The Saga of Harlan Waugh (The Mountain Men) Read Online Free PDF Page A

up the fire for the warmth it offered, and soon all that could be heard was the sound of three human beings eating after working hard and going hungry all day.
    In short, nothing like a celebration, thought Harlan as he surveyed the fruits of their previous weeks’ labors with a smile.
    It was at that exact time that Winter Hawk suddenly stopped his trembling. It was noticed first by his brother and then Harlan as they consumed their moose dinner. Winter Hawk just grinned with the revelation and reached for another helping of moose stew. But in the hearts of Big Eagle and Harlan, there was Great Medicine that day in the moose stew, along with much happiness. Now they were a healthy family as well.
     
     
    ***
    Kneeling by the busted stick-and-mud beaver dam where they had opened a hole earlier, Harlan removed three dead beaver from the water-set traps. Loading them onto their spare pack horse, the three rode back to camp. Dismounting, Harlan took the three beaver and showed the boys how to remove the rear scent glands and save the oily-scented liquid in a small bottle with a wooden stopper. He had six such bottles that had formerly contained spices.
    Now, he planned to have one bottle for each of them, with three in reserve in case any got broken. Then they skinned the beaver carcasses, fleshed them out, and properly hooped them with willow branches from a nearby creek. Harlan showed the boys how he wanted the beaver carcasses boned out for the wonderful meat they supplied. As the boys gathered more willow branches for future hooping, the beaver meat merrily boiled away, laced with many spices. With the later addition of several handfuls of rice, it was soon a dinner to be savored.
    During the entire process, neither boy said anything, but they carefully observed what the trapper was teaching them. By now they realized that to catch and process beaver along with other furbearers would allow them to procure the necessities of life from something called a “rendezvous.”
    Neither boy had experienced one of these events, but they quickly understood from Harlan that the rendezvous provided supplies and allowed them to continue living in the wild. That was just fine because, to their way of thinking, this would be their way of life until they stepped across the Great Divide into the Happy Hunting Grounds.
    Harlan happily noticed that the boys paid great attention to detail. It would serve all of them well, especially in the immediate future...
    Dawn the next morning found the three kneeling by a promising beaver drag, where Winter Hawk made his first set under the watchful eyes and counsel of Harlan. Then it was Big Eagle's turn. Picking a likely place, he made a water set that made Harlan smile with pride. The two young men are doing very well, he thought like a proud father.
    During the rest of the day the three of them made twenty- four sets in some of the richest beaver water Harlan had ever seen. The following day, every trap held a dead beaver, and all, but one, were large, blanket-sized animals!
    In the process, they had run across eight grizzly bears, including one with three yearling cubs. For once, Harlan was glad he carried the heavy but much-needed Hawken across the saddle of his horse. Even those fearful weapons with their .54-caliber bullets at times seemed almost too small in the face of a fierce charge by an aroused grizzly. All three of them became more and more aware that vigilance would have to be the word of the day if they were to survive a fall of trapping in these beaver-rich waters. As they returned to their cabin, the mules had all they wanted to carry of the day’s catch of heavy beaver carcasses.
    For the next five days, this routine was not broken. The hard work involved removing and setting the traps, loading the beaver onto the mules, and returning to camp. The first thing they did was save the oil from the castors, placing it into the bottles that hung from each of their necks by a leather thong