We walked about five miles to meet Randy, our cousin, and his pal, Jim. We stopped at Jim's home and they fixed a lunch and were ready for the adventure of the day. We started out on the trip and arrived about noon at the river we were bound for.
I said, "Joe, have you got a watch and compass with you?"
"Yes. Did you bring a ball of cord and hatchet?"
"Yes. What more do you want?"
"A flashlight."
Jim and Randy both had flashlights.
We followed the river a long way--about a mile. We sat down and ate a sandwich and drank a pop. Then we went on to where there was a cave way up on the hill Jim knew about it.
We went into the cave, sat down, and rested. We talked about our girl friends and told other stories.
Jim said a long time ago two girls went in this cave and got lost. They were in this cave for two days before anyone thought of the cave to look for them. They had taken turns of staying on guard while the other slept.
Jim said, "When we go back in there, keep your eyes open for they told of seeing some big snakes and a big bear. Of course, that was a long time ago. They are probably gone, but keep looking."
We saw some bats flying around up close to the mouth of the cave, and some bird nests in the crevices of the rocks.
We debated what to do about our lunch bags. I told them we should take them with us. So we put them over our shoulders.
I tied the string to the stones near the entrance and I told Joe to carry the ball of string. Jim and Randy were to watch that the cord didn't break and leave us without a way to get out. " No one knew where we went and we might have to stay in here and starve to death."
"Quit your kidding"
"We might be ate up by a bear if he finds us in here. There wouldn't be any way to get out past him."
Well, hardly more than a minute went by than a bear ambled in the entrance to that cave! You can be sure there were some scared boys. We screamed and yelled and caused all kind of ruckus. Randy and Jim shined their flashlights right in that old bear's eyes.
I guess he didn't like that because he growled and snorted then turned around and went back out.
We decided to keep exploring the cave. Besides, that old bear was outside. Further back in, we found where someone had slept and had smoked cigarettes. We looked around and saw some other things that had been brought here not too long ago.
After awhile we finally decided to follow the cord back out.
We had not gone far when we heard someone holler, "Help!"
We followed the cry and turned a corner and saw three girls coming toward us.
They said, "Oh, how glad we are to see you! Have you been looking for us very long?"
"Well, not long, as we didn't know any one was in here. Were you lost?"
"Were we lost? We have been in here for hours! No one knows we are here. Well, we will introduce ourselves. I am Susie, this is Maud, and that is Mary."
"I will tell you who the boys are: I'm Matt, this is Joe, my brother, this is our cousin, Randy and his friend, Jim.
" We were just making a turn in the cave and happened to find you here. I guess it is a good thing for you that we did. How would you girls have found your way out of here? Well, we will soon have you out for we have a cord to follow back to the entrance. That is what you should have had to get out of here."
"Are you hungry? We have some sandwiches here and some pop."
"We will have something to eat," Susie said, "I am glad we found you."
Randy said, "Ha! Who found who?"
Just then the girls began to scream.
I turned and there was the bear just a little ways away. I yelled to the boys to turn the flashlights onto the bear's face. The bear turned and ran.
Well we followed that bear out! On the way, Susie fainted and none of us knew what to do for her. But she soon came out of it. We found out what was the matter with her--she was scared of the bear. She was soon all right.
We soon came to the opening in the cave. Outside, we sat down and ate the rest of our sandwiches and drank the rest of the pop. Then we passed out the cakes, then the candy bars.
The girls said they were glad we boys found them for they had a nice time.
We were all tired by the time we walked out to the road. We had a long way to go. We saw a car coming. Us boys said lets thumb a ride. The car stopped for it was neighbor going home from work. It was lucky for us that he had worked overtime.
He took the girls home first. Then he took Randy and Jim home. Next he stopped to see his mother. It was 9:00 p.m. when he dropped Joe and me at our door.
Mother said, "Where have you been all day? This is no time for boys to come home for their supper. Go get what you want to eat then go to bed."
We cleaned up some, then ate a cold supper. We went to bed. By that time we were tired enough to go to sleep standing up. We went to sleep dreaming about our adventure of the day.
The next day we planned for some more trips during the summer vacation. We would go in a different direction and look for more caves.
We went to see the girls and planned to take them along down the river in the other direction. We said next week on Wednesday. We could get a boat about four miles down there. Randy's uncle had a boat we could use without paying for it.
When it came time, the girls couldn't go. But we went anyway and found some girls down there that were glad to take a boat ride with us. Well, we had a nice day with them.
Joe and I had to help on the farm as it was threshing time. But we planned to go to the dances Wednesday and Saturday nights of each week during the rest of the vacation.
