"'I'm camped on upper Red River; up where the river is only about twelve feet wide.It ain't deep none, only a few inches, but it's dug its banks down about four feet.The river runs along the center of a mile-wide valley, which they ain't no trees in it, but all cl'ar an' open.It's snowin' powerful hard one, evenin' about 3o'clock when I comes back along the ridge towards my camp onder the pines.While I'm ridin' along I crosses the trail of nineteen deer.
I takes it too quick, 'cause I needs deer in my business, an' Iknows these is close or their tracks would be covered, the way it snows.
"'I runs the trail out into the open, headin' for the other ridge.
The snow is plenty deep out from onder the pines, but I keeps on.
Final, jest in the mouth of a canyon, over the other side where the pines begins ag'in, up jumps a black.tail from behind a yaller-pine log, and I drops him.
"'My pony's plumb broke down by now, so I makes up my mind to camp.
It's a 'way good site.Thar's water comin' down the canyon; thar's a big, flat floor of rocks--big as the dance-hall floor--an' all protected by a high rock-faced bluff, so no snow don't get thar none; an' out in front, some twelve feet, is a big pitch-pine log.
Which I couldn't a-fixed things better if I works a year.
"'I sets fire to the log, cuts up my deer, an' sorter camps over between the log an' bluff, an' takes things as ba'my as summer.Ihas my saddle-blanket an' a slicker, an' that's all I needs.
"'Thar ain't no grass none for the little hoss, but I peels him about a bushel of quakin'-ash bark, an' he's doin' well 'nough.
Lord! how it snows outside! When I peers out in the mornin' it scares me.I saddles up, 'cause my proper camp is in the pines t'other side of this yere open stretch, an' I've got to make it.
"'My pony is weak, an' can only push through the snow, which is five feet deep.I'm walkin' along all comfortable, a-holdin' of his tail, when "swish" he goes plumb outen sight.I peers into the orifice which ketches him, an' finds he's done slumped off that four-foot bank into Red River, kerslop! Which he's at once swept from view;the river runnin' in ondcr the snow like a tunnel.
"That settles it; I goes pirootin' back.I lives in that canyon two months.It snows a heap after I gets back, an' makes things deeper'n ever.I has my deer to eat, not loadin' my pony with it when Istarts, an' I peels some sugar-pines, like I sees Injuns, an'
scrapes off the white skin next the trees, an' makes a pasty kind of bread of it, an' I'm all right.
"'One mornin', jest before I gets out of meat, I sees trouble out in the snow.Them eighteen deer--thar's nineteen, but I c'llects one, as I says--comes sa'nterin' down my canyon while I'm asleep, an'
goes out an' gets stuck in the snow.I allows mebby they dresses about sixty pounds each, an' wallers after 'em with my knife an'
kills six.
"'This yere gives me meat for seventy-two days--five pounds a day, which with the pine bark is shore enough, The other twelve I turns 'round an' he'ps out into the canyon ag'in, an' do you know, them deer's that grateful they won't leave none? It's a fact, they simply hangs 'round all the time I'm snowed in.
"'In two months the snow melts down, an' I says adios to my twelve deer an' starts for camp.Which you-alls mebby imagines my s'prise when I beholds my pony a-grazin' out in the open, saddle on an'
right.Yere's how it is: He's been paradin' up an' down the bed of Red River onder that snow tunnel for two months.Oh! he feeds easy enough.Jest bites the yerbage along the banks.This snow tunnel is four feet high, an' he's got plenty of room.
"'I'm some glad to meet up with my pony that a-way, you bet! an'
ketches him up an' rides over to my camp.An' I'm followed by my twelve deer, which comes cavortin' along all genial an' cordial an'
never leaves me.No, my hoss is sound, only his feet is a little water-soaked an' tender; an' his eyes, bein' so long in that half.
dark place onder the snow, is some weak an' sore.'
"As no one seems desirous to lie no more after Doc Peets gets through, we-alls eats an' drinks all we can, an' then goes over to the dance-hall an' whoops her up in honor of Red Dog.Nothin' could go smoother.
"When it comes time to quit, we has a little trouble gettin'
sep'rate from 'em, but not much.We-alls starts out to 'scort 'em to Red Dog as a guard of honor, an' then they, bustin' with p'liteness, 'scorts us back to Wolfville.Then we-alls, not to be raised out, sees 'em to Red Dog ag'in, an' not to have the odd hoss onto 'em in the matter, back they comes with us.
"I don't know how often we makes this yere round trip from one camp to t'other, cause my mem'ry is some dark on the later events of that Thanksgivin'.My pony gets tired of it about the third time back, an' humps himse'f an' bucks me off a whole lot, whereupon I don't go with them Red Dog folks no further, but nacherally camps down back of the mesquite I lights into, an, sleeps till mornin'.You bet!
it's a great Thanksgivin'.'
