TRAPPING AND BEE HUNTING. 171 



make a bed to set the trap in and have the trap set by the time 

 that he got the clog ready. v 



It was now that I found that Smoky had brought a small 

 hatchet weighing less than one-half pound instead of the larger 

 belt axe, but there was nothing to do only to cut the clog with 

 the little hatchet. So Smoky went to work cutting the clog while 

 I went to setting the traps. After a while Smoky came with the 

 clog and he had cut it off where it was considerably too large 

 for the ring in the chain. I said, "Smoky, I guess you did not 

 size that ring or the clog very much for you have got it much 

 too large." Smoky replied readily, "Yes I did too, the tree has 

 grown that much since I began to chop it." 



After a time we managed to get the two traps set and got 

 back to camp. That night about 10 o'clock, Smoky woke me with 

 a punch in the ribs and at the same time saying, "Get your gun, 

 the whole Siwash tribe of Indians are on us." On the impulse 

 of the moment I though Smoky was right for I could hear many 

 voices and the barking and snarling of dogs. In a moment all 

 that had ever happened to me and many things that never did, 

 nor can happen, passed through my mind but it was only for a 

 moment when some one called out at the tent door saying, "Get 

 up, you have visitors." 



We asked who was there and the reply was, "Oh get up, two 

 sleeps is better than one any time." I got up and put on my pants 

 and unbuckled the tent door and there stood a half dozen men 

 and as many more dogs. Two of the men had a large demi- 

 john strung on a pole and they were carrying it on their shoulders, 

 two more of the men had coons slung over their shoulders. The 

 boys said that they were put coon hunting and by chance ran 

 into our camp and thought that they would call on us and learn 

 what we were doing. The demijohn contained cider, and the 

 barking of the dogs was caused by getting into trouble over scraps 

 that had been thrown about camp. 



We invited the boy in and asked them to tell what luck they 

 had had hunting coon. They said that they had only got the two 

 coons on their way up, but thought that they would do better on 

 their way back down the creek. The boys lived about six miles 



