CHAPTER IX
BEAR STEAK FOR BREAKFAST
Without further delay Vaughn cut the throat of one of the dead bears,that the animal might bleed freely.
"You always should do this as soon as possible, boys," he informedthem. "However, do not make the mistake of going to the animal untilyou have put another bullet in his head after you think you have shothim dead. Claws are dangerous weapons. I will now show you how oneman may hang the bear and do his own work of dressing the beast. Anyone of you could do it, and you may have occasion to do so."
Cale dragged the bear head-foremost to a sapling. He then out threepoles of about ten feet in length, with crotches near the ends. Nexthe amazed his pupils by climbing the sapling until it bent down withhim.
"Think I have gone crazy?" smiled the guide.
The boys were too interested to answer.
The top of the sapling was well trimmed off with a hatchet, leavingthe stub of one stout branch near the top. Removing his belt, Vaughnfastened it around the bear's neck, then slipped the loop over theend of the sapling which he was holding down with one hand and theweight of his body. He let go the sapling, which, acting as a sortof spring pole, raised the carcass slightly.
The crotches of the poles were then placed under the fork of thesapling, the butts of the poles outward, thus forming a tripod. Calenext pushed first on one pole, then on the other. With each push thedead bear was raised a little higher until its body finally was clearof the ground, and only the hind claws trailing the earth.
"Easy when you know how, isn't it?" he smiled.
The Pony Rider Boys decided that it was.
"Now, in case I were not ready to butcher, I would build a smudgefire of rotten wood under the carcass, banking the fire well withstones to keep it from spreading. That would serve to keep away theblowflies and birds."
Beginning at the head the guide skinned the animal in quick time. Hethen removed the entrails, and in a quarter of an hour announced thathis task was completed.
After the carcass got cold, he explained, he would split it in halvesalong the backbone and quarter it, leaving one rib on each hindquarter.
"Aren't we going to have any of it for supper?" wailed Stacy.
"No, indeed. You don't want to eat warm meat, do you?"
"I don't care whether it is warm or cold so long as I get the meat,"the fat boy made reply.
"That proves it," declared Rector with emphasis.
"Proves what?" demanded Stacy.
"That your early ancestors were cannibals." Chunky snorteddisgustedly.
"Now, do you think you boys could skin and dress a bear?" asked Cale,surveying his work with critical eyes.
"I think so," replied Tad. "Of course we could not do it as skilfullyas you have done, but we are learning fast. May we save the hide?"
"I am afraid it would be too much of a burden to carry. I'll tellyou what I will do. You see I have cut off the head with the pelt.I will salt the hide well and cache it, then if I am able to get inhere some day soon, I will take the hide out and have it tanned foryou."
"Thank you. May I try my hand on the other one?" asked Tad.
"You surely may."
Butler was rather clumsy in making his preparations. Twice did thesapling that he had climbed get away from him and spring up into theair, but Tad simply climbed the slender young tree again each timeand bent it down. He finally succeeded in slipping his belt over thecrotch after having passed it about the bear's neck. The rest waseasy, so far as raising the bear was concerned.
"There! How is that?" he demanded triumphantly.
"Just as well as I could have done it myself," said Vaughn, noddingapprovingly.
"I thought you always hung them up by the heels," ventured Ned.
"Yes, it is common practice to hang up by the gambrels, with the headdown, but when hung head up the animal is much easier to skin andbutcher, and drains better. Besides, it doesn't drip blood over theneck and head, which you may want to have mounted at some futuredate. Perhaps we had better bury this waste stuff, or we'll have allthe bears in the section down on us first thing we know. By the way,we shall be having more bear here right along on account of that oilof anise, so we shall have to move our camp."
"Then make Chunky strike camp," suggested Ned. "He is to blame forall this trouble."
"I am inclined to agree with your last statement. However, we willsee to that. Charlie will do all the necessary work. I am sorry,for I wanted to go over and see my friend," said the guide.
