62 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JUIY 26, 1902. 
Through the Parsonage Window. 
m.— Tlie Winter Camp, 
After my partners had gone I set about the construc- 
tion of the camp. With the spade I shoveled the uneven 
face of the embankment at the first bench to a straight 
wall six feet high. In the center of this I carved out a 
fireplace, digging it wide and deep. In the top of the 
bank near the face of the wall I then dug down and con- 
nected with the fireplace. Around this connecting link I 
next built a sod chimney, and the fireplace was done. 
Next I set two posts against the wall twenty feet apart 
on each side of the fireplace, and two more opposite, 
twenty feet out, forming a square. The sides I built up 
with poles, willow brush and a thatch of blue stem. The 
roof I made in the same way, using three heavy logs for 
ridges and plates, and covering the whole with dirt; the 
front was left open with only a thicket of willow to pro- 
tect it. It was a slight deviation from the usual dug- 
out, but when lined Avith dried buffalo hides, fur side in, 
made a very comfortable place to drop into of a stormy 
night when aweary Avith the day's hunt. So comfortable 
indeed was it that many came iJiat way and tarried long, 
and did literally eat us out of house and home, as it cost 
four hundred dollars to provision it for the winter, with 
meat for the finding. 
After supper, at the dose of my first day's work on the 
camp, I took the Sharps and strolled down the ravine 
below the pooL Sitting on a knoll to rest, for I was 
tired, I watched the sun set and the red glow of the 
sky after it was gone. Alone in the solitude of the hills 
the coloring of the sky or passing cloud meant more 
than it did when one was closely associated with his 
fellows. In dense populations man is apt to forget the 
works of the great Over-ruling Power and see only his 
own conceited efforts. Colonel was my constant com- 
panion. He was good company, listening with rapt 
attention to the minutest details of any exploit I was 
minded to recount, a quality I have seldom found in 
men. 
I was about to ^et up and start back to camp, when 
a queer-shaped shade in the blue stem two hundred 
yards down the ravine attracted my attention. The 
shade was the shape of a deer, but motionless. I 
watched it for some time, but could make nothing out. 
It was perhaps only a shade in the grass, but I leveled 
the half-breed on it and pressed the trigger. When 'the 
smoke cleared the shade was gone. It was deep dusk 
and the shade might have run off without my seeing it. 
yet I walked down, and there found a fine whitetail 
buck stretched in the grass. 
Two days finished the camp, and I had, presumably, 
three days' leisure before the fellows were likely to 
get back. Hunting would be mere wasteful slaughter, 
as game would certainly spoil in the warm weather that 
prevailed, and I had seen only one deer and a few ante- 
lope. Not a buffalo had been visible since the stampede. 
There were ducks and geese flying about all the time, and 
quite a number of ducks made their home on the pool 
near the camp. 
I had never shot a white swan and resolved to put in 
the next day trying for one. The fellows had taken the 
shotgun on the return trip with them, so that I had to 
depend on the Sharps and a Remington "revolver. This 
revolver was a heavy-weight of .44 caliber, and would 
shoot as accurately as any of the rifles. I carried it in a 
holster attached to a belt, and it was a great nuisance, 
with its constant thumping when riding or walking. In 
stalking game on foot it was still worse, and I usually 
unbuckled the belt and left all on the prairie until the 
staUc was over. This caused many long side trips to 
retrieve it, and I finally traded it to a passing hunter for 
a nice briar-root pipe. 
This was the best trade I ever made, as the pipe took 
fire and burned up the first time I filled it, and forever 
relieved me 'from owning the two greatest nuisances ever 
invented — a revolver and a pipe. 
There were at least a hundred swans in the big basin, 
together with thousands of ducks and geese. These lat- 
ter increased the difficulty of getting a shot at a swan by 
fifty per cent. The tall grass made a complete girdle 
round the lake, and I had no trouble in getting into it 
without alarming the birds, but the swans were in the 
center nearly half a mile out. Ducks and geese were all 
about, but no swan. I must wait for something to turn 
up, and concluded to while away the time by doing a 
little sharpshooting. 
The birds were to windward, with quite a gale blow- 
ing, and there was little danger of the swans becoming 
alarmed at the report of my gun and leaving the marsh. 
