Gone Bush with Uncle Quinn: Part 3

By CHARGER MORRISON, Illustrator MARTIN BAILEY

About the only thing I could do that was considered safe was sit in my room and read, and I did a lot of that. The books I read were mostly about the American northwest, featuring stories about the legendary mountain men like Jim Bridger and Kit Carson who trapped beaver and other fur-bearing animals, who fought hostile Indians and bad-tempered grizzly bears, who built log cabins and blazed trails through the wilderness to open up a great continent. They were my heroes and I longed to be like them, but there wasn't much chance of that happening.

My favourite mountain man was definitely Kit Carson because, according to everything I read about him, he was only short and slightly built just like me. I suppose you could say I was inspired, if that's the right word. here he was, a young man living in a time and place where strength and size really counted for something, yet despite his physical shortcomings he'd beaten the odds to become a legend in his own time. He even had a city named after him.

Publisher: Reed Publishing, $12.95
Age group: 10+ years