"Didn't you go there today?" asked Stacy.
"No, we took another course. You missed it not being along."
"No, I didn't. I had all the fun and excitement I wanted right herein the camp. You are the ones who missed something," declared Stacy.
"We didn't miss all of the fun, anyway," replied Tad. "How about thebear meat, Mr. Vaughn?"
"Yes, don't we get any of that meat?" urged Stacy.
"You shall all have all you want for breakfast, but we shan't be ableto carry much of it with us. Were we going to be here long enough Iwould smoke some of it. If it were only winter we should have enoughmeat to last us for weeks," answered the guide. "In many respectswinter traveling in the woods is very desirable. Ever rough it inthe winter?"
Tad said that they had not, but that they hoped to do so at some timein the near future.
Supper was a welcome meal that night, for everyone was hungry becausethey had had a hard fifteen-mile journey on foot over rugged ground.Bear steak was served for breakfast. Yes, it was tough, but most ofthe party enjoyed it. Stacy ate and ate until they feared he wouldpop open, and Ned declared that Chunky would be growling like a bearbefore the forenoon came to an end.
Enough meat for two more meals was packed away to carry with them,after which camp was broken, and before eight o'clock the Pony RiderBoys were on their way. Their trail led them farther and fartherinto the dense forests. Vaughn had it in mind to make their nextcamp on the shores of a lake, where he thought that they might findsomething to interest them. The boys were willing. They were notparticular where they went. It was all alike to some of them, evernew to others. Stacy cared only for what he found to eat, while Tadand Ned were for learning all they could about the woods andwoodcraft, in all of which Cale Vaughn was an expert.
Charlie John was proving himself a most useful man in the camp,though Charlie was not to be depended upon when it came to fightingbear. He had proved another thing, too. He was an excellent treeclimber and could make the first limbs of a tree quicker than anyother member of the party, especially when there was a bear belowanxious to get a nip at the Indian's calves. They made their newcamping place some hours before dark. Charlie already had picked outa pleasant camp site, a short distance from the shore of the littlelake, screened by trees and foliage, but in plain view of the water.The natural instinct of the Indian had taught him to so place hiscamp that it could not be readily seen from either the lake itself orfrom the surrounding country. This trait will be found in the whitewoodsman as well, copying perhaps an instinct inherent in his animalancestor of a few million years back.
"Now," said the guide, after the boys had pitched their tents, "wehaven't had a real lesson in preparing a cooking fire. I observethat you boys go at it in a sort of hit and miss way. You may haveobserved something of the woodsman's way of cooking by the manner inwhich Charlie fixed the fire in our camp yesterday."
"Yes, we did," answered Tad.
"I will go more into detail this time. The fire is more than half ofgood cookery in the woods, just as it is in your home kitchens. Youneed a small fire, free from smoke and flame, with coals or dry twigsin reserve. There must be a way of regulating the heat just as instoves, and there must be a rampart around the fire on which pots andpans will stand level and at the right elevation. Master Stacy, willyou please fell a small, straight tree and cut from it two logs aboutsix feet long, eight or ten inches thick?"
_"What?"_
/> The guide repeated his request.
Chunky hemmed and hawed.
"The fact is, Mr. Vaughn, I've got a weak heart. I'm afraid it wouldexcite me too much to do that. You see I have to be very careful."
"I will cut down the tree," said Ned, stepping forward.
"Yes, perhaps it would overtax Master Stacy. There is a good treefor the purpose just beyond where the Professor is standing, MasterNed," nodded Cale.
Ned took up the axe and attacked the tree with vigorous blows. Hehad taken but a few of these when the axe flew from the helve,narrowly missing the Professor's head.
"Here, here!" cried the Professor. "What are you trying to do?"
"That was an axe-i-dent," chuckled the fat boy.
"Stop it!" yelled Ned.