I fired several shots at the white bank, but could not 
locate the planting of the bullets on account of the 
constant splashing of the water in the wind. After half 
a dozen shots, a commotion among the birds showed 
that I must have landed somewhere near them, as there 
was considerable squawking and a number of swans rose 
and inade several circles before they settled again, send- 
ing their distance-withering cry far over the water. A 
half-dozen more shots failed to raise any further dis- 
turbance, and I gave it up and lay waiting and listening 
to the wild tales of the blue stem as it whistled and 
gesticulated in the wind. 
I had lain thus perhaps three hours, when a rush of 
wind overhead attracted my attention, and looking up 
I saw four swans passing not twenty yards above me. 
With a shotgun I might have been sure of a double, but 
I was slow in getting the half-breed leveled. When I 
fired a jet of feathers flew from the side of one of the 
swans and buried off down wind, but the bullet had not 
raked deep enough to do any damage. 
Soon after this I noticed something white drifting 
across the water. I watched it closely and soon made it 
out to be a dead swan. It was coming toward me, but 
lodged 200 yards away. Colonel had been lying beside 
me all day, and I ordered him to get il. He was a 
fine retriever, and soon laid the great bird at my feet. I 
estimated its weight at thirty poujiicis, A rifle ball l)a4 
passed through its body and it was fresh killed. It had 
evidently been hit by the shot that had raised the dis- 
turbance among the birds. 
Colonel seemed to suffer no inconvenience from a 
cold bath. During the winter I shot a mallard on the 
pool near camp, and broke its wing. Except for a few 
rods of open water in the middle, the pool was covered 
with ice. The duck, falling on the ice, slid into the 
water. Colonel saw it and plunged in after it. Round 
and round the pool went duck and dog. The dog could 
swim faster than the duck, but when he came close the 
duck would dive. After being foiled in this way a num- 
ber of times, Colonel took to diving after the duck. 
Then an interesting diving match took place. He easily 
worsted the duck at this, and after several efforts caught 
it deep under water. 
Unfortunately for me, when he came up with the duck 
it was under the ice. The ice was thin and clear, and 
when I saw him struggling beneath it, I was not long in 
landing on it with both feet. It broke and I caught 
Colonel by the collar, and, getting under, boosted him 
out on solid ice. 
But when it came to getting out myself, I met with 
obstacles. The ice was smooth as glass and slippery as a 
trout's tail. I could only raise myself a certain height 
and then would slide back again. At length I got out 
my pocket knife and opening it reached back as far as I 
could and drove the blade through the ice. By this aid 
I climbed out. Colonel came out of the scrimmage as 
happy as a clam at high tide, but I got a disagreeable 
cold bath. 
When I got back to camp with my swam, there were 
two more on the pool near camp. One of these I shot, 
and emptied several shells at the other as it circled 
about, but failed to hit it. In the morning the swan 
was back on the pool again. I had heard that a 
swan losing its mate would mourn itself to death, and 
thought I would anticipate such a melancholy event with 
a bullet. This time I succeeded in laying its back open 
from wing to wing, cutting it half in two, 
I skinned the swans and treated the skins with a solu- 
tion of alum, and the next winter a young lady of our 
settlement disported herself in swan-skin cape and muff. 
It was six days before my friends got back, bringing 
with them four extra teams and half a dozen men. I 
had scarcely made a start toward eating the deer I had 
killed, but with this addition to the eating force, only the 
.skeleton remained after breakfast next morning, and it 
was necessary to get meat before dinner. 
Pete and one of the new men volunteered to bring in an 
antelope in time, but they failed even to bring them- 
selves. They lost their bearings, and were out till mid- 
night. After that some one was lost almost every night, 
and a signal lantern hanging on a tree was seldom taken 
down except to be refilled and lighted. More ammuni- 
tion was wasted in firing signal shots in a week than we 
fired at game all winter. But no game was brought in, 
and we went without meat for four days. 
With so many enthusiastic hunters in the hills, even 
the antelope were soon driven away. Yet one there was 
that remained. He came one morning to take a survey 
of our camp. Eight rifles spoke to him at once, and 
some spoke several times, and the poor antelope fell with 
both forelegs broken. One ball broke both legs, two 
inches above the ankle, but we had fresh meat for a 
couple of meals. 
