At Home on the Range

At Home on the Range

The scud stacked up over the northeast, a gray washboard above the sea, to the horizon and beyond. Too late for a hurricane, but the wind didn’t care. Raindrops big as dimes on roofing tin and window glass, a racket like the devil beating some hellish rhythm on a...
Mister Howard was a Real Gent

Mister Howard was a Real Gent

The week before Thanksgiving that year, one of the Old Man’s best buddies came down from Maryland to spend a piece with the family, and I liked him a whole lot right from the start. Probably it was because he looked like the Old Man—ragged mustache, smoked a pipe,...
A Man-Killing Bear and Revenge

A Man-Killing Bear and Revenge

Shocked and angered by his friend’s horrible death, the old trapper was determined to get revenge. Almost every trapper past middle age who has spent his life in the wilderness has stories to tell about exceptionally savage bears. One of these stories was told in my...
Attacked By a Grizzly

Attacked By a Grizzly

A veteran prospector, Hatheway was heading out from camp to stir something up for the pot. It had somehow become his task to put food on the table at the small mining camp. He was the oldest and felt somewhat responsible to use his shooting skills to keep the stewpot...
Keeping Things Wild

Keeping Things Wild

There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot . . . This is a story for those who cannot. In 1927 Crazy Ernie, Kid Al and my dad won a hunting shack in a poker game and lost their hearts to a swamp. In a remote northwoods clearing stood a...
The Price of a Dog Part 1 of 3

The Price of a Dog Part 1 of 3

Part One: Leaves Papa died in the spring of ’62 when I was 12 years old. Although there had been little interaction between us, he was still a needed figure in my life—a father. Mother wouldn’t, but I made allowances and excuses for his long absences. I would tell my...
Smith Setters Revisited

Smith Setters Revisited

It was quiet when I drove down the long, sandy, Smith Setters Plantation road. On both sides were fields full of warm weather grasses that were rimmed by a mix of pines and oaks. Two quaint guest houses were on my left, and a big kennel and an expansive horse corral...