noon
At camp he skinned the deer , cut most of the meat into thin strips which he salted and placed in the sun to dry , and hung the remainder in a cool arbor of boughs . The hide he suspended over a pole . All these things he did hastily , as though he might be in a hurry ; as indeed he was . At noon he cooked himself a venison steak and some tea . Then with his hatchet he cut several small pine poles , which he fashioned roughly in a number of shapes and put aside for the future . The brains of the deer , saved for the purpose , he boiled with water in his tin pail , wishing it were larger . With the liquor thus obtained he intended later to remove the hair and grain from the deer hide .