It was a splendid big buck, and Jack, jumping off his horse, ran
to it and for a moment could hardly believe his eyes. Then he tore
off his hat and threw it up in the air and just yelled and hurrahed
as loud as he could. Hugh meantime, smiling as if greatly pleased,
had thrown down the ropes of both horses and twisted them around a
sage-bush, and when he came up to the antelope, Jack was looking it
all over, opening its mouth, stretching out its slender legs, and
smoothing down its coarse rough hair.
"Isn't he pretty, though? And how slim his legs are! No wonder he can
run. And he's got a black tongue, just like a pure breed Alderney
cow. But he must be pretty old, for he hasn't got any front teeth
in his upper jaw. Do you think he'll be very tough? And see, he only
has two hoofs on each foot. Are all antelopes that way? Some caribou
that Uncle Will killed once in Canada had four hoofs on each foot,
two little ones and two big ones. Oh, ain't I glad I didn't miss. But
I never thought about missing. I just aimed as near as I could where
you told me to. I'm so glad I didn't just wound him. Oh, this is the
best day of my life." So Jack chattered on, until Hugh interrupted
him by taking hold of the animal and turning it over, saying as he
did so, "You done well, my son, mighty well. I watched you shoot and
you couldn't have done better if you'd been killing antelope as long
as I have. You were steady as a rock. Now, look a'here. You see this
little hole? That's where the ball went in; and this big one is where
it came out. You want to remember that; going in, the ball makes a
small hole, coming out, a big one. You ask a heap of questions, but
I'll try and answer some of 'em. You'll have to stop on the prairie
longer than I have to find an antelope with front teeth in his upper
jaw. They don't have 'em. No more does any other animal that I ever
saw that chews the cud. First chance you get, look at a cow's mouth,
or a deer's, or an elk's, or a sheep's. You'll see they're all alike
in that. A horse has upper front teeth, and so does a hog, but those
are about the only animals that eat grass that has 'em, in this
country. Now, we've got to butcher. I'll do that, because I know
how, and after a while you can learn to. I guess we'll take this
fellow in whole. You'd like to have 'em see him that way, I reckon."
Hugh rapidly prepared the animal for transportation to camp, and
then, bringing up the horses and tightening the saddles on both, he
lifted the antelope on Old Grey, and tied it on behind the saddle
with the leather strings, tied its head up, so that the horns should
not strike the horse, and the legs to each of the cinch rings of the
saddle. Thus it was firm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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