The Republican journal., 1896-09-03
My Early Recollections.
Chapter III, Concluded,

fore was awake the next morning. though
l was up with the sun. John had been
installed as cook for the day and was al
ready washing up the dishes, but had a
whole partridge saved for me, together
with fried potatoes, broiled venson steak,
corn cakes, baked beans and coffee
Come, hurry up, sonny, and eat your
breakfast, said John. "rve fixed you
up gum chisel and you better be gather
ing your winters stock of gum Since
| had got to be almost fifteen years old |
often wished the boys would stop calling
me sonny, but | suppose it was easier
than Hezekiah. My name never did sound
very musical or pleasing to myself and l
often wondered how my parents happened
to make such break in naming me. |
shouldered my squirrel rifle and gum
chisel, which was simply narrow chisel
with light cedar pole ten or twelve feet
long fastened into the socket and thrust
through tin can. The object of the can
was to catch the gum as it fell when dis
placed by the chisel. [ found one tree up
on the side of the hill back of the camp
that yielded nearly ii quart of fine tear
gum. | soon became greatly interested
in the work and by the middle of the fore
noon had secured about three pounds. I
had been sitting down for half an hour
| cleaning my gum and was just admiring
large lump shaped like an hour glass and
clear as amber when l heard a slight
cracking in the brush few steps away.
Thinking it might be flock of partridges
l waited with my rifle ready for them
to come in sight, but instead of cartridges
a large animal came in sight which | at
once recognized as a Canada lynx, which
apparently had not seen me. This was
luck l had not been looking for 1 want
ed to get a shot at his head, but feared to
risk it as he was going along side TO me.
| Finally, when not more than fifty feet
away, something caused him to turn his
head toward me. This was what | had
| been wishing for though the wicked
| CLEAN of his eye denoted that he was in
no haste to get away. AS | pulled the
trigger l knew that | should carry the
skin of that lynx home with me, but as
| my bullet entered his brain | was not pre-
pared to see him spring into the air at least
eight feet and lost no time in getting be
hind a tree with my gum chisel ready for
thrust. My precaution was unnecessary
| however, as the struggles of the beast
only took him down the hill farther from
me, and another ball put an end to all
motion. Although this was not the first
lynx | had killed it was by far the largest
one, standing twenty-five inches high,
and length of body from nose thirty seven
inches. l concluded John would want
this specimen in his collection and re-
moved the skin, leaving the head and feet
intact SO that he could mount it, or make
it into mat as he saw fit | returned to
camp highly elated at securing a Canada
| lynx with my squirrel rife without the
aid of a trap. On exhibiting my prize to
my brothers, who spread the skin our on
the ground and examined it carefully |
| expected some ovation, at least, but
whether from mutual understanding or
| otherwise | did not receive it, John only
remarking, ''Thats as fine specimen of
Canada Lynx as | ever saw, and you have
skinned it Just right, sonny" | went
into camp disguised. | really think if |
had killed bear as big as moose |
should have been called sonny Just the
same.
The boys had been hard at work and
had nearly completed the repairs that
were necessary on the camp and howell.
Ben said he would like to 90 up the inlet
that afternoon and see if the hay on the
intervale had been stacked properly. "a
crew of Canadians had been employed TO
cut and stack fifty or sixty tons of blue
Joint for the teams in the winter.) eve
!
and perhaps bag a few ducks, u said "a d
right, sonny, you melt a little pitch to stop
the leaks and then hustle around and get
dinner ready while We finish this job, then
we will feed up and all 60, said Dan, my
seventeen year old brother.
We ate our dinner, launched the batteaux
John taking his rifle and | my shot gun,
for about mile up the winding stream
we came to a shallow pond called Duck
pond This pond covered an area of some
eight OF ten acres, with numerous patches
of tulies growing up all along the shore.
We started several tiocks of black ducks
that were feeding among the tules but far
out of range. When nearing the head of
this little pond we found the water deeper,
which enabled us to leave the channel and
paddle along near the shore. We had not
proceeded far when up went a family of
ducks in easy range | brought down three
of them with my two barrels and wound
ed another that fell into the water about
two hundred yards ahead. John and Dan
thought it best to spend no time chasing
wounded birds, but | persuaded them to
pull along as fast as possible and give me
a chance for finishing shot. | always is
liked to leave wounded bird or game of
any kind to suffer. We soon came within
range and secured the bird, which prov
ed quite prize, as it was an imperfect
Albino, having patches Of pure white
feathers interspersed all over the body
and wings. John was especially pleased, as
be had never seen a specimen of black
duck that approached the Alblno, even so
nearly as this, though he had secured
specimens of the Albino crow, robin,
woodcock and several Albno animals,
among them a beautiful snow white dog.
We secured several more black ducks
before reaching the hay stacks, which
were found to be well made and con
veniently located for hauling to the camp.
We found large bed of cranbelries and
decided that cranberry sauce would 60
we'll with venison. | made some baskets
out OF birch bark and Dan and myself
were soon stripping them off the vines by
handfulls, while John took his rifle, saying
he would be back in about an hour, if not
we were to row back to the foot of the
little pond and wait for him there, and if
we heard two shots at an interval of ten
seconds we were to land and come to the
place from whence the sound came, that
was to let us know he needed help to
bring out game. We worked diligently
filling our baskets and before we realized
it the hour was more than passed. We had