se. This would make the ring or chain secure
to the clog, as it would give the ring no chance to work about, while
I would make a bed to set the trap in and have the trap set by the
time that he got the clog ready.

It was now that I found that Smoky had brought a small hatchet
weighing less than one-half pound instead of the larger belt axe, but
there was nothing to do only to cut the clog with the little hatchet.
So Smoky went to work cutting the clog while I went to setting the
traps. After a while Smoky came with the clog and he had cut it off
where it was considerably too large for the ring in the chain. I
said, "Smoky, I guess you did not size that ring or the clog very
much for you have got it much too large." Smoky replied readily, "Yes
I did too, the tree has grown that much since I began to chop it."

After a time we managed to get the two traps set and got back to
camp. That night about 10 o'clock, Smoky woke me with a punch in the
ribs and at the same time saying, "Get your gun, the whole Siwash
tribe of Indians are on us." On the impulse of the moment I though
Smoky was right for I could hear many voices and the barking and
snarling of dogs. In a moment all that had ever happened to me and
many things that never did, nor can happen, passed through my mind
but it was only for a moment when some one called out at the tent
door saying, "Get up, you have visitors."

We asked who was there and the reply was, "Oh get up, two sleeps is
better than one any time." I got up and put on my pants and unbuckled
the tent door and there stood a half dozen men and as many more dogs.
Two of the men had a large demijohn strung on a pole and they were
carrying it on their shoulders, two more of the men had coons slung
over their shoulders. The boys said that they were out coon hunting
and by chance ran into our camp and thought that they would call on
us and learn what we were doing. The demijohn contained cider, and
the barking of the dogs was caused by getting into trouble over
scraps that had been thrown about camp.

We invited the boy in and asked them to tell what luck they had had
hunting coon. They said that they had only got the two coons on their
way up, but thought that they would do better on their way back down
the creek. The boys lived about six miles down the stream. The creek
ran close along the wagon road nearly all the way so the boys would
follow along the road allowing the dogs to hunt along the creek fo