<TITLE>28. Par 104-108</TITLE>L-104 We hunted. There was about six inches of snow on the ground, about good hunting weather, tracking. We hunted all the way till noon, didn't find a thing, not even a track. They was... Them deers feed at night, and then in daytime they get back under the bushes and things; you can't move them. And so, they won't move till it gets night again, unless you happen to step on one, get him out. So then we hunted till about eleven o'clock, eleven- thirty.
And we always packed a--a thermos bottle full of hot chocolate and maybe a sandwich. And we climbed up as far as we could, then at noon time we'd eat then separate, and he'd go another way and me another way. And we'd come back to the...?... camp for that night. Come in maybe ten or eleven o'clock at night. So then... He...

L-105 It had come to a little opening about the size of this auditorium in here. And he just kind of... He was in front of me so he just kind of hunkered down like this. "The hunker," I guess that's all right here, isn't it? There's enough Kentuckians here know what I mean when I say, "hunker." So just kind of stooped down, rather. And he reached back in his pocket like this, and he was going to get the... going to get his... I thought he was getting his sandwich out. And when he did, he brought out that little whistle. And I looked at him, I said, "Oh, shame on you, Burt."

L-106 He blowed it, and it sounded just exactly like a little baby crying for its mother. And when he did, I looked just across the place, and a great big doe stood up. And he had eyes just like a lizard. And he looked at me with those lizard eyes like that, and I said, "Oh, you wouldn't do that, Burt." I said, "She... That's a mother, brother." I said, "That's a mother. She just thinks that's her baby."
He said, "Oh, get next to yourself, preacher." Sticks around like this with his gun.
I thought, "Oh, my."
And he blew it again. I could just see them great big eyes and big ears sticking out like that, doe, the mother deer. She probably had fawns. You see? So her baby was in trouble. She was listening, them big ears up. And so he blew it again.

L-107 Now, that's altogether unusual that time of day, eleven o'clock in the day. So she stepped right out into this opening. Now, that's altogether unusual if anybody hunts deer. Walked right out into that opening... What was the matter? She was looking for her baby. She was looking around like that.
Now, she wasn't playing the part of hypocrite. She had something in her; she was borned a mother, and her baby was in trouble. She was looking for that baby.

L-108 Just then I seen old Burt. We never carry a shell in the--in the barrel; that's a bad policy. So I seen him take this .30-06 and put a hundred and eighty-grain mushroom bullet. Oh, a dead shot... Pulled that kit down, raise it up like that and them cross hairs in that scope right across her heart. I thought, "O God, how can that man do that? That mother looking for her baby, and then he be cruel enough to blow that precious loyal heart plumb through her?" Why across this building with that... using that heavy load of shell, he was, why, he'd blow her heart plumb out of her. I thought, "How can he be that mean just as that precious mother, that loyal heart looking for her baby... out looking for her baby, and then him shoot her heart out of her." I thought, "Burt, you're wicked."


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