Northern Stories -
Émile Maheu
Hunting with no gun
Once upon a time, there was a family living near the woods, far away
from the village. They had eight children and they had nothing to eat
for three days. They were hungry, the children had headaches you can
imagine, the mother was starving and the father could hardly walk. He
was too weak.
That day, the mother said: "Eusèbe, you have to do something we are
starving, Go hunting you always brag that you were a good hunter."
He answered, " I have no guns I changed it for some bread two weeks ago.
The kids ate the bread, now we have neither bread nor gun."
"Well you gone have to do something, we are dying."
"I will go in the woods, Maybe with some chance, I may find a little
animal....And we would eat it, which would prevent us from dying
tonight."
The poor father walked in the woods, he went by the river and sat down
on a dead log near the river. He rested his head on a birch tree, and
before he fell asleep, he made a prayer to God, "God please do something
my children, my wife and myself, we are dying of hunger! Please!"
And with these words he fell asleep exhausted on his log.
How long did he sleep? He would not know, but suddenly he is awakened by
a noise, BRRR BRRRRrrrrr.
He opened his eyes and right there between his feet, a big deer was
eating grass. He was so surprised that he sprang up and yelled Wow!
The deer hadn’t seen that it was a man. He probably thought it was a
dead stump. Frightened, he turned around so fast, that he hit it’s head
on the birch tree, broke his neck and fell dead right there. The father
was so happy that he starter yelling, " We are going to have something
to eat. My children and my wife won’t die." Then, he started to dance
and backed up. He forgot the log on which he tripped and fell into the
river.
The water was deep, right up to his shoulders. While he struggled to get
out of the water, he could see the dead deer lying near the log and
thought, "At least, my family won’t die starving."
Once out of the water, he was dripping all over. Then, he notices a
movement in his pants right rocket.
He dug in and pulled a big trout, and in his left pocket, a big Northern
Pike. He was so glad, Now we are going to have some meat for the winter,
and some fish for Fridays. Thank God, and he he fell on his knees. There
were two cotton-tail, jack rabbit passing by and with his knees he
crushed them to the ground. He put them in his jacket pocket and looked
up to heaven, "Oh my God! Deer, fish, and rabbit stew. I was not asking
for so much, Thank you God!" and he raised his hands in the air.
Just at that time there were two ducks partridges flying by and he
caught them with both hands.
This weak man, three days without food, came home that night with a deer
weighing 100 kilos on his shoulders, two fish in his pants pockets, two
rabbit in his jacket pockets, and a duck in each hand.
When the mother saw him coming, she said, "I knew you were a good
hunter, but I never thought you were that good."
Thank you.
My translation:
A-Émile Maheu
