128 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



small deer on his back. I was behind him carrying the guns. 

 Charley worked his way carefully across the log but just as he 

 was about to step off the log on the opposite bank he slipped and 

 fell striking his left leg across the log, breaking the bone just above 

 the ankle joint. Fortunately we were only a short distance from 

 camp so that Charley hobbled to camp, using his gun for a crutch. 



When we got in camp it did not take long to see that the bone 

 was broken. I fixed wood, water and food as convenient as possible 

 for Charley and took a lantern, a lunch in my pocket and started 

 for Alpena, reaching there shortly after daylight the next morning. 

 Engaging a team without any delay we started back to camp. 

 Reaching camp about three o'clock in the afternoon, we found 

 Charley quite comfortable and feeling quite chipper under the 

 circumstances. While the team was eating we fixed both blankets 

 on the straw and a mattress which we had brought for the pur- 

 pose from town, and fixed things as comfortable as we could. We 

 were soon on our way back to town, which we reached about mid- 

 night. The next morning the doctor set the broken limb with but 

 little difficulty. 



After staying two or three days and making arrangements 

 with a young man to come to camp every Saturday and bring mail 

 and word from Charley, I returned to camp, where I found things 

 all right. While out to town I bought a pair of snow shoes. I 

 had never used them, and for the first few days it was who and 

 who to know which would be on top, myself or the snow shoes. 

 I finally mastered them and found them a great help in getting about 

 in the deep snow. It kept me pretty busy attending to the traps. 



One night after Charley had been gone about three weeks, on 

 nearing camp, I saw a big smoke coming out of the chimney. I 

 first thought the cabin was on fire, but I soon saw that that was 

 not the case, and knew some one had started a fire. When I got 

 there I saw some one had been there with a team. When I 

 rapped on the door Charley called out, "Come in, I am running this 

 camp now." Well, I tell you I was pleased to hear that voice 

 call out, "Come in." It was some time before we thought it best 

 for Charley to go out very much, but he could keep camp and I 

 had company. We stayed in camp until the middle of May, think- 



