AN EVENING WITH AN OLD TRAPPER. 135 



will shine directly upon me. When travelling by water, I 

 draw the boat on to the bank at night, partly turn it up, and 

 sleep under it, building a fire a few feet distant in front. I 

 generally have slept very soundly in the woods." 



" I have kept you answering questions a long time ; but I 

 shall not leave fully satisfied unless you will give me an ac- 

 count of some interesting adventures, of which you must have 

 had many in your half-century's hunting and trapping." 



" My experiences have not been so thrilling as those related 

 in many books ; besides, I am a poor hand to tell stories." 



" Tell him how you once nearly froze to death," said his 

 son John, always pleased to hear his father repeat his advent- 

 ures. 



" Well, then," replied Mr. Hutchins, who only waited for 

 a little urging, " I will tell you of my 



ADVENTURE ON THE DEAD RIVER. 



" It must have taken place nearly forty years ago in the 

 State of Maine. It was on my second long trapping expedi- 

 tion. I went into the woods with one Captain John Churchill, 

 a great trapper and hunter. After we had killed nine moose, 

 we concluded that one of us had better return home and no- 

 tify our friends and neighbors that they could have plenty of 

 moose meat by coming into the woods after it. And so I 

 started home for that purpose. We were then on the head- 

 waters of the Androscoggin, about thirty miles from the head- 

 waters of the Dead River, where our home-shanty was. The 

 plan was for me to follow our line of traps, taking along what 

 fur I found, and skinning and stretching it at the home-shanty, 

 where I was to remain the first night. But instead of doing 

 so r I thought, on reaching the shanty, as the sun was still an 

 'hour and a half high, that I would leave the fur for Churchill 

 to skin, and go on several miles further. It was fifteen miles 

 down the Dead River to Folsom's house, but I thought 1 

 could go about half way, to the place where Captain Churchill 

 and I had camped when we went into the woods. So I 

 tramped on. It was one of the cold, sharp, biting days in 

 February, and the wind blew and the snow flew awfully. I 



