on the trail

he stood stooped down, eyeing the deer seventy yards away when the buffalo raised his massive head and snorted a warning of danger. but the deer did not speak buffalo nor did the buffalo speak the deers tongue, and the hunter nocked his arrow and brought down the buffalo with a single shot.
the hunter stood over his quarry and proceeded to skin the massive animal, and stopped to build
a fire to smoke the hide and cook a small bit of meat, enough to satisfy his hunger for a few hours.

he draped the massive hide over the fire to dry it and after a few hours he took it down and scraped the browned fat from it little by little until he splayed the hide over the stretcher cut from willow, stretching it tightly to continue to dry from the smoke. he worked on the massive skull and chipped a large enough hole to cut the brain from it and he took water to mix with the brain for tanning the hide later. the man rested then, eating some more of the meat and packing all he could carry in his packs and he brought his horse up and folded the smoked skin and tied it with a strand of leather to the back of his horse and rode off leaving the bones for the vultures and coyotes to fight over, that being the way of nature.

the man rode for many hours, stopping twice to ice down his meat to keep it cold in the leather packs . when he reached his home in the trees , he tied his horse and handed the skull to his woman and pointed to the hide of buffalo. he tended to the meat, salting it and curing it and
lit small fire to smoke the remainder of the good meat he'd brought to his home and cooked some for his woman and children on the open pit. they would not starve this winter because he had made the right choice in taking the buffalo. his woman worked the hide for weeks to come
and make him a warm coat. he gave her his old coat and took the new coat and wore it with pride at her workmanship , how well it fit him and how warm it was. she smiled at his praise
and wore his old coat. such was the way of man to give to his woman and to his children.
his child recieved her old coat and so on down the line things were given. they ate the good
meat, drank clear water from the well and lived in their home in the trees for many years to come