Copyright © 1999 by Lawrence Letham.
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from Lawrence Letham.

Bud, Chuck, Jim and Sam always spend the summer at Horace B. Warple Camp. Last year they were horrible. Their pranks almost gave their cabin captain a nervous break down. Now they were Woodchucks: the biggest kids at camp. This year they would be even worse because their cabin captain, Mr. Whiffle, was not tough. Even Mr. Action, the stern camp director, would not be able to stop them; they were too smart for him.

All the other kids had two suitcases when they arrived to board the bus, but the Woodchucks were going prepared. They each had three suitcases stuffed to the brim with prank stuff. Bud even marked his bags "Top Secret." None of the cabin captains seemed to notice especially Mr. Whiffle. He wore thick glasses and was almost too skinny too lift his own bags, one of which was furry. After everybody loaded their things, the busses roared off down the road and soon arrived at Camp Warple Lodge deep in the forest.

The trees were so thick it was almost dark even during the day and it scared the little kids, but the Woodchucks loved it. They quickly made a map showing all the different cabins and recorded where each age group was assigned: the Moonbeams by the stream, the Salamanders by the bridge, the Fawns near the meadow, the Whippoorwills by the boulder and the Anteaters by the steep hill. They cheered when they were assigned the cabin furthest away and were even happier when they learned that Mr. Whiffle, their cabin captain, would sleep in the lodge instead of the cabin.

Nine P.M. was lights out and everyone was suppose to stay in bed until morning, but sometime around midnight a flashlight came on in the Woodchuck's cabin. It was Bud.
"OK guys, get your things" he said. "It's time for Plan A!"
They all dressed in dark clothes and put black paint on their faces. Each reached into their bags got something out and one-by-one snuck out of the cabin. No one saw them go, except a skinny bear standing behind a tree.

The first screams happened at sunrise. A group of Moonbeams, on their way to the lodge, were caught in snares and were hanging upside down from trees. The next screams came from the Fawns. When they tried to help the Moonbeams, they discovered the door to their cabin was tied shut. At the sound of the commotion, the Anteaters rushed outside onto the cabin's porch only to feel sticky, gooey honey all over their bare feet. They started screaming too.
Mr. Action, with a stern look on his face, went directly to the Woodchuck's cabin to search for evidence. As soon as the door flew open, the laughing stopped. Mr. Action found them cleaning windows and scrubbing floors.
"Alright, I know you did it!" Mr. Action thundered.
"It wasn't us," the boys protested.
"It has to be the Whippoorwills in Miss Honeysweet's cabin. Remember last year? It's always her group," Bud assured him.
"Anyhow, we're too big for baby stuff like that," Chuck added.
Mr. Action did remember that last year it was always Miss Honeysweet's cabin that acted up. She almost had a nervous breakdown, but he could not quite remember who was in her cabin.
"You're right!" he said and marched off to give those Whippoorwills a good talking to.
He was not even out the door before they Woodchucks went get their suitcases from the woods. The rest of the day, was quiet, but the cook noticed the Woodchucks were very hungry for crackers and jam because they kept asking for more and more and more...

At midnight, the flashlights in the Woodchuck's cabin came on again.
"Plan B with a few changes," whispered Bud. "Jim, you put the jam and crackers we collected in the Salamanders' shoes. Chuck and Sam will hang water balloons over all the doors, so they blow up when they're opened and then all the other stuff."
No one noticed the bear looking in the window as they made their plans and got ready to go. No one saw it quietly follow the Woodchucks around the camp that night. When the boys were done setting their pranks, they got in bed to wait for the screams and howls in the morning.

But, at sunrise, there were no screams. There were no whimpers, squeals or shouts either. At breakfast Ms. Miffin complimented the Salamanders on their extra clean shoes. Some of the cabin captains commented that the morning dew made the cabin porches wet. Nothing bad had happened to anyone. Mr. Action proudly boasted to the cabin captains at his table that his stern warning to the Whippoorwills had scared the pranksters. Mr. Whiffle sleepily nodded as Mr. Action lectured on virtues of strict discipline. After breakfast, Mr. Whiffle shuffled back to his room carrying a tray piled high with crackers and jam as though lunch would not come soon enough. Meanwhile, the Woodchucks fumed.
"Someone undid all of our tricks!" Jim complained.
"Don't worry," muttered Bud, "We'll do twice as many pranks tonight."

