Saturday the 21st

Last Saturday, the 21st of November in the 2009th year, I and my father, like all proper English men, went on a hunting expedition. My shotgun was in my arms and on my head I wore a orange cap so that if there be any hunters around, we would be spotted instantly. Usually, we English hunters where orange coats or vests, but our wallets weren't quite full enough to purchase a rather expensive coat. So, we put on our orange hats and my tall boots and my black jacket and headed out.

The night before we had switched the barrels on the Shotgun. You see, ladies and gentlemen, with each shotgun their are two barrels. One barrel is for a regular shotgun shooting and the other, which I particular very much prefer, is for a slug. A slug, my dear readers, is a single bullet for a shotgun. So, I took the shotgun in my hands and loaded three shots in it.

At precisely 5:00 a.m. we headed out to the front of our forest. It was a little less than 60 degrees when I began the march to the south of Fallen Oak and the four armed tree, south-east of Lookout Tree, and north of Flat-Top Tree. A year before, a tree had fallen down horizontally and another fell on a slight slant. On one end, it was easy to sit on one log and have your gun on the one in front of you. Ah! what a place. There were bushes in front of us where a deer could easily lie and eat. We were ready.

It is a rule that you cannot fire your gun until 7:00 a.m. and you must stop firing at Sundown. But, due to the tie difference, we had to add six minutes. It felt like an eternity. Finally, 7:06 came. But still, nothing came. We waited. We waited... I was very anxious at the moment. At all times I was ready to see a pair of antlers pop up in front of me. Nothing happened. So I waited.

"We're making enough noise for ten of us!" declared my father. It was true. We kept moving around, this way and that, I was picking up my gun and setting it back down, and asking questions now and then. Perhaps the deer could smell us! Ah! That might be why! Or perhaps they could see us! I pondered on these things.

Around 7:50, my father thought that it would be best to go to a hideout on the other side of the forest. I agreed. We began our march. We started to go in a strait line towards the hideout. But, though it looked simple enough, we decided 'twould be best to go around Flat-top Tree, where the woods made a ninety degree turn east, and head towards it then. We did. Still, there were many swamps. It was a very hard journey. We trudged and trudged, but we thought that it would be even easier, if we did not want our tracks all over, to go completely around the woods and head in towards the back of the hideout.

We finally made it. When we entered the hideout we discovered that it had only room enough for one person. So, since I was the shooter, I sat inside while my father stood outside looking around. We waited for another hour and still saw nothing. It was awful. nothing had come around all day and the only animal we had seen was a mouse. Terrible luck! At 9:00 a.m. we headed back home.

For the rest of the day we were busy working on the barn but around 4:30 p.m. We went to a different location, Lookout Tree. Once we had on our hunting apparel we marched to the tall tree. I was once again getting anxious. We were laying in a deer trail waiting. After the unsuccessful morning our hopes of shooting a deer was dimmed. We could only shoot for twenty minutes and that wasn't very long to wait for a deer. I was simply waiting with no expectations.

Then time ran out. It was 5:40 p.m. I said we should leave but my father insisted that we stay and watch. So, I watched and watched. Nothing came. I couldn't understand where the deer had gone! We see them all summer long but now they just disappeared. I just couldn't- Wait! What was that! It wasn't a- It couldn't be a- It was!

"Dad! A doe is out there!" It was true. A doe had just walked out right next to Flat-Top Tree. I wanted so badly to shoot it! But it would have been Illegal. So I left it. Where I live, There were so many does that it was needed to shoot more. But I left it. It was a successful hunt. We now knew where they came from. Flat-top Tree was the next objective.