In the gray of dawn a few days later the hills were 
again discovered to be a living mass of buffalo. It was 
the signal for a busy day, and before night fifteen buffalo 
had been killed and everybody was in good humor. 
Nathan and myself did most of the execution, having 
strayed off by ourselves and got into a pleasant little mix- 
up, where nine big fellows were dropped in a bunch. 
Nathan in particular was in high feather that night in 
camp, and went so far as to compliment my performance. 
He said I faced the music bravely and kept the Sharps 
spitting fire to the tune of Fourth-of-July firecrackers. 
"For a beginner," said he, "Darby kept his nerve splen- 
didly." 
It was pleasant to be thus flattered, especially by one 
whose position was assured, the more so that I had a 
secret suspicion the half-breed had accounted for eight of 
the buffalo, with probable lead from it in the ninth. Take 
it all round, it was a very pleasant evening, and the cards 
were not once mentioned. It took all next day to get the 
meat in and cut up and the hides stretched, which was 
done by turning the hair-side to the grass, spreading 
them on the prairie, cutting holes round the edge of the 
hides and driving sharp sticks through and into the 
ground. When the hides were all staked out and the meat 
cut up and spread round in quarters on the little smooth 
strip of tableland just back of camp, it made quite an 
imposing show. I can see Colonel strutting round among 
the quarters yet, as a dog will at butchering time. I 
went out after a while and cau.ght him eating from one 
of the quarters, and took a switch to him. Afterward I 
gave him a piece of meat for his own, and he never again 
helped himself, though the ground was covered with meat. 
Colonel and I never got the camp to ourselves again 
that winter. , There was always some Kansas sufferer, 
none too well fed at home, who volunteered to keep us 
company while the teams were on a trip. Five times, I 
think, the teams made the round, and always got more 
or less meat. The buffalo were a great help to the 
settlers ; without them the march of civilization across 
the plains would have been much slower and likely a 
great deal better founded. It was with a pang of regret 
that I packed the things belonging to the camp and went 
out with the teams one day in February. They were 
coming back no more. 
The night before starting a dispute arose as to the 
distance between the camp and the settlements. One old 
settler, who had hunted buffalo in that country for several 
years, said it was one hundred and fifty miles. This 
was generally accepted as the distance, though several 
declared it was nearer two hundred. It had finally come 
to take eight days to make the round trip, and every man 
knew his team could make fifty miles a day. The coun- 
try had all been newly surveyed, and there was a corner 
stake near camp. 
I went out and got the numbers from it. I knew the 
numbers of the land I had located, and it was a simple 
matter pf a few figures |o tell how far it really wasi The 
figures showed it to be just ninety miles. There was a 
hoot of derision when I announced this, and a good 
many sarcastic remarks were made about boys who ;) 
thought they knew it all. However, two men in the party 
understood something of the survey system and backed 
me up. A riot was barely averted. If there is anything 
that will make a would-be plainsman hot it is to hint that J 
he does not know distance or direction. Of course I had 
not disputed with any one, but had simply gone to the ' 
figures for my facts and was surprised at the result my- 
self. 
The first night out on the return trip we camped in a | 
bewildering jumble of small hills, and in the morning ; 
a snowstorm was upon us. ^ Six inches had already fallen. 
A strong wind was blowing and the snow was being ■ 
swept almost horizontally across the plain. There had . 
been little snow during the inter, and this took us com- 
pletely by surprise. Nothing could be made out in the 
misty whiteness at any great distance ahead. The teams f 
had not followed the same trail in their trips back and 
forth to the settlements during the winter, but had struckv ' 
oft' to the right and left in attempts to find a better route. ' 
The faint trail we had been following the day before was | 
entirely lost under the snow, and our course was now 
wholly a matter of guesswork. 
When the teams started out it seemed to me as if they 
turned almost at right angles to the course we had been 
keeping. Knowing the fate of the boy who presumed tq < 
knowledge sttperior to his elders, I kept still as long as I 
could. But at length our lives seemed to hang in the ' 
balance, and I broached the subject of my fears. My | 
audacity won me a hearing and the wagons stopped for | 
council. I argued that we were traveling due north. 
