PORTER TYLER. 43 



of single-barrelled guns was so common that the excep- 

 tion was a matter of remark ; therefore the fact that he car- 

 ried a "double-barrelled gun" was duly noted. I told him 

 that I had been through Teller's woods an hour before, 

 but only found a few pigeons there and got but three of 

 them. 



"The big flock was down to the crick for water, then," 

 said he, "and I saw 'em rise and go into the woods, about 

 three or four hundred of 'em in the flock ; and they haven't 

 left yet. You can stay here and get a few shots if they 

 come this way, as they will be likely to if that man over 

 south of 'em gets among 'em. I'll work off to the east'ard 

 and get beyond 'em if that man don't start 'em first," and 

 he moved off and was soon lost in the underbrush. He 

 was a man I had never seen before, and the incident was 

 only called to mind when, out after rabbits in the winter, 

 on Crehan's farm above the mill-pond, in jumping a little 

 stream I landed near a man who was skinning a mink. It 

 was the stranger of the pigeon hunt, and instinctively 

 came the knowledge that this was the mysterious woods- 

 man of whom so much had been heard. To my surprise 

 he knew who I was, and said: "Oh, yes, I've often seen 

 you down the crick and in the woods, and when I saw the 

 gun you carried I knew it belonged to your brother Har- 

 leigh, for he told me that you had it most ev'ry day when 

 you were out of school." 



This was the first mink I had ever seen, and I watched 

 the skinning, which went very well until the tail was 

 reached, and this could not be skinned far because the 

 skin was so tight. We talked until he had finished, set 

 his steel trap and gathered his skins, and went on with the 

 hides of two minks and six muskrats a very good morn- 

 ing's work. Truly he was not now "mysterious;" he was 

 no longer a half mythical person, but a real, live man, and 



