Protein-on-the-Hoof

or "Dinnertime at the Sam and Annie Ames Home"
By Andrew Clement

To be included in the blessings of nature to which the farmers fell heir were those mobile units of succulent protein-on-the-hoof, which came with the bush, the moose and deer. These were fair game to be had on sight at any time, dawn, dusk, or high noon from June to June.

It is now June of '32 and a field of clover nodding in the wind and sun extends away from a white house behind which is a hip roofed barn.

The potatoes have been lifted and carried, still steaming, to the centre of the table on which is placed a platter of salt pork. Pa and the three kids direct eight arms toward something to eat before the others get it.

Ma on her way from the stove cast a quick glance toward the south clearing as a matter of habit. She stops for another look and says in a loud whisper, "There's one Pa!" A commotion follows as everyone rushes to the window to see what that "one" may be, sometimes a moose black against the green.

Now Pa pushed his plate in, his chair back the other way, takes a rifle off the wall, and slips out the back door, all in one motion as perfected by habit. Ma and the three kids from ten on down crowd the window for a glimpse of the drama soon to be enacted.

The deer, which it is, hidden below the body by the clover and a slight hump in the field, moves nervously wagging its ears from the pestering flies, faces toward the house making a narrow target. At that distance of two hundred yards it would be easy to miss. But why the delay, the watchers wonder. Now the animal decided to change pastures. First it raises its head to full alert upon the farmhouse and turns broadside. This is the end. With the explosion the animal disappears. The youngsters burst from the door and tear across the meadow, howling with delight. As a tribute to beauty in death they remain silent a moment then tear back to the house screaming with excitement.