Hugh hung up the two deer to the branches of a tree, and then told
Jack to go down to the stream and dip up a bucket of water, while he
would gather wood and start the supper. By the time the water had
been brought, the fire was blazing, and Hugh had their small mess box
open on the ground and had taken from it a little piece of bacon, the
coffee and sugar in the two cans, and a sack which contained several
loaves of bread.
"Now, you see," he said, "we're in luck this trip, for Mrs. Carter
gave us a sack full of bread, so we won't have to bake none while
we're out. All we've got to do now is to fry a little meat and cook
a cup of coffee, and our supper's ready. You fill that coffee kettle
with water and set it on to boil while I cut some of that fat deer
meat." By the time the water was boiling, fat ribs of one of the deer
were sizzling in the frying-pan, giving out an odour that made Jack
feel very hungry. Hugh put the coffee into the hot water, let it
boil for two or three minutes, then stood it off the fire but close
to it, where it would keep warm, and told Jack to cut some slices of
bread. When he had done this, Hugh told him to set the table, which
made Jack look rather blank, for he did not know precisely what Hugh
meant, but he laid out two of the tin plates, two cups, and for each
a knife, fork and spoon, and Hugh nodded, as much as to say that this
was right. The deer meat, the bread and the hot coffee, with plenty
of sugar in it, seemed to Jack to make about the best meal that he
had ever tasted.
When they had finished eating, Hugh said, "Now, let's unroll our
beds and get ready to sleep, and then we won't have anything more to
do except to sit by the fire here until we get sleepy." He pointed
out to Jack a good place for his bed, where the grass was smooth and
there were no stones or roots or bits of stick lying on the ground,
and the bed was soon unrolled and ready for occupancy. Hugh made his
own bed and then returned to the fire and again lit his pipe.
The sun had set, and the air was so cool as to make the warmth of
the fire very pleasant. Jack lay down by it and stretched out his
legs in the comfortable heat. "Better put your coat on, son," said
Hugh; "it gets cool mighty fast after the sun goes down. It's good
for you to keep right warm until you turn into your blankets. If you
go to bed feeling chilly, it's liable to take you a long time to go
to sleep."
Jack followed this advice, and after putting on his coat lay down
again by the fire, for he was tired and a little bit sleepy. "Tell
me something about these deer that we killed, Hugh," he said; "they
don't look like any of the deer that I ever saw in Central Park;
their ears are big, and their tails are different. Are these the
regular deer that we have in the east?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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