XXVIII
White-Man's Woodcraft
Blackhawk was the introducer of a new game which he called "judging."
"How far is it from here to that tree?" he would ask, and when eachhad written down his guess they would measure, and usually it wasWoodpecker or Blackhawk that came nearest to the truth. Guy still heldthe leadership "for far sight," for which reason he suggested thatgame whenever a change of amusement was wanted.
Yan, following up Blackhawk's suggestion, brought in the new game of"White-man's Woodcraft."
"Can you," asked he, "tell a Dog's height by its track?"
"No; nor you nor any one else," was the somewhat scornful reply.
"Oh, yes, I can. Take the length in inches of his forefoot track,multiply it by 8, and that gives his height at the shoulder. You tryit and you'll see. A little Dog has a 2-1/4-inch foot and stands about18 inches, a Sheep Dog with a 3-inch track stands 24 inches, and aMastiff or any big Dog with a 4-inch track gives 30 to 32 inches."
"You mean every Dog is 8 feet high?" drawled Sam, doubtfully, but Yanwent on. "And you can tell his weight, too, by the track. You multiplythe width of his forefoot in inches by the length, and multiply thatby 5, and that gives pretty near his weight in pounds. I tried oldCap. His foot is 3-1/2 by 3; that equals 10-1/2, multiplied by 5equals 52-1/2 pounds: just about right."
"I'll bet I seen a Dog at the show that that wouldn't work on,"drawled Sam. "He was as long as my two arms, he had feet as big as ayoung Bear, an' he wasn't any higher than a brick. He was jest aboutthe build of a Caterpiller, only he didn't have but four legs at thefar ends. They was so far apart he couldn't keep step. He looked likehe was raised under a bureau. I think when they was cutting down so onhis legs they might have give him more of them; a row in the middlewould 'a' been 'bout right."
"Yes, I know him. That's a Dachshund. But you can't reckon on freaks;nothing but straight Dog. It works on wild animals, too--that is, onWolves and Foxes and maybe other things," then changing the subjectBeaver continued:
"Can you tell the height of a tree by its shadow?"
"Never thought of that. How do you do it?"
"Wait till your own shadow is the same length as yourself--that is,about eight in the morning or four in the afternoon--then measure thetree's shadow. That gives its length."
"You'd have to wait all day to work that, and you can't do it at allin the woods or on a dull day," objected Blackhawk. "I'd rather do itby guess."
"I'll bet my scalp against yours I can tell the height of thattree right now without climbing it, and get closer than you can byguessing," said Little Beaver.
"No, I won't bet scalps on that--but I'll bet who's to wash thedishes."
"All right. To the top of that tree, how much is it?"
"Better not take the top, 'cause we can't get there to measure it, butsay that knot," was the rejoinder. "Here, Woodpecker, you be judge."
"No, I want to be in this guessing. The loser takes the next turn ofdishwashing for each of the others."
So Blackhawk studied the knot carefully and wrote down hisguess--Thirty-eight feet.
Sam said, "Blackhawk! Ground's kind of uneven. I'd like to know theexact spot under the tree that you'd measure to. Will you mark it witha peg?"
So Blackhawk went over and put in a white peg, at the same timeunwittingly giving Woodpecker what he wanted--a gauge, for he knewBlackhawk was something more than five feet high; judging then as hestood there Sam wrote down Thirty-five feet.
Now it was Yan's turn to do it by "White-man's Woodcraft," as hecalled it. He cut a pole exactly ten feet long, and choosing thesmoothest ground, he walked about twenty yards from the tree, proppedthe pole upright, then lay down so that his eye was level with thetree base and in line with the top of the pole and the knot on thetree. A peg marked the spot.
Now he measured from this "eye peg" to the foot of the pole; it was 31feet. Then from the eye peg to the peg under the tree; it was 87 feet.Since the 10-foot pole met the line at 31 feet, then 31 is to 10 as 87is to the tree--or 28 feet. Now one of the boys climbed and measuredthe height of the knot. It was 29 feet, and Yan had an easy victory.
"Here, you close guessers, do you want another try, and I'll give youodds this time, if you come within ten feet you'll win. I want onlytwo feet to come and go on."
"All right. Pick your trees."
"'Tisn't a tree this time, but the distance across that pond, fromthis peg (H, in diagram) to that little Hemlock (D). You put down yourguesses and I'll show you another trick."
Sam studied it carefully and wrote Forty feet. Wes put downForty-five.
"Here, I want to be in this. I'll show you fellers how," exclaimed Guyin his usual scornful manner, and wrote down Fifty feet.
"Let's all try it for scalps," said Char-less, but this was ruledtoo unimportant for scalps, and again the penalty of failure wasdishwashing, so the other boys came and put down their guesses closeto that of their Chief--Forty-four, Forty-six and Forty-nine feet.
"Now we'll find out exactly," and Little Beaver, with an air of calmsuperiority, took three straight poles of exactly the same length andpegged them together in a triangle, leaving the pegs sticking up. Heplaced this triangle on the bank at _A B C_, sighting the line_A B_ for the little Hemlock _D_, and put three pegs in theground exactly under the three pegs where the triangle was; moved thetriangle to _E F G_ and placed it so that _F G_ should linewith _A C_ and _E G_ with _D_. Now _A G D_ also must be an equilateraltriangle; therefore, according to arithmetic, the line _D H_ must beseven-eighths of _A G. A G_ was easily measured--70 feet. Seven-eighthsof 70 equals 61-1/4 feet. The width of the pond--they measured it withtape line--was found to be 60 feet, so Yan was nearest, but Guy claimedthat 50 feet was within 10 feet of it, which was allowed. Thus therewere two winners--two who escaped dishwashing; and Hawkeye's braggingbecame insufferable. He never again got so close in a guess, but nonumber of failures could daunt him after such a success.
Sam was interested in the White-man's Woodcraft chiefly on Yan'saccount, but Blackhawk was evidently impressed with the study itself,and said:
"Little Beaver, I'll give you one more to do. Can you measure how farapart those two trees are on that bank, without crossing?"
"Yes," said Yan; "easily." So he cut three poles 6, 8 and 10 feet longand pegged them together in a triangle (in diagram). "Now," said he,"_A B C_ is a right angle; it must be, when the legs of thetriangle are 6, 8 and 10; that's a law."
He placed this on the shore, the side _A B_ pointing to the innerside of the first tree, and the side _B C_ as nearly as possibleparallel with the line between the two trees. Then he put in a stakeat _B_, another at _C_, and continued this line toward _K_. Now heslid his triangle along this till the side _G F_ pointed to _E_, andthe side _H G_ in line with _C B_. The distance from _D_ to _E_, ofcourse, is equal to _B G_, which can be measured, and again the tapeline showed Yan to be nearly right.
This White-man's Woodcraft was easy for him, and he volunteered toteach the other Indians, but they thought it looked "too much likeschool." They voted him a _coup_ on finding how well he could doit. But when Raften heard of it he exclaimed in wonder and admiration,"My, but that's mightiful!" and would not be satisfied till the_coup_ was made a _grand coup_.
"Say, Beaver," said Woodpecker sadly, harking back, "if a Dog's frontfoot is 3-1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide, what colour is the end ofhis tail?"
"White," was the prompt reply; "'cause a Dog with feet that size andshape is most likely to be a yaller Dog, and a yaller Dog always hassome white hairs in the end of his tail."
"Well, this 'un hadn't, 'cause his tail was cut off in the days of hisyouth!"