Trapping and other various forms of pain.

My brothers and I learned alot of outdoor lore from an old Kentucky woodsman. Lets call him Dennis just for the sake of it. We all wanted to be Alaskan Mountian men and Dennis was said to be an excellent trapper so we took to hanging around him as much as permissable..Meaning whenever he didn't tell us to "git". We learned to trap from Dennis as well as how to hold your breath for three minutes and how not to catch a wild skunk. He was a master at the woods and could walk across any swamp woods or what have you and never have a misstep or even so much as break a stick. We once were told he crept in on a deer and killed it while it slept and it never woke up. Of course he was a good liar too. This story revolves around one Old Maid swamp that we used to trap around the edge of. Our parents not really wanting to be childless never let us actually go into the swamp because it was 6 square miles and about solid muck. Many people had been lost in there and a few never came out. Dennis knew the swamp like nobody. He could go from one end to the other and not so much as get wet. During september one year it was rather cold. Dennis having no real sense of game laws or how to read for that matter decided it was time to start trapping because the fur was getting prime. Having sufficiently begged, my brothers and I were allowed to go along one Saturday with Dennis to check his traps. My parents not having any clue but that we were hanging out with Dennis because hey it wasn't trapping season, how were they to know we were checking traps in the swamp. The day was a cold one for september. 30 degrees over night and daytimes at about 45. The line we were going to check ran just behind a large body of open water along a raised bank. The bank being no more than 10 feet wide before turning to real nasty muck that went on for several hundred yards. Dennis leading the way came to a quick halt. "Traps full" he said. Straining to see we trampled him down to get 5 feet forward. After Dennis got up the rest I am sure is a blur to him. Upon the trap discovery we found a rather large skunk in a leg hold and not to happy about it either. We stopped dead just as dennis after regaining his feet was getting to full stride again. Traffic having stopped and him mad at being trampled caused Dennis to stutter step pitch forward and vault over 3 prostrate boys on his face about 6 inches from a mad trapped skunk who thought we were psyco at best and an old man cussing with a southern accent was about all he was gonna take...wham right in the kisser. Dennis hopped up cussing some more and twirled like a dancing girl just before pitching head first into the muck. We being of the mind to help pulled hi out and turned him 180 degrees. Dennis walked blinded for 10 feet...and fell face first into the water. I am not sure if this washed some skunk scent from his eyes or the skim ice he went through just woke him up but Dennis seemed no worse for wear in about 5 minutes. His eyes watered all the way home but then again so did ours.He refused to let us walk in front of him and holding your breath for several minutes at a time causes your eyes to water. That was no where near our only trip into old maid swamp and over the years i like to fancy i knew it almost as well as Dennis himself. I spent many late nights bow hunting and chasing coon dogs in there...and out running ghost..But hey thats a story for another time.