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My Side of the Mountain

by Jean George

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Student Question

In My Side of the Mountain, why does Sam hide the deer from the hunters?

Quick answer:

Sam kills three deer. He hides the first one in a tree. He hides the second one – and this is the one that gets me every time – in a hollow log near his tent. And then he goes into town with Birdseye, the fox he had been training. Sam leaves him outside while he goes into the general store to buy supplies. When Birdseye hears a hunter nearby, he starts to bark! Sam has to rush out and wrestle him back into submission before anyone sees him and recognizes Birdseye as Sam’s pet fox. He uses these three deer to make clothes and meat for winter, but there are so many more adventures ahead of him!

Expert Answers

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This scene comes in the 15th chapter, called “I Find Out What to Do with Hunters.”

Sam Gribley is a one-time city kid who has run away to live on his own in the Catskill Mountains. During deer hunting season in the fall, Sam attempts to hide from the random hunters that suddenly show up in the woods. But he soon learns that even if they shoot deer, they don’t always find the dead bodies. Sometimes the hunters don’t even look for them too diligently. Winter is coming, and Sam needs to make himself some deerskin leather clothing. He could also use the meat, the venison. So by watching where the wounded deer go, before they finally die – and at least once, by distracting the searching hunter by using the falcon Frightful as a diversion – Sam is able to land three dead deer. He can make clothes and store meat for the winter. 

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