The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1924-10-30

my stuff all chucked into a meal bag,
: about fifty pounds of 1t. and carried
it over my shoulder, with one hand
grasping the short neck that was left
after tying. had never carried any
thing through the woods, before, and
hadn't sense enough to tie it on me.
My gun was in the unengaged hand,
II you would call it unengaged May
be the top of that hill didn't look
good to me and the camp and the pond
better. | verify believe that half
that hill was swamp. How on earth
so many bog holes could lie on the
side of hill is a mystery to me.
Corydon Felker was the man who
had the camps at that time and there
were no camps on the other ponds.
Corydon Felker! Some name to re-
member, and I'll bet it has been more
IMAM forty years since | have thought
OF 1t. Camps, did l say? He had
shack of his own that no one was
allowed in, If remember rightly
7 where he did his cooking and sleep
ing, and he brought the grub-that
was the right name for it-into this
shack where we camped don't re-
member anything We ate or drank,
but the tea. Corydon prided himself
on his tea. Whenever a new lot of
folks came in. he used to drop door
knob into the immense pot in which
he made his tea. and there that door
knob would be floating around on the
tea, just like a cork. And | could
prove it, too, if old Bill Jones was
alive" as that other old liar said, in
1.-THE Old Homestead"
| think his recipe was pound for
pound. One pound OF tea and one
pound of water Boil four hours
Try it sometime. Tan your insides
CorydOn's boy was Corydon's assist
ant and acted as guide. when we
wanted one. The boy was about my
age and was tanned inside and out,
according to reports. Corydons tea
doing the inside tanning, and any old
thing that was handy to Corydon's
hand, doing the outside Thinning. Cory
don had on even temper, I'll say that
for him, and the sun sat on his
wrath and rose on it,
The maddest | ever saw him was
the day two men came in from Bos-
ton, father and son. The son. about
lntulN SCdiS Olu ndt SOIut hllll vi
a single barreled gun. never saw
anything but piece of the breech and
the lock. The first thing he did was
TO set up a target, by the pond. and
try his gun on it. Afterwards. he
said he couldn't remember when he
loaded it. | heard the report and
went out of our cabin to see what
could be seen and Corydon came out
of his, breathing fire and birthstone
This boy was standing by the wall of
Corydon's cabin, near the door. and
when the gun went of, in that still
ness that could almost be felt. Cory
don nearly went through the roof.
There the boy stood. with a dazed
look on his face, and what was left
of the breech of his gun, in his hand.
A piece of the breech had gone thru
the skin of his neck cutting it as
clean as a knife would Otherwise,
he was unhurt The lock had struck
into the wall of CorYdon S cabin and
then fallen to the ground. The bar
rel we never found or any pieces of
it. 1t must have gone into the pond
which was only about one hundred
feet away The splinter that went
through his neck. we found about
thirty feet behind where he stood.
Corydon certainly did erupt
The next morning, after we got
there, Sumner and | got up early and
went after the trout in the first pond.
up near the upper end, by the big
Rock" We got quite "a lot and it
struck me as queer that they hardly
differed at all, as to size, running
from a quarter to half pound. No
small ones and no large ones. The
ones we caught in the middle pond
were all small. They said that the
third pond held some very large ones.
We didn't go there
On the middle pond they had fiat
bottomed skiff and IA rickety raft The
day we went over there. Corydon's
boy went with us, as guide. and as
the boat would hold only three, they
said. Denyy elected me for the raft,
the boy taking Denyy and Sumner in
the boat The raft was awfully leaky
but | didn't have to bail it, so that
didn't matter, and had left my shoes
and stockings ashore. Also it
threatened to fall apart, every minute,
but it didn't. | caught a big double
stringer full Of little things, the wat
err being too shallow for the larger
ones. Getting tired OF balancing on
that ticklish raft. | went ashore and
waited long long time for the boat
to come in When they did, they had
such nice mess OF fish and so much
better than mine and Denvy was so
jubilant my gorge. that had been ris-
ing all day, overlooked and when we
got ready to go / left my fish on the
ground. Sumner demonstrated with
me and | was about to pick them up, /