Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

AWAY IN THE WILDEENESS.
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you find whisky-Johns ready to receive and wel¬
come you, as if they were the owners of the soil.
They are perfectly fearless; they will come and
sit on a branch within a yard of your hand, when
you are eating, and look at you in the most in¬
quisitive manner. If they could speak, they could
not say more plainly, “ What have you got there 1
—give me some !” If you leave the mouth of your
provision sack open they are sure to jump into it.
When you are done eating they will scarcely let
you six yards away before they make a dash at
the crumbs; and if you throw sticks or stones
at them, they will hop out of the way, but they
will not take to flight!
“ It would be a pity to waste powder on them
critters,” said Jasper, “ but I’ll catch one for you.”
As he said this he took a few crumbs of broken
meat from the bottom of the provision sack and
spread them on his right hand ; then he lay down
under a bush, covered his face with a few leaves,
and thrust out his hand. Heywood and the
Indian retired a few paces and stood still to await
the result.
In a few seconds a whisky-John came flying
towards the open hand, and alighted on a branch
within a yard of it. Here he shook his feathers
and looked very bold, but suspicious, for a few
minutes, turning first one eye towards the hand,
and then the other. After a little he hopped on