DAN BEARD AND THE BOYS 



349 



and no instrument every furnished more de- 

 light to a lad than did this gouge to me. 

 1 made a scabbard for it and carried 

 it in my belt and traveled miles and 

 miles back in the Kentucky woods, inscribing 

 my name on every smooth-bark beech tree 

 which I could discover. Many years after- 

 ward, after I had cast mv first vote and 

 grown a mustache, I went fishing in Kentucky 

 and sat down to eat mv lunch under a spread- 

 ing beech tree. Happening to glance up I was 

 astonished to find, cut in neat letters, my own 

 name. I had then and have now no recollec- 

 tion of carving my name upon that tree; hut 

 it was undoubtedly done years before, when I 

 was the proud possessor of a carpenter's 

 gouge. 



By the way, I still have a little crescent scar 

 on my body which is also the mark of this 

 gouge, but which, it is not necessary for me 

 to say, was not intentionally put there. 



It is not intended that the Sons of Daniel 

 Boone shall follow literally the example of 

 the old Kentucky pioneer in carving their 

 names upon the trees; but we hope and be- 

 lieve that these boys will carve their names in 

 the minds and hearts of the communities in 

 which they dwell; and for that purpose they 

 need neither jack-knife nor a gouge, but they 

 do need honesty, manliness, courage, and 

 faithfulness to high aims and ideals. These 

 qualities they all possess, else they would not 

 belong to our society, so it is only necessary 

 for them to live up to their own ideas to 

 make enviable records, not only for the so- 

 ciety, but for f hemselves as individuals. 



MY FIRST DEER HUNT. 



Dear Founder : 



I do not believe a boy's first deer hunt will 

 ever be forgotten, or at least, I do not think 

 I shall ever forget mine. I made it last sum- 

 mer with my father and Mr. Barger, his 

 hunting companion. 



They had planned a hunt of a few days in 

 Cow Creek canons, to take place as soon as 

 the season opened for deer, which was on 

 the 15th of July, and I had been wanting to 

 take a hunt, and had had the promise for 

 some time of going out "as soon as the deer 

 were ripe," as Casey (Mr. Barger) said. 

 For two weeks before the time came I could 

 hardly wait for the day. We were to start 

 on the 14th, so as to be there to open with 

 the season on the morning of the 15th. We 

 were to leave Roseburg on the early train 

 in the morning, and travel forty-five miles 

 south to Union Creek, then walk back in 

 the mountains about three miles to Whiskey 

 camp, on the main divide between Union and 

 Slip Creeks — where the men thought we 

 could find plenty of deer. 



After leaving the station, we went up 

 the creek about half a mile to where an 



old cabin had stood a few years before, 

 but .was now burned down, nothing re- 

 raining but the ashes and tins, pots, a 

 burned up stove, and an old piece of a rock 

 fireplace. Here we left all our luggage as 

 we were at the foot of a hard climb. We left 

 our gun cases and all extra clothing, as it 

 was rather warm, and all we had was two 

 knapsacks containing our grub, one small 

 frying pan, one small coffee pot, cups, knives, 

 forks, and spoons. These the men carried, 

 as I had about all I could carry to get my- 

 self and gun over the hills. 



Here Mr. Barger asked me if I could shoot 

 a gnat's eye out at fifty yards. He said if I 

 could not, 1 would have to return home 

 alone — but he cut it down some by putting 

 up a piece of paper about the size of a silver 

 dollar and told me if I hit it I might go, and, 

 by accident or luck, I almost hit the center 

 of the paper at about twenty steps. So we 

 started for the long climb. 



After about three hours' hard, hot climb- 

 ing it began to rain, cooling off the air, but 

 making the brush very wet and disagree- 

 able to travel through as there were no open 

 trails. But we arrived at our camping place 

 about the middle of the afternoon, and I was 

 about the best man in the camp, as the two 

 men had the load to carry and all I had was 

 a light .22 Winchester rifle. But my, how 

 hungry I was ! So we built up a fire and 

 fried some bacon, also some Vienna sausage, 

 warmed some canned beans, made some hot 

 coffee, toasted some bread, and I never ate 

 anything in all my life that tasted quite so 

 good as that first hunting dinner in the moun- 

 tains. 



After dinner we gathered wood for camp 

 fire and prepared for the night. All the shel- 

 ter we had was the clouds for a roof and a 

 thick fir tree for our blanket, which kept 

 much of the rain off us. 



It did not rain very hard, but kept sprink- 

 ling all night. I had an empty knapsack un- 

 der me for a mattress, and a floursack over 

 my head to keep the rain off my face. We 

 kept up a good fire all night, so we did not 

 fare so bad after all ; and the two old-time 

 hunters that were with me said the rain was 

 just what we needed to make hunting good, 

 and their ideas proved to be right. 



We had an early breakfast and at the break 

 of day all started for large bucks. Had not 

 gone three hundred yards from camp when 

 we saw a bunch of four deer, but they were 

 all does, so we let them go their way. About 

 two hundred yards further we saw a nice 

 buck starting to run across the ridge about 

 eighty yards ahead of us, and Casey and I 

 let go at him at the same time, and down he 

 went, but when we went to him we failed to 

 find anything but a .32 special bullet hole in 

 his hide. So I missed my first deer, but felt 

 proud to get a shot at one. After going a 