Once again the flashlights snapped on at the stroke of midnight. Planning took twice as long this time. As the Woodchucks plotted and prepared, no one saw the skinny bear at the window taking notes on a pad of paper. As soon as the boys left, the bear came into their cabin holding a flashlight. After setting all their nasty pranks and traps, the Woodchucks returned to their cabin tired and got right into bed.
"Yuck!" Sam screamed. "Something's in my bed! It's gooey! Ooooooh!"
Next Jim groaned, "There's something sticky in my slippers!"
"It's jam and crackers," whined Chuck. "All over my pillow!"
"That's it!" yelled Bud. "Nobody does pranks on us! We'll find out who did this! We'll be even worse tomorrow night!"
"At least we got everybody else," said Sam.
"That's right," replied Bud. "They all be screaming in the morning."
The Woodchucks cleaned up then went to bed to wait for the screams.

But the sun rose and no screams came. Instead, there was laughing and playing, merriment and joy which made the Woodchucks fume even more.
"Someone undid all our tricks again!!" steamed Bud as the Woodchucks marched off to the pond to catch frogs and plan their revenge.
No one saw Mr. Whiffle until lunchtime.
"You're dragging around like you're dead," Mr. Action told him. "I saw you yesterday with all those crackers and jam. You need to lay-off that garbage and eat something that will make you strong. Take me for example. Oatmeal in the morning, peanut-butter at lunch..."
Mr. Whiffle just nodded.

That night, the flashlights snapped on right at midnight.
"Alright!" said Bud. "Tonight we'll do plans C, D and E combined plus put all the frogs in the Fawns' cabin. Get all your stuff."
"We're really going to let them have it tonight," they all chuckled.
Jim checked out the window for spies. Whoever was undoing all their pranks was probably watching.
"Hey guys, look at that wimpy bear sitting on that stump," he snickered.
"Maybe we'll catch it and put it in the lodge," sneered Bud and all the other Woodchucks laughed.
Carrying huge piles of prank supplies, the boys quietly tip-toed out of the cabin door. When they stepped off the cabin's porch, the ground shook with a bear's roar loud, angry roar - RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" the Woodchucks screamed. They leaped back onto the porch and scrambled behind the woodpile. The bear roared, the ground shook and the trees swayed.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" the Woodchucks screamed again, ran into their cabin and slammed the door shut.
"Wow!!" Jim whimpered as he peeked out the window from behind the curtains. "That's not a wimpy bear, it's a man eater!"
The bear roared again and the lights came on in all the cabins. Mr. Action's voice weakly sounded over the outdoor loudspeakers, "Ahhhh… Ahhhh… please stay in your cabins until further notice."

The bear roared the whole night and the Woodchucks stayed hidden under their beds with pillows covering their heads. At dawn, Mr. Action, brandishing a broom, lead a rescue party to check each cabin. No one saw the bear taking a hidden trail back to the lodge.
"Oh my!" cried Mr. Action when he found the Woodchucks hiding under their beds surrounded by mountains of prank supplies and hundreds of frogs. "It looks like those nasty, little Whippoorwills were just about to attack the poor Woodchucks when that pesty bear scared them off?" he asked.
"Not so, Mr. Action" said Miss Honeysweet who happened to part of the rescue party. "It was the Woodchucks who did the pranks - just like last year. This is all their stuff."
"Last year? Them?" asked Mr. Action in a surprised tone. "Ah yes! You little ruffians! I knew it all along and now I've found you out." Mr. Action confiscated all the prank supplies, ordered the frogs back to the pond and the Woodchucks to clean the floors in the lodge.

No one saw Mr. Whiffle until lunch time.
"Finally decided to drag yourself out of bed?" Mr. Action asked him. "You missed the excitement of the bear last night. I don't know how you could sleep through such a ruckus. Roaring so loudly and all that. Well, I also caught the pranksters while you were dozing in slumberland. It was your pestilential Woodchucks operating right under your very nose. I caught them red-handed. Yes, without me they would have wreaked havoc the entire summer. You know Whiffle, I suspected them all along, but I had to lay a trap not just..."

Mr. Whiffle just nodded.