“That’s the idea,” said Herbert, “and I wonder we did not think of it before. If we were at the lake now, it wouldn’t take us long to bag ducks enough for a good dinner.”
“Oh, squirrels will do just as well,” replied Duke. “There are plenty of them about here, and, Joe, if you and Sandy will go out and shoot some, the rest of us will build a fire and get every thing ready. If you fellows are as hungry as I am, we shall want about ten. I can dispose of two, I know.”
So could I, and more, for that matter. I was as hungry as a wolf, and if there was any thing I enjoyed in my boyhood’s days, it was a dinner in the woods as Mark used to serve it up. He could not cook at all in a house over a stove; but take him out in the cane-brakes, and give him a good fire, a forked stick and a wild duck or some squirrels, and in a few minutes he would have ready a dinner that would tempt an epicure.
To get up a “hotel dinner,” as he called it, he needed a few crackers or biscuit, and a little pepper and salt for seasoning. An ear of green corn, fresh pulled from the field, and roasted in the shuck under his supervision, and served up on a piece of beech bark, answered all the purposes of a dessert, and tasted much better than any pie or pudding I ever ate at a table.
On this occasion, however, he had neither crackers, pepper nor salt, and it was too late in the season for roasting-ears; but, as Duke had said, the squirrels were plenty, and I grew hungrier than ever when I thought what a feast Mark would have ready for us in about half an hour.
It having been decided that we should stop there and eat our dinner, we all dismounted, and after relieving our horses of the saddles and tying the animals to the trees near the place where we intended to make our camp, Sandy and I shouldered our guns and set out in different directions to hunt up the squirrels.
I walked down the bank of the bayou, and, before I had gone a hundred yards from the camp, brought a squirrel out of the top of a hickory.
Shortly afterward, I heard the report of Sandy’s gun, and as he never missed his mark, I knew we had two of the ten squirrels we wanted.
A little further on another was added to my bunch, and while I was hurrying forward to secure it, an incident happened that brought the hunt to a speedy termination.
The squirrel had fallen at the foot of a huge oak, but, being only wounded, started to climb the tree. I ran around after him, and just then something stirred the bushes close in front of me.