We have got this trap set all right and will now move on to
the next. We will take the mink to the next trap before skinning it."

"What is that over yonder on the other side of the creek?"

"That is a coon and it is in a trap. Fred, you take my cane and kill
it while I fix up the bait pen, for it has torn things up as bad as a
bear would."

"Why did you not use stones to build this pen?"

"Old chunks are just as good and much handier to get, and there was
plenty of moss on the old logs near to cover it with."

"Why do you not use old bushy limbs here?"

"You see this trap sets in the mouth of a small spring run; we will
cut some little twigs and stick them up in the ground, in place of
the brush, to make the runway, as we call it. We will now skin the
mink. Rip straight down the hind leg from the heel to the vent. Now
lay the knife down and start the skin loose on the legs with the
thumb and finger; work the skin down the leg to the root of the tail
then take knife and cut the skin loose around the vent working the
skin free around the roots of tail until you can get your fingers of
the left hand around the tail bone. Now with the right hand near the
body of the mink pulling with the right and you will strip the tail
clean from the bone. With the knife make a slit on either fore leg
about one inch from the heel and around the leg. You are now ready to
strip the skin down the body to the fore legs and with the thumb and
finger work the leg out. Strip the skin down to the ears and with the
knife cut the ears close to the head, continue to strip the skin down
to the eyes, cut around the eyes close to the bone and use the knife
on down to the end of nose. That was a short job. Now we will put
this mink carcass in the back end of the pen and cut the balance of
the rabbit up and put it in the pen back about six inches from the
trap."

"Don't you use any scent; I have heard people say that you use some
kind of scent?"

"I use none, only of the animal itself. It did not take long to take
the pelt off that coon; we will strip some of that fat from the
carcass and do it up in the skin and put it in the knapsack; hang the
carcass up on that sapling. We must be moving now. Our next trap is a
bear trap; it sets up in that little sag you see and in a spring that
comes out of the side of the hill. I like to set traps in those
springs for they never freeze up and the bait keeps much longer. No,
there is nothing in it, I can