Days in the OpenCrandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
General
Days in the Open
Crandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
Fishing
“What kind of a sportsman do you call yourself?” The pride begotten by
capturing the first fish is knocked down and trampled upon by the shame
of having been unsportsmanlike. Let it be said that the next day that
box of worms was lost and never found.
Back to camp, where we find the tents up and supper well under way. That
first supper in camp! Three hungry men devoured everything in sight,
until it came to pancakes; then they paused, not from lack of appetite,
but from fear of a sudden and horrible death. From what ingredients Joe,
the cook, compounded those cakes will remain a mystery forever. It was
suggested that he had cooked a flannel blanket or a pair of gum-boots,
but he denied it. We ate very sparingly of the cakes, and soon afterward
went to bed. That night the Preacher had a dream. An enormous bird, with
curved beak and fierce eyes, persisted in roosting upon his stomach. Nor
would the bird stand still, but with fiendish malignity curvetted and
danced and double-shuffled, greatly to the Preacher’s discomfort. The
unfortunate victim expostulated mildly, but the bird laughed him to
scorn. Then the Preacher pushed the dancer off, but the bird hopped
back at once and proceeded to execute a Highland fling. Then the
long-suffering Preacher arose in his wrath and, seizing a knife, cut the
bird’s head off. Horror! No sooner was the “foul” deed accomplished
than the bird proved to be a man, and the Preacher was hustled before
a Chicago court to be tried for murder. The prosecuting attorney showed
beyond a question that the Preacher had deliberately killed this
man. The lawyer for the defence submitted, first, that the man had no
business to assume the form of a bird; second, that the stomach of a
Preacher should never be used as a dance hall. The jury retires and is
gone for only five minutes. The Preacher trembles in the box, and as the
jurymen file back into their seats he--awakes. The verdict will never
be known, although the dreamer did his best to go to sleep again at once
and find out the decision.
The Doctor also had his experience that first night in camp. He was
shot. As he lay listening to the gentle breathings of his tent-mates a
sharp report, as of a gun, was heard, and he felt a bullet strike him
over the heart. The end had come. It was hard to die so young, far from
his dear ones, in the depths of the wilderness; but being a good man and
a philosopher he whispered farewell to this world, composed his limbs
and calmly awaited death. But it didn’t come; so the Doctor proceeded to
make a diagnosis of his case. After thorough examination he found that
the string stretched from the rear to the front tent pole and upon which
various articles were suspended, had broken, and the looking-glass had
struck him in the ribs. He took a long breath, went to sleep, and told
us the joke in the morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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