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That day Pa and Ma and Laura and Mary had fresh venison for dinner It was so good that Laura wished they could eat it all But most of the meat must be salted and smoked and packed away to be eaten in the winter

For winter was co The days were shorter, and frost crawled up thepanes at night Soon the snoould co house would be almost buried in snowdrifts, and the lake and the streams would freeze In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat

The bears would be hidden away in their dens where they slept soundly all winter long The squirrels would be curled in their nests in hollow trees, with their furry tails wrapped snugly around their noses The deer and the rabbits would be shy and swift Even if Pa could get a deer, it would be poor and thin, not fat and plump as deer are in the fall

PaWoods covered with snow, and co for Ma and Mary and Laura to eat

So as much food as possible must be stored away in the little house before winter came

Pa skinned the deer carefully and salted and stretched the hides, for he would make soft leather of them Then he cut up the meat, and sprinkled salt over the pieces as he laid them on a board

Standing on end in the yard was a tall length cut fro hollow tree Pa had driven nails inside as far as he could reach from each end Then he stood it up, put a little roof over the top, and cut a little door on one side near the bottoes; then he fitted it into place, and that was the little door, with the bark still on it

After the deer meat had been salted several days, Pa cut a hole near the end of each piece and put a string through it Laura watched hi the

He reached up through the little door and hung meat on the nails, as far up as he could reach Then he put a ladder against the log, climbed up to the top,meat on those nails

Then Pa put the roof back again, climbed down the ladder, and said to Laura:

“Run over to the chopping block and fetch reen hickory chips—new, clean, white ones”

So Laura ran to the block where Pa chopped wood, and filled her apron with the fresh, sweet-s chips

Just inside the little door in the hollow log Pa built a fire of tiny bits of bark and moss, and he laid some of the chips on it very carefully

Instead of burning quickly, the green chips s sh the crack around it and a little sh the roof, but most of it was shut in with the meat

“There’s nothing better than good hickory sood venison that will keep anywhere, in any weather”