Bobby of the Labrador by Dillon Wallace
page 40 of 225 (17%)
page 40 of 225 (17%)
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just as Abel did when he drove the big team--"_Hu-it!"_ when he wanted
them to start; "_Ah!"_ when he wanted them to stop; "_Ouk! Ouk! Ouk_!" when he wanted them to turn to the right; "_Ra! Ra! Ra!"_ for a turn to the left; "_Ok-su-it!"_ when he wished them to hurry; and with his whip he enforced his commands. He learned to shoot his bow and arrow, and to wield the harpoon and spear. Abel once fashioned for him, from a block of wood, a very good imitation of a small seal, and Bobby and Jimmy had unending sport casting their harpoons at it, and presently they became so expert that seldom did they fail to make a "killing" strike. When he was old enough Bobby learned to make his hunting implements himself. Here, indeed, was required patience, perseverance, and resourcefulness, for his only tools were his knife and his ax, and his only material such as the wilderness produced; and to gain Abel's praise, which was his high ambition, he must needs do his work with care and niceness. And thus Bobby was learning to be a man and a hunter. Bobby was still a very young lad when Abel began to teach him the signs of the wilderness and the ways of the wild things that lived in the woods. He learned to know the tracks of all the animals of the region, and even how long it had been since the animals that made the tracks had passed by. And he learned to make snares and traps, and how to handle his gun--the wonderful gun which Abel told him God had sent with him from the Far Beyond--and shoot it quickly and accurately, for the man who exists upon the wilderness must know how to do these things, and his sense of observation must be keenly trained; and he must train himself to be alert. |
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