Oxford Democrat., 1914-01-20
How 70 Cook aLoon.


IBefore Caleb Peaslee bad turned to
farming he had filed various inches In
life-sailor, fisherman, woodsman, OK
teamster and cook-and he was prouder
of bis success a. camp and woods cook
than of all bis other accomplishments
combined. Many were the strange
dishes that he could describe In detail
'lignum" and "long hash" and "camp
chowder" among them-and very pre-
else were his directions for cooking each
dish.
"Now lignum," said he, impressively,
holding Jed Gipson with faded, al.
though shrewd, blue eye. "that's suthin'
you never get In the woods till you're
about ready to break camp and come out
In the spring. Then some fine, warm,
yellsr day the cook'll get up a mess OF
lignum, and when he does-you hear me
the crew'll eat. When you make lig.
mum, you hunt round and get little OF
everything in the camp, and put 1t into
the big kettle, and cook 1t till it's done.
You want to put In everything all to-
gether-p'taters and beef and pork
and turnips, il you have 'em-and
they'll all come out tender and nice. L
even knew an Injun tan moccasin 10 git
into the lignum kittle once, and the
crew eat m0re'n half OF it before they
kno we'd what 1t was. They wouldn't
have knowed then IL one of the men
hadn't found tho lacin' Of the moccasin
laced through the holes"
"Accordin' to that, then," Jed teased
the old man, "you can tender up most
any kind of meat by runnin' 1t through
a lignum kittle. Did ye ever try 1t on
wild game? Deer and ducks and coots
and such truck?"
"Tve tried most all kinds Of meat at
one time and another" returned Caleb,
pleasantly, land they all came out in the
iiguum pufickly tender and fit to eat,
even coots."
Ever you try loon?" persisted Jed,
with friendly malice. ~ cooked a loon
two days once, and then undertook to
eat il, and it's fact that had to chew
c'nsider'b BILE on the gravy, and as for the
loon, I couldn't make q dent in ii, and l
had to give up"
The undercurrent OF raillery in Jed g
tone had not gone unobserved by Caleb,
and the lines about his mouth crinkled.
"Now a loon, Jeddie," replied Caleb,
with such conviction In his tone that
Jed was impressed in spite of himself,
sis a queer bird, and it requires queer
treatment to cook 1t. If l tell you just
how it's done, like enough you'll think
it's all foolishness, and make fun of me
for b'lievin' such things. But I'm goin'
to chance it, and tell you.
"Fust place." Caleb went on, "you've
got to let the loon hang in draft some
where's for two days. Then you want to
get q lot OF white ash roots-not the
trunk wood, but the roots-and make
you a fire, and let 1t burn down to Goals
ance or twice, SOS to get good bed oil
Goals. Then you've got to fill your kittle
about half full of pond water-spring
water amt good for nothn' when you're
b'ilin' loon. Next thing you want to
do is to hunt round and find brick
and after you've put your loon In the
kittle, you just shove that brick down
into the kittle endways jest as easy al
you can, and make sure the brick rests
on the end on the bottom.of the kittle
You cook your loon that way, and you
won't have any trouble"
"But," objected the thoroughly puz
zled jed, chow in tunket is man goin
to tell how long to cook itp"
"sure enough" replied Caleb, and bis
smile derpened and widened into a
hearty chuckle. "You orter know how
long to cook it. Wal, Jeddie, you jes,
keep it cookin' till you get the brick
soft 'nough so you en- stick a fork
through it easy. Then your loon'll be
done enough to eat."-The Youths