Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat

Jamie knew how Awasin felt. For this was slaughter. It was like shooting cows in a barnyard, Jamie thought. He was very glad Awasin had not asked him to do the killing.
    Taking a deep breath, Jamie drew the long knife and walked over to the bodies of the deer. Only because it was absolutely necessary could he nerve himself for the task in hand. Fortunately all the deer were dead, and he had no need to finish them off. But he had to draw and skin them. Clumsily he set to work, and as he was struggling with the messy job one fawn came up close, grunting anxiously. Jamie tried to frighten it away. It would not go, but stood with its forelegs apart, sniffing at Jamie’s clothes. He tried to ignore it and went on with his task.
    Awasin joined him, and without a word began to help. Deftly and almost mechanically the Indian boy skinned off the hides and then cut up the meat. The hindquarters and forequarters he placed in one pile. In another went the tenderloins, the strips of tender back meat with their precious bands of sinew still attached, and the tongues. Hearts, kidneys, and livers went in still another pile with the briskets.
    Not a thing was wasted. Having been forced to kill these does, Awasin was making certain that every ounce of meat would be used. Within two hours the work was done.
    Only then did he speak. “All right,” he said. “Now let’s get this back to camp.”
    Jamie wiped his knife on the moss. “What about the carcasses and the scraps?” he said. “If we leave them here, they’ll scare off all the other deer.”
    â€œDon’t worry about that,” Awasin replied. “Look overhead!”
    Jamie had not noticed the arrival of hundreds of herring gulls. The big white birds swooped low above the gap, circling hungrily and filling the air with their raucous cries. “You mean they’ll clean up for us?” Jamie asked in surprise.
    â€œWait and see,” Awasin replied briefly.
    He spread the fresh hides, weighed down with rocks, over the meat piles after he and Jamie had loaded all they could carry on their backs. At a jog trot they headed back to the camp, dumped their loads and returned. They had been gone no more than ten minutes, but when they reached the killing place Jamie saw with astonishment and disgust that each deer carcass had disappeared under a heaving, fighting, flapping blanket of gulls. Despite himself he shuddered. Quickly he shouldered another load.
    As he set off now, the fawn came running up. Ungainlyand awkward, it scampered along behind him and made Jamie feel even more guilty about the slaughter of the does. Awasin was unloading at the camp when the fawn suddenly ran to him and nuzzled its nose against his legs. The Indian boy had not seen it, and with a startled shout he jumped halfway across the camp.
    Jamie chuckled. “Looks like you’ve found a friend,” he said.
    Awasin grinned sheepishly. “I suppose since I killed its mother I have to be its foster father now,” he replied.
    â€œIt’ll probably wander away and join some other herd,” said Jamie. “And if it doesn’t maybe we can train it to draw a sled the way the Laplanders do with reindeer.”
    The fawn refused to wander. When the boys finished carrying all the meat and hides to the camp, it was still with them.
    Now began the work of preparing the meat. Squatting side by side, the boys began slicing it into thin, waferlike pieces. It was tricky work, but Awasin was an expert. He went at the job as if he were peeling an apple, and gradually peeled the bigger pieces down to the bone at the core. When a large pile was sliced, Jamie picked it up and carefully hung the pieces above the ground on the branches of the scrubby willows. Under the bright sun, the meat began to dry at once.
    Next Awasin turned to the hides. Choosing a sandy, level area, he stretched the skins, then pegged them down around the edges with the flesh side