The camp is filled with Webelos this week,
10-year-olds tenting in the forest
to be trained in the special lore
Boy Scouts need at 11.
5 Trekking to Apache campsite,
You tell me not to carry your gear.
You barely watch as I leave
To find the parking lot.
The trees behind me echo with the shouts
10 Of a hundred wild Webelos,
Safe in the valley between childhood
And which is to come.
You'll be ours again in a week,
But something will be lost,
15 Drifted off like the smoke of campfires
Or night time shadows around your tent.
The Webelo I drive back home
Will stare ahead through the windshield,
Eyes focused on longer journeys
20 Through deeper forests
What are the “hundred wild Webelos” in line 10 of the third stanza?
A.
10-year-old boys making noises
B.
strange woodland animals
C.
Boy Scouts who supervise the training of Webelos
D.
boys who fail Webelos training