168 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



Smoky said that he would not go without honey for the flap- 

 jacks when we had two bee trees so close to the camp. So he took 

 an old burlap and removed every other thread in a space of about 

 ten inches square, making a sort of an open-work to cover his 

 face, then pulling the sack over his head and buttoning his coat 

 close up about his throat Smoky was ready for the fray. 



He cut the birch tree, the one that I had located, that tree 

 being a little closer to camp. There was over a hundred pounds of 

 honey in the tree and we had only one large pail in the camp, and 

 that we had to have to use as a water pail. The tree did not break 

 in falling so as to break up the honey and waste it. While we 

 cut a large beech tree and took a block of about four feet long and 

 split it in half and dug out two large troughs to hold the honey, 

 wnich was very nice, being nearly all white honey, and Smoky 

 said, "Old Golden, won't we live high now, rabbit, partridge, baked 

 potatoes, buckwheat flapjacks and honey to swim in." 



It was now the 20th of October. I told Smoky that we would 

 go up the creek a mile above camp and put out the bee bait, burn 

 more honey comb, and leave the bee box on the stand and await 

 results. In the meantime we would take a couple of bear traps 

 and go on to a ridge and set them. It might be possible that we 

 would get a bear, although we had not seen any bear signs on what 

 ground we had been over. We took the traps, Smoky carrying 

 them, while I carried the bait. The hill was high and rough and I 

 found it about all that I was able to do to climb although I went 

 very slow and rested often. I did not complain, for Smoky was 

 doing all the complaining necessary for both of us. He said that 

 we would not catch a darn thing unless it was a cold, and he 

 didn't think that we would get that' muck It proved later that 

 Smoky was wrong in his reckonings. 



We set the two bear traps in as likely places as we could find 

 for bear to travel, and put in the balance of the day traveling 

 through the woods in search of bear signs. Not a track or sign 

 could we find, and when we reached camp at night I was seemingly 

 more dead than alive. 



The next morning after we had left the bee bait on the old 

 road bed and then climbed the hill to set the two bear traps, 



