Courage by Joseph G. Udvari Read Free Book Online Page A

I’ll bet you that’s what these berries are called.”

    â€œWhy are the bears so vicious?” Alicia asked.
    â€œAgain, honey it’s not that they are vicious, they protect their food source and their cubs. If a human walks toward a bear and the bear has a cub, the bear will likely attack him because she thinks its cub is in danger. If a bear is feeding and another bear, wolf or a human is approaching his food source, it will probably attack.”
    Early one morning they were woken by a loud commotion with sounds of grunting and sniffing outside the tent. Jill immediately started to cry, while the rest were terrified too. The sound changed from one of grunting to one of half barking and growling. After a while the commotion died down a little and they peeked out to see the wolf growling menacingly at the large black bear just yards away from the tent. Jim picked up the pole with the knife and ventured out of the tent, the wolf didn’t move as Jim patted it on the head. He approached the bear, yelling and brandishing the pole and knife. At the same time the wolf attacked the bear as well and the bear backed up, got down on all fours and lumbered away.

    Jim went to the wolf wanting to pat him again, but it also ran away.
    â€œIt’s still skittish, he still doesn’t trust us.”
    â€œThen why is he here?”
    â€œI think because we feed it. Maybe he feels he owes us something, but I don’t know. Anyway, he saved us from the bear.”
    â€œJim, will that bear come back? I’m really afraid for the children,” Mary said quietly as she didn’t want the children to hear her concern.
    â€œWe may see the bear again, but it should soon be going off by itself to hibernate till spring. In the meantime, though, it will be foraging for food. We’ll just have to be very careful.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    The weather was getting much colder and winter was definitely drawing near. It was the end of September, they had been stranded on this mountain for seven weeks and they were sick of it. One day as Jim and Jill went to the stream in the early morning to get water and catch more fish, they spotted some deer drinking at the stream. Jim thought if he could trap one somehow, they would have meat for a long time. They held a family meeting to discuss this; everyone needed to understand that they had to kill the deer for meat and for the hide as winter was fast approaching.
    Jill said, “Yuk, I don’t want to see you do it, I’ll eat the meat, but I don’t want to watch you do it.”
    â€œYou’re just being silly, do you think the meat you buy in the grocery store wasn’t killed by someone?” Mary asked.
    â€œI still don’t want to see it happen.”
    â€œDad, you and I’ll go tomorrow morning and see if we can catch one,” Lucas said.
    â€œIt’s not going to be easy, we may not be able to get close enough to them.”
    Early the following day Jim and Lucas set out for the stream.
    â€œI feel like the big white hunter, without a gun,” Jim joked.
    â€œBut at least you have the pole with the knife, I have nothing.”
    â€œI don’t know if this is going to be enough, the deer have a keen sense of hearing and smell. They can detect us before we see them.”
    When they got to the stream, there were no animals of any kind to be seen.
    â€œWe need to be upwind of the stream,” Jim said.
    â€œHow do you know where upwind is, dad?”
    â€œYou’re supposed to lick your finger, then lift your hand in the air. The finger should be cooler from the wind direction because the wind makes the moisture evaporate.”
    He demonstrated to Lucas as he described the maneuver.
    Lucas tried it. “I don’t feel anything on my finger.”
    â€œIt’s supposed to work.”
    Lucas tried it again. “I got it dad, we have to go left!”
    â€œThat’s the sense I get too, we should