whitish
fibrous tissue, he raised it up, working and cutting till it ran down
to the hip bone and forward to the ribs. This sewing sinew was about
four inches wide, very thin, and could easily be split again and again
till it was like fine thread.

"There," he said, "is a hank o' thread. Keep that. It'll dry up, but
can be split at any time, and soaking in warm water for twenty minutes
makes it soft and ready for use. Usually, when she's sewing, the squaw
keeps a thread soaking in her mouth to be ready. Now we've got a Horse
skin and a Calfskin I guess we better set up a tan-yard."

"Well, how do you tan furs, Mr. Clark?"

"Good many different ways. Sometimes just scrape and scrape till I get
all the grease and meat off the inside, then coat it with alum and
salt and leave it rolled up for a couple of days till the alum has
struck through and made the skin white at the roots of the hair, then
when this is half dry pull and work it till it is all soft.

"But the Injuns don't have alum and salt, and they make a fine tan out
of the liver and brains, like I'm going to do with this."

"Well, I want to do it the Indian way."

"All right, you take the brains and liver of your Calf."

"Why not some of the Horse brains and liver?"

"Oh, I dunno. They never do it that way that I've seen. Seems like it
went best with its own brains."

"Now," remarked the philosophical Woodpecker, "I call that a wonderful
provision of nature, always to put Calf brains and liver into a
Calfskin, and just enough to tan it."

"First thing always is to clean your pelt, and while you do that I'll
put the Horsehide in the mud to soak off the hair." He put it in the
warm mud to soak there a couple of days, just as he had done the
Calfskin for the drum-heads, then came to superintend the dressing of
the Buffalo "robe."

Sam first went home for the Calf brains and liver, then he and Yan
scraped the skin till they got out a vast quantity of grease, leaving
the flesh side bluish-white and clammy, but not greasy to the touch.
The liver of the Calf was boiled for an hour and then mashed up with
the raw brains into a tanning "dope" or mash and spread on the flesh
side of the hide, which was doubled, rolled up and put in a cool place
for two days. It was then opened out, washed clean in the brook and
hung till nearly dry. Then Caleb cut a hardwood stake to a sharp edge
and showed Yan how to pull and work the hide over the edge till it was
all soft