The two heretofore unmentioned letters were discovered after
the author's death, and are published in the rough, as they
were found. "Out Hunting" is based on a trip which actually
took place, and from personal knowledge contains a good deal
of fact. It was doubtless written before "One Night," and for
that reason is given priority in the arrangement.
"Johnny Black's Girl" is merely a scrap, and is inserted as
such. It shows, however, that the author had a "tear for pity"
as well as an eye for the ridiculous.
Geo. McC. Kountz.
OUT HUNTING
Pittsburg, September 1, 1898.
Dear Jim:
I am just back from St. Paul, where I spent a couple of days
with Teddy Worthington. Teddy and Bud Hathaway of Chicago were
going on a shooting trip in the Big Woods of Minnesota, and they
asked me to go with them. It was new deal for me, so of course I
was for it. I hired a hammerless breech-loader for seven a week,
borrowed a lot of fishing-tackle, and bought a hunting-knife with
a nickel-plated handle. It was a beaut, and stood me three fifty.
A fellow can never be too careful. Up there you are likely any
minute to come face to face with an Apache or some old left-over
Aztec rubbering around among the trees.
At the last minute Bud Hathaway's father had to die, so just Teddy
and myself went. After we left the train we rode twenty miles in
a wagon to Freshwater Lake, which was our destination.
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