Camp What-A-Nut

Summer is flying by, and Donny McCoy keeps a journal of his week at Camp What-A-Nut, the camp run by John Whittaker. On the first night, Whit welcomes everyone, introduces the head cook, Marco Dibiasi, and explains the camp's odd name: the original name is an Indian phrase meaning land that stinks like swamp, so the staff pulled a few letters out of it and came up with something friendlier.

Donny has come to camp hoping for one thing above all - a week without hearing his nickname. That hope lasts about as long as the opening meeting. Chas Wentworth, a boy from school whose family has money and who is used to getting away with things, trips Donny in front of everyone and calls him Shorty. Worse, Chas is in Donny's cabin. Donny keeps hoping somebody will finally put Chas in his place.

The rest of the evening is friendlier. Donny meets Ned Lewis, a teacher from church who has just survived Vacation Bible School and is now cabin counselor for the sixth graders. Donny's older sister, Gloria McCoy, comes over too, and even Whit is surprised that Donny is old enough for camp - a mistake Donny has heard far too many times. Then Ned opens the cabin door to a full-blown pillow fight, feathers everywhere, followed by pine cones in his sleeping bag, a bird loose in the dark, and a suitcase he trips over twice.

A couple of days later, Donny writes that Chas has finally met his match. Deciding the camp food is beneath him, Chas hands Marco a list of everything he wants to eat, waiting until a crowd has gathered to do it. Marco, who is busy trying to free a rusted water valve, cheerfully uses the list as a rag. When Chas announces that his father owns part of the camp and refuses to move from where he is standing, Marco opens the valve and Chas gets soaked. He walks away muttering about getting even. Donny hopes he does not, because Marco is a good man who has come to Odyssey from Italy and is working to bring his family over - and who is still puzzling out English, wondering how cookies can be brand new and old-fashioned at the same time.

Elsewhere, Ned teaches carving, praising Johnny's deer and marveling at the tiny model town Frank has whittled, while Gloria works on a heart-shaped necklace for a certain someone whose initials she has already picked out.

Donny's own week goes less smoothly. He gets thrown out of science class, gets pulled out of the boat by fish, and hits a softball that barely reaches the pitcher's mound. Whit takes him for a walk in the woods and reminds him how God chose David, the youngest and smallest brother, because the Lord looks at the heart rather than at outward appearance. Then a deer steps out and eats bread right from Donny's hand.

But something has frightened the deer away. Behind them stands a mother bear with two cubs - and she has seen them.