The Hunters' Feast, by Captain Mayne Reid.
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The story starts in the city of St Louis, towards the end of the summer
of some year in the nineteenth century. Reid collects together a group
of six men who would pay to take part in an expedition, camping and
hunting, into the prairies. They take with them a couple of paid men,
professionals who would give them very necessary guidance. They all
make a pact that they would each tell a round of tales around the camp
fire, such stories to be amusing and instructive.
Reid himself is something of a naturalist, as we can learn from his many
other books. We are given these tales just as they are told, in good
English if told by an educated man, and in the dialect of the less
educated ones. This latter arrangement makes the checking of the OCR
transcriptions a little difficult, but never mind.
What people may find a little tedious is Reid's habit of giving the
naturalists' Latin names for the various animals and plants described.
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THE HUNTERS' FEAST, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID.