a hundred yards or more apart.
One fire means a camp, two fires means trouble.

Another signal is two gunshots fired quickly, a pause to count ten and
then a third. Always listen after you have given this signal to see if
it is answered. Give your friends time enough to get the gun loaded at
camp. Always have a signal code arranged and understood by your party
before you attempt to go it alone. You may never need it but if you do
you will need it badly.

Sometimes we can get our bearings by climbing a tree. Another aid to
determine our direction is this: Usually all the brooks and water
courses near a large lake or river flow into it. If you are sure that
you haven't crossed a ridge or divide, the surest way back home if
camp is on a lake is to follow down the first brook or spring you come
across. It will probably bring you up at the lake, sooner or later.

On a clear night you can tell the points of compass from the stars.
Whether a boy or girl is a camper or not, they surely ought to know
how to do this. Have some one point out to you the constellation
called the "dipper." It is very conspicuous and when you have once
learned to know it you will always recognize it as an old friend. The
value of the dipper is this: The two stars that form the lower corners
of its imaginary bowl are sometimes called the "north star pointers."
The north star or Polaris, because of its position with reference to
the earth, never seems to move. If you draw an imaginary line through
the two pointers up into the heavens, the first bright star you come
to, which is just a little to the right of this line, is the north
star. It is not very bright or conspicuous like Venus or Mars but it
has pointed the north to sailors over the uncharted seas for hundreds
of years. By all means make the acquaintance of Polaris.

VI

THE USE OF FIRE-ARMS

Importance of early training--Why a gun is better than a rifle--How to
become a good shot

Whether a boy of fifteen should have a gun or a rifle is a question
that parents will have to settle for themselves. There is no question
but that a careful boy who has been taught by some older person how to
handle a gun is more to be trusted than a man who has never learned
the proper use of fire-arms and who takes up the sport of hunting
after he is grown up. Most of the shooting accidents are caused by
inexperienced men who have never been accustomed to guns in their
younger days. Once or twice I h