The men were several hours in loading the canoe, not only all the
stores and ammunition, but all the honey being transferred to it.
The bee-hunter had managed to conceal his jug of brandy, reduced by
this time to little more than a quart, within an empty powder-keg,
into which he had crammed a beaver-skin or two, that he had taken,
as it might be incidentally, in the course of his rambles. At length
everything was removed and stowed in its proper place, on board the
capacious canoe, and Gershom expected an announcement on the part of
Ben of his readiness to embark. But there still remained one duty to
perform. The beehunter had killed a buck only the day before the
opening of our narrative, and shouldering a quarter, he had left the
remainder of the animal suspended from the branches of a tree, near
the place where it had been shot and cleaned. As venison might be
needed before they could reach the mouth of the river, Ben deemed it
advisable that he and Gershom should go and bring in the remainder
of the carcass. The men started on this undertaking accordingly,
leaving the canoe about two in the afternoon.
The distance between the spot where the deer had been killed, and
the chiente, was about three miles; which was the reason why the
bee-hunter had not brought home the entire animal the day he killed
it; the American woodsman often carrying his game great distances in
preference to leaving it any length of time in the forest.
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