tales, and now I was to have the long- 
hoped for chance. I gave Curt a wink 
and he was all smiles. Later while he 
was drying the dishes I walked over 
and sat down on the edge of the table. 
“Where shall it be to-morrow, Curt?” 
FOR a long time he did not speak and 
* then: “Well I guess we’ll try up 
around Mud Pond where we were to- 
day. It looks a little brighter to-night.” 
“That’s great,” I said, “I have always 
wanted to hunt on Mud Pond and this 
is the first chance I have ever had. 
What time will we leave camp?” “Well, 
I guess about half past five will do al- 
right.” And so it was fixed. I turned 
in early, but could not sleep, I was so 
filled with excitement over the coming 
day. For a long time I lay in the 
open camp and watched the sparks from 
the fire sail upward to die as they 
struck the bark roof high up over the 
fire place. Finally, I went to sleep just 
as father began to snore beside me. 
True to his word Curt called me the 
next morning a little before five. It 
was cold and very misty. The break- 
fast of ham and eggs and coffee was 
welcome, indeed. We left camp at six, 
leaying father and John still snoring 
lustily. I carried my 30-30 Winchester 
which father had given me two years 
before, when I killed my first buck. 
Curt carried a small canvas pack with 
a light lunch and an axe. We walked 
down to the stream which flowed only 
a short distance from camp, and here 
we took the smallest of the two boats 
and set off down stream. We had about 
two miles of stream before we came to 
the landing where we disembarked to 
carry over to the pond.’ 
Here we left the boat and started 
through an old burning towards Mud 
Pond. Curt was walking ahead, keep- 
ing a sharp watch for game and I was 
right behind him, stepping just where 
he stepped. We were moving along 
silently in this manner when suddenly 
Curt stopped, put his hand behind him 
and drew me forward. I was just in 
time to see a large buck go bounding 
off through the burning. It was the 
first deer we had seen and being a 
buck seemed to be a good omen. We 
crept on a little further and again Curt 
stopped and this time showed me a fox 
sitting on top of a stump, evidently 
hunting for mice. We watched him for 
a while and when he jumped off the 
stump we moved on. 
le a little while we came to an old 
lumber bridge in a clump of green 
timber. Here a tiny clear spring 
trickled out between two stones, and we 
had a drink. A short ways from the 
spring we came to the pond. Mud Pond 
is a shallow little body of water with 
Lily Pads all through it, and is a great 
Page 595 
feeding place for deer. At this season 
of the year and especially during the 
heavy drought we were having, the deer 
flocked to this pond from miles around. 
Curt got out the old boat hidden on 
the edge of the pond, and fixed a screen 
of evergreen branches around the bow 
seat where I was to sit. We took two 
paddles along and also a neck-yoke in 
case we should carry across to another 
small pond about a mile from the foot 
of Mud Pond. 
[? was still pretty early and a heavy 
mist hung over the water along the 
shores. Curt paddled up through Mud 
and into Lily Pad Pond. The mist was 
rising slowly and a very soft breeze 
was bringing with it the thick smoke 
from the forest fires that were only a 
short twelve miles away. We paddled 
up through the narrow neck of water 
that connects the two ponds; Curt do- 
ing the paddling and I sitting in the 
bow as still as I could with my gun 
across my lap. Without any warning, 
right*in front of us there was a tre- 
mendous splashing, then all was quiet. 
Curt kept pushing the boat forward all 
the time and now we were twenty yards 
from shore. We waited. The breeze 
increased a little and in a flash the veil 
of smoke and mist was blown aside 
and right in front of us, standing in 
the water, was a large doe. Beside 
her was her fawn and up on the back 
was a crotch-horned buck. Only a sec- 
ond did they stand looking at us, then 
they all bounded away through the 
marsh and into the timber. 
‘ONES paddled me around the pond 
twice more without seeing any- 
thing, so he turned the boat into a small 
stream which was the inlet, and pad- 
dled up this till we came to the rapids. 
Here we left one paddle and the lunch 
and carried the boat over a short port- 
age around the rapids to the still-water 
where we again got in and paddled up 
stream into another little pond. The 
wind had risen considerably and the 
smoke cinders began falling on the 
water. We floated around the pond for 
an hour without seeing a thing. The 
wind kept increasing and over in the 
west great clouds of smoke were bil- 
lowing up in the air and seemed driv- 
ing our way. I thought I could almost 
see the flames, so thick and black was 
the smoke. 
The smoke kept getting thicker and 
in an another half hour I could not 
see across the pond. It hurt my eyes 
and made my throat burn. The fire 
seemed to be right over where camp 
was and I could picture father and 
John paddling furiously up stream, with 
the fire in hot pursuit. Curt seemed a 
little doubtful what to do, but finally 
decided to take a last look around the 
pond. Seeing nothing we paddled back 
down the stream and carried around 
the rapids to Lily Pad. Here at the 
foot of the rapids we had lunch. It 
tasted very good, and we were com- 
fortable with the brook at our feet for 
drinking water and a tree behind our 
backs for a chair. After lunch we 
climbed up and sat on the upturned 
roots of a big wind-fallen pine. From 
this elevated position we could see 
nearly all of the pond, and it was an 
ideal place to watch from. 
A? four o’clock, after having sat up 
on the pine for two hours, we got 
into the boat and pushed out into the 
pond to take one last look around be- 
fore heading for camp. The wind was 
very strong, blowing dead against us. 
This made conditions just right for 
hunting, but it was cold sitting still in 
the boat. Curt had a hard time 
handling the boat quietly against the 
wind, but he did wonderfully well and 
the only noise was an occasional riffle 
breaking against the side of the boat. 
This would be my last chance for hunt- 
ing this season as I was due back at 
school the following week, and father 
was going to break camp the next morn- 
ing and start for home. 
As we paddled across the narrows 
between the two ponds, I saw a large 
deer standing out on the edge of the 
marsh. Curt saw him at the same time 
and at once turned the boat in that 
direction. Then we made out three 
other deer all standing together feed- 
ing. Although the wind was from 
them, yet the large deer at once no- 
ticed us and became uneasy. He would 
feed for a few minutes and look up 
suddenly as if trying to catch us mov- 
ing. 
WE were creeping up slowly. Two 
hundred yards, one hundred sev- 
enty-five yards, one hundred fifty; I was 
just raising my gun to shoot when up 
went the big deer’s head crowned with 
a heavy set of antlers, and he saw the 
motion we made in bringing the gun 
to my shoulder. With one tremendous 
bound he was off into the woods with 
the other three deer following. It was 
a pretty sight to see those four beautiful 
animals bounding off with their white 
tails bobbing up every time _ they 
jumped, and I could see their white 
flags for a long time after they went 
into the woods. At the time I did not 
appreciate this, for I was terribly dis- 
appointed that I had not gotten a shot 
at the big buck. I was now thoroughly 
chilled through and nervous, and every 
once in a while some muscle in my legs 
would begin twitching and I could not 
stop it. I told Curt that I was cold and 
wanted to land and put on my sweater, 
(Continued on page 625) 
Peat 