Some claimed we were moving almost east, others had no ' 
opinion. One man said he had been on the plains for ' 
years and had never been turned round; we were going 
directly northeast, which was the proper course. 
At this juncture there was a rift in the clouds and the~( 
sun shone through. It was directly over our left hind 
wheel; we were going due west. We had made nearly a 
half-circle in less than two miles. So much for the 
homing instinct of man. Relying on instinct, man is much 
less sagacious than the brute. Reason is his true guide, 
if only he could be brought to exercise it. 
The fleeting glimpse of the sun gave us our course, . 
but Fknew it could not be kept unless by the exercise of 
great caution. I now started to walk ahead of the teams, 
taking an object as far in front as I could see, and going 
straight toward it, singling out other objects as we ad- 
vanced, with my gun, which was coated with snow, for a 
pointer. At night all we could do was to cower down in 
the snow and wait for morning. We had no wood for 
fuel. 
I marked our course by the bearings of one of our 
wagons. In the morning the men were all thoroughly at 1 
sea, and there was no dispute about direction. I took the | 
lead as before. It was still snowing furiously, though j 
not cold; about twelve inches of snow had fallen. Our ' 
progress was slow through the drifts, but by 3 o'clock we j 
came out on the Arkansas River. Fuel was plentiful. We j 
soon had a great fire roaring, and perhaps you think S 
its warmth was not grateful to a lot of tired men — far \ 
too tired to argue over who had brought us through. | 
I have seen much of the unerring instinct of the plains- 
man in the wandering imbecility of some of the great I 
trails of the old-time West. Even in a much-traveled | 
thoroughfare like the Santa Fe trail, I have noted a half- 
circle when a better grade could have been had by taking | 
a direct course. Mainly, the trails were laid out by taking ; 
the high ground between streams, between the heads of 1 
the draws running either way, and by following the bot- ' 
toms along the streams. This made crooked trails, but on ' 
level tableland I have seen the trails just as crooked as if 
nature had compelled their making in corkscrew fashion. I 
This was the work of instinct, and it resulted just as \ 
badly there as it does in letting it guide in politics, re- 
ligion or business. Close application of reason is what | 
made great plainsmen as well as great engineers in any . 
line. The Parsoi?. I 
Fishing Rod vs. Toy Pistol. 
Taklng of inventory at the close of the business year is ' 
to the merchant always an occasion of more or less 
anxiety, but it is not in any sense to be compared with 
the anxiety of the mother of the growing boy as she sits 
in dread all day and prays that when an inventory of 
fingers and eyes are made at bedtime that there will be 
found no shortage in the stock. 
The advent of the mud can and the blank shooting pis- 
tol has added a thousand fold to the terrors of the day , 
when only firecrackers, "nigger-chasers" and torpedoes 
filled the measure of happiness of the growing and 
patriotic boy. 
The only remedy for a situation that involves the pos* ( 
session of pistols by every boy in the block, helped out by' 'j 
a programme of mud can and potash-sulphur abomina- 
tions, was to offer a counter attraction, and I offered my 
boy a fishing trip. Well, going fishing was, of course, 
good enough, but it had no flavor of the glorious Fourth 
in it. So as a compromise and a further inducement, I 
promised to take a small rifle and a supply of cartridges 
along. This closed the bargain. Then there were my 
nephew and niece, and I included them in the party, and ! 
early Fourth of July morning we took train and off we ' 
v/ent. \ 
It was somewhat of a proposition to turn over to those j 
children your rods and reels, but I did so, and braved the ' 
outcome. We intended to try for bass, but concluded 
that wall-eyed pike would perhaps be more in order, as it ^ 
involved trolling well down toward the bottom. Casting 
Would hardly have proven a success. My boy sat up well 
forward ; next came the oarsman, then the writer, and in 
the stern seat sat the two other children. It took some 1 
time to rig them all up, and once their lines were in the , 
water I laid fresh hooks within easy reach and drew the 
minnow and crayfish 'bucket close up. 
And then the trouble began ! What with baiting hookv 
unsnarling tangled lines, unloosening or tearing hool- 
loose from snags, supplying fresh hooks, baiting lines and 
removing fish, I certainly had a busy time of it. , 
The fish were not voracious, but by noon we had a | 
couple of nice bass and some goodly sized wall-eyed pik^, ' 
