<TITLE>15. Par 54-57</TITLE>L-54 So, it was late in the season. And just as soon as the guns start firing, them little deer scoot for cover. And I mean they stay there. They know better than to come out. So, they had about six inches of snow, just good tracking weather. And I knowed we'd get deer pretty soon. So we started out that morning, and he was leading. And we went up Cherry Mountain, around towards Washington. And when he come along... Usually, we'd hunt till noon, and then we'd separate. Burt would go one way, and I another. And then we'd wander our way back into the camp and get in that night.
So, it was along about noon, he set down at a little clearing, about half the size of this building. And he set down on the snow, and he started back in his side. And I thought he was going back to get that chocolate that we'd have just a bite. I set my rifle against the tree. And he pulled out that little whistle. And he looked up to me with them lizard looking eyes, and he said... put it in his mouth like that.
I said, "Burt, you wouldn't do that."

L-55 And he cried just like a little baby deer crying. And just across the opening, a great big beautiful doe stood up. Now, a doe is a mother deer. She was so close, till I could see the big brown eyes and those great big pretty ears sticking up. Now, that's unusual. They won't raise up that time of day. They're laying down. And she looked. And he looked back to me as if to say, "You see what I told you?"
I thought, "Burt. Surely, surely you won't do that."
And he said... He bleated again, like this little--this little doe--little mother--the little fawn. And I looked, and this big deer stepped right out into the opening. That's altogether unusual. Why did she do it? She was a mother. There was a mother love in her. A baby was in trouble. She wasn't a hypocrite. She wasn't, say, going to church just to be seen. There was something inside of her. She was a mother. She had love. And the love was for her baby. She was borned a mother. And she listened again.

L-56 And old Burt reached down and pulled up the bolt on that .30-06, and throwed the shell up into the barrel, leveled down. I thought, "Oh, my. In a moment he will blow her heart plumb out of her."
She walked right out in that opening. And anyone hunts deer knows that that's--that's altogether unusual. But what was the matter? There was something in her, constraining her, and she turned. She saw the hunter right across the bush, and he was a dead shot. And that scope hair was laying right across her heart.
I thought, "Oh, I can't look at it. How can I look at that? When that precious mother... He will blow that loyal heart plumb out of her, a hundred and eighty grain soft point bullet. Why, he will cut a hole in her that big at that distance." Not over thirty yards from her... "He will turn her over, and over, and over, when he hits her. And that loyal heart will be blowed plumb out of her." I thought, "How can he do it?"

L-57 And I turned my head. I couldn't look at it. I couldn't see anything that real and loyal be brought down like that. I turned my head, and I started real softly praying, "Lord, don't let him do that. That poor mother's out there looking for her baby. She can't help it. There's something in her. She's borned a mother. And there's a baby in trouble. Regardless of--of danger, they don't know any danger. They move out anyhow."
And I waited, and I waited, and the gun never went off. And I turned to see, and the gun barrel was going like this. He looked up to me and great big tears running down his cheeks. He threw the gun on the ground and grabbed me by the pants leg. He said, "Billy, I've had enough of it. Right here on that--this snow bank, teach me that Jesus that you talk about, that really got love."


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