Two Little Savages

by Ernest Thompson Seton

  XIV

  Caleb's Philosophy

  The tracks of Mink appeared from time to time on Yan's creekside mudalbums, and at length another of these tireless watchers, placed atthe Wakan Rock, reported to him that Mink as well as Skunks came therenow for a nightly feast.

  The Mink was a large one, judging by the marks, and Caleb was asked tohelp in trapping it.

  "How do you trap Mink, Mr. Clark?" was the question.

  "Don't trap 'em at all this time o' year, for they're no good tillOctober," was the answer.

  "Well, how do you trap them when they are in season?"

  "Oh, different ways."

  It was slow work, but Yan kept on and at length got the old man going.

  "Airly days we always used a deadfall for Mink. That's made like this,with a bird or a Partridge head for bait. That kills him sure, suddenand merciful. Then if it's cold weather he freezes and keeps O.K.till you come around to get him; but in warm weather lots o' pelts arespoiled by being kept too long, so ye have to go round pretty oftento save all you kill. Then some one brought in them new-fangled steeltraps that catches them by the foot and holds them for days and days,some times, till they jest starve to death or chaw their foot off toget free. I mind once I ketched a Mink with only two legs left. He hadbeen in a steel trap twice before and chawed off his leg to getaway. Them traps save the trapper going round so often, but they'reexpensive, and heavy to carry, and you have got to be awfulhard-hearted before ye kin use 'em. I tell ye, when I thought of allthe sufferin' that Mink went through it settled me for steel traps.Since then, says I, if ye must trap, use a deadfall or a ketchalive,one or other; no manglin' an' tormentin' for days. I tell ye that tharnew Otter trap that grabs them in iron claws ought to be forbid bylaw; it ain't human.

  "Same way about huntin'. Huntin's great sport, an' it can't be bad,'cause I can't for the life of me see that it makes men bad. 'Pearsto me men as hunt is humaner than them as is above it; as for thecruelty--wall, we know that no wild animal dies easy abed. They allget killed soon or late, an' if it's any help to man to kill them Ireckon he has as good a right to do it as Wolves an' Wildcats. Itdon't hurt any more--yes, a blame sight less--to be killed by a rifleball than to be chawed by Wolves. The on'y thing I says is don't doit cruel--an' don't wipe out the hull bunch. If ye never kill a thingthat's no harm to ye 'live an' no good to ye dead nor more than thecountry kin stand, 'pears to me ye won't do much harm, an' ye'll havea lot o' real fun to think about afterward.

  "But I mind a feller from Europe, some kind o' swell, that I wasguidin' out West. He had crippled a Deer so it couldn't get away. Thenhe sat down to eat lunch right by, and every few moments he'd fire ashot into some part or another, experimentin' an' aimin' not to killit for awhile. I heard the shootin' an' blattin', an when I come up Itell ye it set my blood a-boilin'. I called him some names men don'tlike, an' put that Deer out o' pain quick as I could pull trigger.That bu'st up our party--I didn't want no more o' him. He come prettynear lyin' by the Deer that day. It makes me hot yet when I think ofit.

  "If he'd shot that Deer down runnin' an' killed it as quick as hecould it wouldn't 'a' suffered more than if it had been snagged alittle, 'cause bullets of right weight numb when they hit. The Deerwouldn't have suffered more than he naturally would at his finish,maybe less, an' he'd 'a' suffered it at a time when he could be somegood to them as hunted him. An' these yer new repeatin' guns is acurse. A feller knows he has lots of shot and so blazes away into aband o' Deer as long as he can see, an lots gets away crippled, tosuffer an' die; but when a feller has only one shot he's going toplace it mighty keerful. Ef it's sport ye want, get a single-shotrifle, ef it's destruction, get a Gatling-gun.

  "Sport's good, but I'm agin this yer wholesale killin' an' cruelty.Steel traps, light-weight bullets an' repeatin' guns ain't human. Itell ye it's them as makes all the sufferin'."

  This was a long speech for Caleb, but it was really less connectedthan here given. Yan had to keep him going with occasional questions.This he followed up.

  "What do you think about bows and arrows, Mr. Clark?"

  "I wouldn't like to use them on big game like Bear and Deer, but I'dbe glad if shotguns was done away with and small game could be killedonly with arrows. They are either sure death or clear miss. There's nocripples to get away and die. You can't fire an arrow into a flock ofbirds and wipe out one hundred, like you can with one of them blamescatterguns. It's them things that is killing off all the small game.Some day they'll invent a scattergun that is a pump repeater like themnew rifles, and when every fool has one they'll wonder where all thesmall game has gone to.

  "No, sir, I'm agin them. Bows and arrows is less destructful an' callsfor more Woodcraft an' give more sport--that is, for small game.Besides, they don't make that awful racket, an' you know who is theparty that owns the shot, for every arrow is marked."

  Yan was sorry that Caleb did not indorse the arrow for big game, too.

  The Trapper was well started now; he seemed ready enough withinformation to-day, and Yan knew enough to "run the rapids on thefreshet."

  "How do you make a ketchalive?"

  "What for?"

  "Oh, Mink."

  "They ain't fit to catch now, and the young ones need the mothers."

  "I wouldn't keep it. I only want to make a drawing."

  "Guess that won't harm it if you don't keep it too long. Have ye anyboards? We used to chop the whole thing out of a piece of Balsam woodor White Pine, but the more stuff ye find ready-made the easier it is.Now I'll show you how to make a ketchalive if ye'll promise me neverto miss a day going to it while it is set."

  The boys did not understand how any one could miss a day in visiting aplace of so much interest, and readily promised.

  So they made a ketchalive, or box-trap, two feet long, using hay wireto make a strong netting at one end.

  "Now," said the trapper, "that will catch Mink, Muskrat, Skunk,Rabbit--'most anything, 'cording to where you put it and how you baitit."

  "Seems to me the Wakan Rock will be a good place to try."

  So the trap was baited with a fish head firmly lashed on the wiretrigger.

  In the morning, as Yan approached, he saw that it was sprung. Apeculiar whining and scratching came from it and he shouted in greatexcitement: "Boys, boys, I've got him! I've got the Mink!"

  They seized the trap and held it cautiously up for the sunlight toshine through the bars, and there saw to their disgust that they hadcaptured only the old gray Cat. As soon as the lid was raised shebounded away, spitting and hissing, no doubt to hurry home to tell theKittens that it was all right, although she had been away so long.