must send me the "URL" of the page!
This "URL" is sometimes called the "Address" and it is usually found in a little box near the top of your screen.  Most URLs start with the letters "http://"

The Kudu Net is a backup "mirror" of The Inquiry Net.  

©2003, 2011 The Inquiry Net, http://inquiry.net  In addition to any Copyright still held by the original authors, the Scans, Optical Character Recognition, extensive Editing,  and HTML Coding on this Website are the property of the Webmaster.   My work may be used by individuals for non-commercial, non-web-based activities, such as Scouting, research, teaching, and personal use so long as this copyright statement and a URL to my material is included in the text
The purpose of this Website is to provide access  to hard to find, out-of-print documents.  Much of the content has been edited to be of practical use in today's world and is not intended as historical preservation.   I will be happy to provide scans of specific short passages in the original documents for people involved in academic research.  

 

Last modified: October 15, 2016.