"I agree with you," grinned the guide. "That was almost more than Icould stand myself."
"I shall forget myself and hit you with this axe helve if you get offanything like that again, Stacy Brown," threatened Ned Rector.
"Bad, very bad," agreed the Professor.
"Shocking," nodded Tad.
In the meantime Cale was wedging the axe on the helve. Havingcompleted his task he handed the axe back to Rector, who, a fewmoments later, sent the tree crashing down.
"I guess you have handled an axe before," said Vaughn.
"Yes. He is the champion wood-splitter of our town," Stacy informedhim.
Cale flattened the top and one side of each log with the axe afterTad had finished Ned's job. These, the bed logs, the guide placedside by side, flat sides toward each other, about three inches apartat one end and some eight or ten at the other. By this time Charliehad gathered a supply of bark and hard wood which he placed from endto end between the bed pieces and lighted the fire.
While Charlie John was doing this, Cale planted at each end of thefire a forked stake about four feet high. Over these he laid alug-pole or cross-stick of green wood. Two or three green crotchesfrom branches were cut, a nail driven in the small end of each, andthe contrivance hung on the lug-pole from which to suspend thekettles. These pot-hooks were of different lengths for hard boilingor for simmering.
"These are 'lug-sticks,'" explained Vaughn. "A hook for lifting thekettles is a 'hook-stick.' I'll make some of those as soon as Ifinish with what I am doing now. In quick camp-making we sharpen astick and drive it into the ground at an angle, and from this wesuspend our kettle. That kind of arrangement up here in the MaineWoods is called a 'wambeck' or 'spygelia.'"
"Sounds like the name of a patent medicine," observed Chunky.
"I agree with you," smiled the guide.
"How did it get such an outlandish name?" questioned the Professor.
"I am sure I don't know. Oh, you will find lots of funny names uphere in the wilds. For instance, the frame built over a cooking fireis called by the Penobscots, 'kitchi-plak-wagn.' Some others callthe 'lug-stick' a 'chiplok-waugan.'"
"Taken from 'chipmunk wagon,'" nodded the fat boy wisely.
"No doubt," replied the guide dryly. "Some of the guides have changedit to 'waugan-stick.'"
"You make me dizzy," declared Stacy Brown, passing a hand over hiseyes.
"Then here is another for you that will render you whollyunconscious," went on Cale. "The gypsies call a pot-hook a'kekauviscoe saster.' How is that?"
"Oh, help!" moaned the fat boy.
"I should say that was about the end of the limit," declared TadButler.
"In windy weather, or where fuel is scarce," continued Cale, "it isbest to dig a trench eighteen inches wide, twelve inches deep and sayfour feet long, instead of cutting down a tree for your bed logs.Make a chimney of flat stones or sod at the leeward end. This willgive you a good draft."
"We did something like that in the Rockies," Tad informed him.
"Build a fire in this trench with fire-irons or green sticks laidacross it for the fryingpan and a frame above for the kettles, andthere you are. I'd like to see any kitchen do any better."
"I guess we never knew very much about camping," said Tad.
"We know how to eat," asserted Stacy.
"At least one of us does," agreed Rector.
"Know how to make a bake-oven?" questioned Cale.
"Hot stones are as near as I have come to making anything of thatsort," replied Tad.
"I won't show you now because we are in a hurry for our supper, butsome day, when we have nothing in particular to do, I will make oneand we will bake some bread that you will say is the equal ofanything you ever had at home. How is that steak coming on,Charlie?"
"Him smell like him done," answered the Indian.
"Serve it up. We are ready for it. Master Stacy is so hungry thathe has shrunk to half his natural size."
"I'll be a skeleton if I keep on," agreed the fat boy.
A steaming, savory meal was served there in the great forest with theodor of the pines mingling with those of bear steak and boilingcoffee. To these hungry boys it seemed that nothing ever had tastedso good to them in all their lives. And they did full justice to themeal, too.