164 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



that the wild goose does about their migratory time. At least I 

 felt as though I should fly if I did not get into the woods. We 

 were having splendid weather for camping, and the warm, dry, 

 sunny days afforded splendid weather for bee hunting, and after 

 the trap and gun then my delight is to trail the honey bee to his 

 den tree. 



One day when a young man called on me and said that he 

 would give me an interest in a "goose pasture" to go out in the 

 woods and camp, I was interested. Smoky Jim (that is his nick- 

 name) although his name is Charles Earl, and there is nothing 

 smoky about Charley except his pipe, which he is very fond of, too 

 much so, I think, for so young a man. Well, when Charley said 

 that he would like to go and camp out in the woods, I was practi- 

 cally as good as gone. I knew Smoky to be a lively kid and all 

 right, although he had never put in any time as a trapper or a bee 

 hunter. I said, ''Smoky, can you see a bee fly?" Smoky said that 

 he thought he could, for he knew that he could tell when one 

 stung him, but he had never watched to see how far he could see 

 one fly. 



I found that Smoky was given to making comical remarks as 

 well as to smoking. I said, "Smoky, what day can you go?" He 

 replied, "Any day." This was on Tuesday, so I said, "Alright, 

 Smoky, be here Thursday and we will start early Friday morning." 



Smoky said, "Alright, but we will not get a darn thing while 

 we are gone if we go on Friday unless we get drowned, and there 

 will have to be more water in the creek than there is now or we 

 won't get that much." 



I had already made application to the State Tourist Commis- 

 sioner for a permit to camp on state lands. It may be well to state 

 here for the benefit of those who wish to so camp in this state 

 (Pennsylvania) that the authorities will not give a permit to camp 

 for a longer time than 14 days. In my case they were very obliging 

 and made out the papers for several applicants of 14 days each, 

 so that it would only have been necessary to have signed one of 

 the applications and send it on a few days before the previous 

 application had expired. 



