[BUFF]

I went hunting Sunday afternoon with my 3 year old grandson. When we started walking out he took the lead, walking down the moon lit power right away. When we started to turn up into the pine timber I noticed he was walking so close to me that we were tripping over each other. After a bit I stopped and asked what the problem was. He had no comment. As we walked on he asked "T-Pa are we afraid?" I replied "Of what the dark woods?" He nodded. I told him WE weren't afraid of anything walking in this world and pointed out the fact that he had us covered with his trust BB gun. We walked another couple of hundred yards and I could tell he was still nervous, so I stopped and sat down against a big tree. After he plopped down next to me I told him" Grandpa loves the woods at night and we sat for a while just listening to the sounds. I went on to explain to him that city folks are often afraid of the dark because they watch too much TV but that we knew there was nothing in the woods at night that was not there in the day light. We sat for awhile as I explained that for us to be hunters we had to be able to move through the woods in the dark with the knowledge that we were the biggest badest predator in the woods. The rest of our hike out he took the lead taking great pride in finding the truck in the dark ( it was parked in the middle of the trail we walked in on)