The Campout

           It was like any other day in Indiana when they left for the camp out.  The people were focusing 

on is the McDaniel's who made up of:  Mike, Michell, Christopher, and Cameron.  To keep Christopher

and Cameron from fighting on the way to the camp out they sang gospel songs.  The two boys were 

after all normal boys, but that is not really what this story is about.

          They were all excited about going to the camp out in Missouri.  Christopher was complaining 

due to the fact that it was always hot at the camp out in Missouri.  They had set up their tent next to

the Thorton family.  The Thorton family had a hot dish for a daughter that knocked both of the boys 

socks off.  As I said earlier the boys were all natural boys.

          They all went fishing together, as well as sleeping under the stars together which some how 

seemed all that much brighter in Missouri.  They also had Bible studies together in the daytime which

caused Christian's love for Thorton's daughter to grow that much stronger, but did nothing for his 

fleshly desires for her.  When the two of them got too close Mike would throw his eighteen-year-old

son into the lake with the fish to tell him to cool off.  

         One evening, when they were all together around a campfire singing praises to God, they started

roasting smores.   When all of a sudden Mike hears from behind him a loud pop, and a crack, and Mike

yells out to scramble.  So, everyone does as Mike says, and runs off to safety with the exception of 

Mike himself.   A limb broke off and landed in Mike's nose.  Mike thought the limb was outside of his 

nose, and was a insect so he slapped it making matters worse.  That is when he found out it was a limb

in  his nose not on it.

           Michell quickly loaded him, the kids, the camping supplies, along with the limb attached to 

Mike into the van.  She took him to the Lake Champion Hospital in Other Place, Missouri, to see if 

they could do anything.  At Lake Champion Hospital they gave him the nickname, "the tree guy" 

pulled the limb out, patched him up, and sent him on to the University Hospital in Bloomington,

Indiana.  The University Hospital gave him a neuro check.  They then did a better job at patching him 

up again, they gave him meds this time and told him to be careful blowing his nose and sneezing due

to the fact that there was a hole in his nose.  Mike just laughed at that fact as he walked out of the 

hospital.

Paul D. Eccles