The Legend of Bass Reeves Read Online Free
Author: Gary Paulsen
round words rolling through his mind:
The sun came up,
the sun went down,
And all the clouds
went round and round.…
How could things not change?
Then sleep.
2
SPRING 1836
Eagle Flying Free
He was twelve years old. Coming on to be a man. Time to think and do in man’s ways. That was why he went farther than usual from the homestead looking for rabbits.
There was a creek that went past the edge of the buildings and meandered south. It was never more than a couple of feet across, more a trickle than a creek, but the damp soil along the edges made for thick willow and mesquite growth.
The brush was much wider than the creek itself, fifty to sixty yards on each side of the wet mud, and so thick it was almost impossible to move a horse through it. A boy on foot was another matter, and Bass viewed the thick green world as his own. The mister never came into the mesquite and willow because, being the only good coverin the vast expanse of the prairie, it not only attracted hordes of game—rabbits, sage hens, wild little javelina pigs—but snakes as well. Water moccasins and rattlers. The mister was mortally terrified of them.
“That creek bottom is full of devil serpents!” he’d say when he was drunk. Now that the widow Plunkett had taken up and married another man who did not drink, the mister only went to Paris to replenish his whiskey supply. He bought barrels and poured it from the barrels into a clay jug that he sipped from. As he drank more, he did less, until Mammy just about ran the homestead. She depended on Bass more each day. The mister did not allow the slaves to eat beef, and only gave them the belly fat and none of the good cuts when he slaughtered pigs, so Mammy had Bass hunt for game along the bottom. She put in a green garden down where the creek passed the horse pens and they got vegetables there, but the meat came from Bass.
Bass wasn’t allowed to have a gun. The mister was as afraid as anybody of having armed slaves, so Bass had to snare rabbits and sage hens, or kill them with a Jesus stick, which was two sharpened hard willow throwing sticks tied together in the middle with rawhide to make a cross.
Bass learned to use a sidearm motion to spin-flick the Jesus stick out so hard that sometimes when he hit a rabbit, he drove it sideways and pinned it to the ground. He became good enough to hit the sage hens on the fly. Usually they were stupid and sat there and waited for him to hit them, but if they flew and he got one, it would be dead when it fell to the ground.
The rabbits nearly always screamed when they werehit or snared, almost like a baby crying, his mammy said. The screams brought in other predators—coyotes, snakes or bobcats, and, strangely, the javelina pigs. The pigs were short-coupled, gray, covered with bristly hair, and could run very fast. They didn’t seem afraid or concerned when they came upon Bass. They were also very good to eat.
The pigs were too big to be killed with the throwing stick, so Bass made a spear, or killing lance. He fire-hardened the point, and after several attempts finally managed to pin a pig to the ground, not by throwing the lance but by lunging at the pig as it ran by. Mammy cut little chops and roasts and then cooked the bits and bones with beans, and they could eat that pig with corn bread for a week and a half. Even Flowers grunted with pleasure.
But a rabbit only lasted one meal, and three prairie chickens were also a meal, and it was hard to get a javelina without a gun. Soon Bass had hunted the nearby bottoms until all the game he could get was gone. He took snakes, finally, hunting them with a stick and a hoe to cut their heads off. He stripped the skin like he was peeling fruit, cut the guts out, and Mammy cooked the meat in bean stew with peppers from the garden.
It was good meat, but the mister didn’t eat it. Any good beef, any good pork, he kept for himself, and he gave the necks and feet and backs of chickens to the slaves and ate the
The sun came up,
the sun went down,
And all the clouds
went round and round.…
How could things not change?
Then sleep.
2
SPRING 1836
Eagle Flying Free
He was twelve years old. Coming on to be a man. Time to think and do in man’s ways. That was why he went farther than usual from the homestead looking for rabbits.
There was a creek that went past the edge of the buildings and meandered south. It was never more than a couple of feet across, more a trickle than a creek, but the damp soil along the edges made for thick willow and mesquite growth.
The brush was much wider than the creek itself, fifty to sixty yards on each side of the wet mud, and so thick it was almost impossible to move a horse through it. A boy on foot was another matter, and Bass viewed the thick green world as his own. The mister never came into the mesquite and willow because, being the only good coverin the vast expanse of the prairie, it not only attracted hordes of game—rabbits, sage hens, wild little javelina pigs—but snakes as well. Water moccasins and rattlers. The mister was mortally terrified of them.
“That creek bottom is full of devil serpents!” he’d say when he was drunk. Now that the widow Plunkett had taken up and married another man who did not drink, the mister only went to Paris to replenish his whiskey supply. He bought barrels and poured it from the barrels into a clay jug that he sipped from. As he drank more, he did less, until Mammy just about ran the homestead. She depended on Bass more each day. The mister did not allow the slaves to eat beef, and only gave them the belly fat and none of the good cuts when he slaughtered pigs, so Mammy had Bass hunt for game along the bottom. She put in a green garden down where the creek passed the horse pens and they got vegetables there, but the meat came from Bass.
Bass wasn’t allowed to have a gun. The mister was as afraid as anybody of having armed slaves, so Bass had to snare rabbits and sage hens, or kill them with a Jesus stick, which was two sharpened hard willow throwing sticks tied together in the middle with rawhide to make a cross.
Bass learned to use a sidearm motion to spin-flick the Jesus stick out so hard that sometimes when he hit a rabbit, he drove it sideways and pinned it to the ground. He became good enough to hit the sage hens on the fly. Usually they were stupid and sat there and waited for him to hit them, but if they flew and he got one, it would be dead when it fell to the ground.
The rabbits nearly always screamed when they werehit or snared, almost like a baby crying, his mammy said. The screams brought in other predators—coyotes, snakes or bobcats, and, strangely, the javelina pigs. The pigs were short-coupled, gray, covered with bristly hair, and could run very fast. They didn’t seem afraid or concerned when they came upon Bass. They were also very good to eat.
The pigs were too big to be killed with the throwing stick, so Bass made a spear, or killing lance. He fire-hardened the point, and after several attempts finally managed to pin a pig to the ground, not by throwing the lance but by lunging at the pig as it ran by. Mammy cut little chops and roasts and then cooked the bits and bones with beans, and they could eat that pig with corn bread for a week and a half. Even Flowers grunted with pleasure.
But a rabbit only lasted one meal, and three prairie chickens were also a meal, and it was hard to get a javelina without a gun. Soon Bass had hunted the nearby bottoms until all the game he could get was gone. He took snakes, finally, hunting them with a stick and a hoe to cut their heads off. He stripped the skin like he was peeling fruit, cut the guts out, and Mammy cooked the meat in bean stew with peppers from the garden.
It was good meat, but the mister didn’t eat it. Any good beef, any good pork, he kept for himself, and he gave the necks and feet and backs of chickens to the slaves and ate the
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