Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
General
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.
Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
Hunting; Trapping
Going by the way of Emporium in that county, we were compelled to
stay there over night, the distance being too far to reach camp the
first day. At Emporium we purchased what more necessaries we needed,
that we had not brought from home. We reached camp the second day
about 10 o'clock. When we came in sight of the camp, Bill was walking
ahead of the team with an axe cutting out brush here and there as
needed. All of a sudden Bill stopped, set down the axe and looked in
the direction of the shanty. When I was close enough so Bill could
speak to me, he said, "I be-dog-on if the wicky is not occupied." I
asked, "What with, porcupines?" Bill's reply was that he had known
porkies to do some dog-on mean work, but he had never known them to
build fires.
I could now see the shack, and sure enough there was a little smoke
curling up from the chimney. Bill said that he hoped that there was
no one there that wanted to tarry long, for he was dog-on sorry if
that wicky was large enough for two families.
We found the shanty occupied alright. There was a sack of crackers
set on the table and a pot of tea set in the chimney and a couple of
blankets lay on the bunk. After Bill had sized up the contents of the
camp, he concluded that the occupants did not intend to stay long,
judging from their outfit, but Bill was mistaken. Bill said that he
would proceed to clean house at any rate.
We had taken in new straw for the bunk, so we threw the old boughs
and the other litter outside and burned it and went in for a general
house cleaning. Just before dark, two men came in great haste. One
rushed into the shack and demanded to know what in h--- does this
mean. Bill said, "nothing, just moving in is all."
Then the spokesman said, "Do you fellows pretend to own this camp?"
Bill replied that we did, as we did some dog-on hard work building it
at least. The one man continued to go on with a great deal of telling
what he would do and what he would not, until we had supper ready,
when we asked the men to eat with us. The man that had done very
little talking readily consented but the other man was still inclined
to bully matters, but he finally took a stool and sat up and ate his
supper. After supper we learned that they were from near Wellsville,
N. Y. We made arrangements for the men to sleep on the floor, or
rather on the ground at the side of the bunk.
The next morning after breakfast was over, the man who proposed to
run things to his own liking said that he did not see any other way
but what we would all have to get along together the best way we
could in the shanty. This was more than Bill could stand so he opened
on the man and said, "See here, stranger, I am dog-on if a aint
willing to do almost anything to be neighborly, but I am dog-on if it
don't take a large house for two families to live in, and this shack
is altogether too small."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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