Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-19

were like pieces of ice when we reached
our destination. Solomon had been work
ing very hard. and he was warm; but ~
Balser declared when stopped at the
cabin that the donkey was trying to tell -
Us that the tips of his long
frozen; so we held handful of snow to
them for a moment to draw out the
frost and Solomon seemed grateful. He NAS
was of so grateful nature that / believe >S
he would have thanked us tor kick If ne ~
felt that it was administered for his good. -.
After arriving at the cabin, our first -.
task was to unhitch Solomon and put
him in the stable, which as warm
and coy shelter donkey could ask;
then gave him good feed of corn =.
and filled his manger with sweet hay.
Solomon, when fairly Installed, sang
little song of thanksgiving and fell upon
the corn and hay with zest that would
have done your heart good to see.
Balser and / each carried a great -
armful of wood into the cabin spread
the floor with sweet smelling hay, and
lighted roaring fire in he fireplace. We
warmed Our hands and feet, ate dinner,
and brought the s1edload of traps, pro- 49,
visions, ETC., into the cabin where ~
stored them on shelves about the walls. -
At four o'clock, everything being in its s-=e.'
place, We took our guns and went out to .
kill rabbit for supper This was quickly
done. We skinned the rabbit, placed it
the ice in the creek, and covered it. "a
with snow to cool the meat; then We
went into the cabin, built up the fire
afresh, and prepared supper
When the potatoes and corn bread =.
were nearly. baked. we brought in the O.;
rabbit, cut it in pieces, and placed it on
the Goals to broil. When the meat a
well done, we sat down on Our chairs at
the table and ate our supper My life!
how we did eat! You notice / said we
sat down on chairs at the table. The chairs
we're two small stumps, and the table was large
one. standing between the chairs: These three
sturnps we had left within the cabin. We hac
srnoothed the tops with saw and had chopped
away all obtruding roots and bark.
when supper finished, we sat gazing into
the fire. talking little and dreaming great deal
until we startled by most tremendous noise
coming from short way down the creek. We
sprang to our feet somewhat frightened; but soor
We laughed and exclaimed
Solomon is singing for corn!'
Il went to the stable, led Solomon to the creek
where we had cut hole in the ice gave him drink
took him back, fed him his corn and fresh hay
made SOFT warm bed for him to lie on, and closee
his stable door for the night.
When got back to the cabin Balser had cleared
up the supper table by the simple process of throw
Being very tired, almost ready for bed
We each had bearskin sleeping bag, and after W,
had banked the fire, we crept into our bags ane
slept until we heard the voice of Solomon calm,
for corn. Next day We placed Our traps and begal
hunting
DO not recolect that any adventure worth ten,
befell us during the first two weeks of our resi-
dence on Brandywine. The beaver dams were al
frozen in, and although there two large one
within mile of US, we had caught only three of tn
little animals during the first fortnight We had
however, killed large number of rninls weasels
and muskrats, and had taken less than 81,
foxes with the most beautiful coats and brushes
have ever seen. We had killed fat, young bear
which furnished meat for ourselves and the dogs
had shot two gray wolves.
For the tails Of these wolves we would receive
bounty of fifty cents each from the county, and tn
wolf pelts taken during the cold winter were so per
feet that we would receive not less than dolla
apiece for them. Aside from the beaver. the wei
was the most valuable game we could hunt; but i
was also the hardest to find, the most difficult t.
kill when found, and the most dangerous to pursu
if found in packs We could set no trap that woul,
take them We tried every way to conceal the traps