Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-01-03
NY CHRISTMAS MOOSE.
BY GUsTAvE KoBBE.

BY GUSTAVE KOBBE.
call it my Christmas moose, but il
really was Helen's. And the best of il
all, was she knew nothing about it until
early Christmas morning she looked out
of her window and saw the great beast
with its superb antlers which we had
brought in on ska from Winoochee
camp.
A plain sort of a fellow | am-iust
plain enough to like nothing better than
to do something to please my wife
Jack" she said to me one evening, when
we were sitting together in the parlor,
| Il think a moose head and antlers would
look Just fine over those folding doors.
But | suppose it's too expensive. Mr..
Davis gave Agnes one last Christmas
that cost $400."
"And that was not the right thing,
either" | said. at was sort of a
combination affair. You may not be-
| lieve it, but those great antlers are shed
and grow out again every year. Those
in Agnes parlor were picked up in the
woods by Old Sabattls, and fitted to a
moose's head by taxidermist."
WELL sighed Helen, they're hand
some enough as they are l only wish
l had a set like them"
| said nothing, and seemingly plunged
into my book again. 1t seemed as if she
had expected me to continue the CONVEX.
sation. for she looked at me for few
moments and then at the lamp before she
har Iftt1n ipb ,f ltao ;nf
ment and resumed reading aunt Han
nahs Recipes for a Christmas Dinner"
1t is true l said nothing. But while |
appeared to be deeply immersed in my
book, | really was keeping up heap of
thinking. Helen, never in her life has
sighed twice without my doing something
to prevent her ever signing again for the
same cause.
The next morning l went to see Old
Sabattis. You don't know him? Then
you never can have followed the trail
of moose on the Great Winoochee
range. Whoever has done that has at
least heard of Sabattis, if he has never
seen him. The old man is a mighty
hunter, even though already in his '70s
Probably no one man living has brought
down so many moose in a lifetime, or
called" SO many for hunters as has old
man Sabattis.
He is picture to look at, is the old
man. If an artist went out hunting with
bin, he would drop his gun, take out his
pencil and sketch block, forget all about
moose and spenu all his time in camp or
out of it making sketches of Sabattis.
What a splendid head the old fellow has,
with great shock of white, tangled hair
like grizzly grown gray in the forest.
And what strong lines furrow it in his
weather beaten face, and eyes as keen as
any animals, and always on the alert.
I've never seen him clothed otherwise
than in the skin of wild beasts and a
stump of an ancient clay pipe in his
mouth, with a trapper's outfit slung over
his shoulder. For Sabattis traps as we'll
as shoots and lets no opportunity to get
game pass.
Sometimes | wonder if he ever sleeps.
In camp when we doze off our last sen
tient vision is of him fussing over the
camp fire, and the first thing we see when
We open our eyes in the morning, he is
freshening 1t up again and making a
blaze with rich, pitchy pine knots that
send a genial glow through your whole
body and start the kettle singing in a
few seconds. No, | don't think anyone
has even seen Sobattis asleep, and my
belief that he never does so was con-
trmed when | went to see him the morn
ing after Helen sighed twice. For though
1t was early, nc was as bright as n but
ton.
1t was about ten days before Christ
mas. When | came back from seeing the
| cid man and told Helen that was eoirq
for a weeks hunt on the Great Winoo.
choc range, she evidently had forgotten
ali about the incident of the night before
jack" she exclaimed, reproachfullv.
| you'll never get back III time for Christ.
mas. You wouldn't let a Christmas pass,
/ away from me, would your" | assured
her that such thing never could hap.
! pen In the first place, a Christmas away
| from her wouldn't be Christmas Mt all.
| SO it couldn't pass until l got back. But
| even SO, | didn't want the kind of Christ.
mas that required an explanation. and
| would be back on the actual day, in time
70 breakfast with her.
And SO Sahattis, Jerry, my brother in
law, and myself set oil for the Great
| Wiuoochec range. Everything. including
/ ourselves had TO be sledded in on skidS.
! We knew we would be two DAYS going
and coming, and tnat left us only Ger.
tain amount of time IN camp. We cot
| Ia work at once with axes, choppinc
GOWN the ridge poke and supports for our
tent, which We pitched on a high plateau
overlooking a frozen lake and a bit of
valley To- the white hills beyond. vet
| pretty we'll sheltered from observation
! by heavy growth Of timber. This was
not my first moose hunt. But it was the
first chance Ia had in years to 60 ont for
moose when the antlers were mt their
! best and the moses coloriug too For
IT Is a curious thing that while almost
| every forest creature is furnished nv
! nature with winter protection in d..