Part 10 (2/2)
Each cut himself a long, green palmetto stem which would not take fire readily and sharpened one end to a point upon which he impaled a generous slice of steak. With flushed faces and singed fingers they kept turning the meat over and over before the blaze. It was an unsavory mess, burnt and ash covered, which they at last p.r.o.nounced done and deposited upon a clean palmetto leaf. Hungry as wolves, each cut off a generous mouthful and began to chew. They chewed and chewed looking at each other with keen disappointment on their faces.
Walter at last spat out his mouthful in disgust. ”It's tough as sole leather and about as tasteless. We even forgot the salt, too.”
A little figure lurking behind a tree on the edge of the clearing evidently deemed this just the proper time to make its presence known, for it stepped boldly out from behind its shelter. Its right eye was closed tight by an enormous swelling, and its nose was twice its natural size, but it strode forward with head up and dignity in its tread.
”Chris,” shouted in delight the three beside the fire.
The little darky looked down on the pile of burnt and ruined meat in disgust. ”I knowed you chillen's would go an' spoil de best part ob my bear. Now you-all jis get out ob de way an' dis n.i.g.g.e.r goin' to show you how to cook b'ar meat.”
”But it's so tough, Chris, that we can't chew it,” Walter objected.
”You chillens jes get out of de way like I tells you,” said the little negro vaingloriously. ”Just come back in forty minutes an' dinner will be ready. Leave dis n.i.g.g.e.r alone 'till then 'cause he's powerful cross to-day.”
Charley nudged the captain and Walter and the three withdrew to a little distance, leaving Chris in possession of the field.
”Chris will fix it up all right,” Charley a.s.sured them. ”While he's at it, let's have a try for some of the honey the bear was into,” he suggested.
His two companions gave an eager a.s.sent.
CHAPTER XI.
THE PAWPAWS.
Three more torches of palmetto leaves were quickly made, lighted up, and, with extra handfuls of the green leaves, our party advanced towards the tree where they had first seen the bear. They were met by a buzzing horde of the workers who swarmed out to defend their homes, but these were soon silenced by the pungent smoke of the torches and our hunters soon stood by the tree where bruin had met his Waterloo.
A few feet from the ground was a ma.s.sive limb and a little above it was a cavity in the trunk itself, around which more bees buzzed industriously. A few waves of the smoke torches quieted these, and Charley swung himself up on the limb beside the hole. A little more smoke completed the job and with his hunting-knife he dug out great squares of the clear, dripping comb, which he pa.s.sed down to his companions who had stripped off a slab of hickory bark for its reception.
”That is more than we can eat,” he at last declared, slipping to the ground, ”besides I've got a 'hunch' that Chris has got that bear meat ready for us and I am hungry as a wolf.”
”It may be cooked all right but it will still be too tough to eat,”
mourned Walter.
”Don't you believe it,” chuckled Charley, ”those bear steaks are going to be as tender as chicken. If you will not give me away to Chris, I will show you the reason why.”
The captain and Walter eagerly gave the promise of secrecy.
”See that shrub?” said the instructor, pointing to a banana-like stalk of a tree-like shrub without branches, but from which protruded large, round glossy leaves with short stems. Close to its trunk near the crown hung a close cl.u.s.ter of golden fruit about the size of an apple.
Walter plucked one of the ripe fruit and bit into it hungrily, but spat out the mouthful in disgust.
”You have to acquire a taste for it, the same as you have to for turtle eggs, olives, and a dozen other things that taste unpleasant at first,”
Charley said. ”You'll find that little tree scattered all over Florida where the soil is at all rich. It is called pawpaw by the natives, who regard it highly for the sake of its one peculiar virtue. A few drops of the juice of its ripe fruit spread over a tough Florida steak will in a few minutes, make it as tender as veal. The same results can be attained by wrapping the steak in the leaves and letting it lay a slightly longer time. The best of it is that meat treated in this manner is not injured in the slightest. In fact it seems to gain in flavor from the treatment. But there is Chris waving to us. Keep quiet about the pawpaws. I want to hear his explanation.”
They were too hungry to lose any time in obeying Chris' signals. The little darky had arranged a kind of tablecloth of moss on the ground and had put upon it slabs of clean cut bark for plates, while upon each rude plate reposed a thick, juicy, bear steak, done to a turn. The steak was delicious and tender as chicken and with a taste all its own.
”You're a born cook, Chris,” declared Walter, as he paused to take a full breath. ”What makes it so tender, now? that which we cooked was tough as leather.”
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