John H. Turner, 11

During the first two days of my vacation I was at home, but it was too lonesome, so I started with some friends on a hunting trip on the mountain.

We rode as far as a friend’s where we left our horses. Then we walked about four miles where we came to a spring where we pitched our tent. We then broiled some eggs and bacon, which we ate for supper.

Later my friends went to sleep but the dogs howled so that I could not sleep. Later in the night the dogs stopped howling and I was about to go to sleep when I heard the scream of a wild cat. I got up and sat before the fire with my gun in my hands until morning. When morning came we ate breakfast and later started out to hunt rabbits.

When we had gone about one half mile from our camp we tracked a bear. We put our dogs on the trail and two of us followed while others watched at certain points. In about one half an hour we routed him. When we had run him about two hours we met him coming back the way he had come. We fired five shots at him before we killed him and carried the skin and the meat to our camp. We had bear meat as long as we camped on the mountain.

The next day we went out and killed a wild cat and several rabbits. During the next few days we killed many pheasants and turkeys.

We then went home very proud of our game. We received twelve dollars for our bear and wild cat and thirty cents apiece for our rabbits. We each got four dollars apiece for this game.

We then started to school again.