Village Squire, 1975-01, Page 10"Why do you have to fool around trapping
anyway?"
"got to make some money Mom, besides I
like it.
"Henry works away from home some and
Ed has a calf to sell and I want something to
sell too."
"Well Dad will give you a cow of your own
like Ed has."
"I don't want a cow, I want to trap. I want
to be in the bush."
"You're just like my Uncle Johnny was, off
hunting and trapping all the time and never
an honest days work did he do, but I guess we
will just let you at it for a while. A few more
skunks may cure you."
She solved the clothes problem by
sacrificing a gallon of her precious canned
tomatoes. She scrubbed the clothes in a
mixture of tomatoes and water.
The overalls came clean but the jacket
retained for the rest of it's life a certain
woodsy odor.
He went to school the next day. The
morning dew on the trap line dampened the
overalls and a lingering odor returned. He did
not notice this because one tends to get used
to skunk. He sat in his usual seat behind Susy
Martin.
Long before he had traded seats with a
friend in order to get sitting behind Susy. He
was in love with Susy because her eyes were
big and darkly blue and she was beautiful.
There was also a large uninhabited area in
her pretty blond head but he had not noticed
this at the time. He liked to make love to Susy
by pulling her braids or even dipping the ends
in his ink well. Susy was aware of his
infatuation but affected indifference and
disdain.
She rose now at the edge of her seat.
"Please teacher, can I sit somewhere else,
Charlie Adams stinks."
"Now Susy that isn't a very nice thing to
say."
"Please teacher, it isn't a very nice smell."
Teacher approached and confirmed the
report. She peered over her glasses.
"I'm afraid she's right Charlie, there does
seem to be an odor. I think you are the one we
should move. I think we'll put you over here
by the window and open the window."
Teacher was not unkind, but he felt
ostracized. On the way home he lifed the
skunk traps.
He kept the other line and now tended it
twice a day but caught nothing for a while.
One day it snowed, the first real snow of
the season. It drifted down all day light and
downy. It creaked under Charlie's shoes as he
walked homeward. He saw that the mink
traps were covered lightly and had the sense
to leave them alone.
In the morning there was a mink in a trap, a
dark blot on the white snow. I looked at him
with faleful eyes. There was no surrender
here, no appeal for mercy. This was a
primitive merciless creature and it would die
now as it had caused many other creatures to
die.
None of this occurred to Charlie, he saw
only the fine silky pelt and had a vision of the
ten dollars it would bring. For the ten dollars
of that day read one hundred dollars today.
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The mink smelled musky too being a first
cousin to the skunk, but he skinned it
carefully and washed afterwards and there
was no reaction at school. He said nothing of
his success, the less boys fooling around
trapping the better.
• Winter closed in and he caught only one
more mink. He surprised a 'coon sunning
itself in a big elm and shot it. The pelt was
good and he took the hind quarters home and
persuaded his mother to cook it.
She served it sliced cold with a mint sauce.
"Where did you get the Iamb Mom, it's
real good?" Ed had already helped himself to
two more slices.
"Eat your supper and don't ask
questions.
Charlie waited until Ed had finished.
"That was coon we ate Ed, the one I shot,
good wasn't it?" Tomorrow we are going to
have porcupine." Ed was always snooty
about what he ate.
"Aw Mom, you didn't cook a coon, you
wouldn't would you?"
"Well you said it tasted real good."
"Aargh", and Ed bolted for the back
porch.
There were weasels too, easy to trap
because they had little sense ,of caution, but
many were grey backs and worthless. They
had not entirely shifted from the brown coat
of summer to the white of winter.
He had fleshed and shaped all his pelts on
suitable thin boards with much care. There
they were hung in the loft over the implement
shed. Here then was the result of his labours
the problem was now to market it. (As if in
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