The Log Cabin.

I live in a capital city, in the U.S., in a small house that, inside, looks just like what you'd expect from a 19th century mountain cabin.  It came this way; I had nothing to do with the interior.  Nevertheless, I've tried to enhance the remote feeling of the place: an old fishing creel hung from the wall here, a carved wood lamp there, I've even got a small tree trunk with a hatchet in it by the wood-burning stove (the hatchet isn't solely for show, I use it to make stage two kindling from logs).

Imagine my joy upon being presented with a mounted deer head for the log cabin.  I'm told, just yesterday, I've earned a reputation around the neighborhood, not for being woodsy, but for being affable and helpful.  Affable, I'm okay with; helpful, nobody was supposed to know, I mean, beyond the people I've helped and me.  That's just what you do, you know, you help where it's needed, there should be nothing remarkable about that.  It bums me out a little to know it is remarkable.

I don't see any need to discuss my evidently noted deeds, except one, because the one led to the deer head.  An older woman who lives across the alley from me - in the city, front door faces the street, back door faces a gate to the alley - got out of the hospital, on a walker.  Man, did I admire her efforts to move things from her car to her home, but, of course, the instant I saw this, I asked if I could help.  She took me up on it, and without going into detail, I helped, because that's just what you do.  Nothing could be more important right then, not even a wedding or a funeral.  Maybe a sucking chest wound or other debilitating condition, that would excuse you.

Yesterday, I walked by the garages attached to her house.  One garage was open, and I heard rummaging as I approached.  A man's voice called my name - this stranger knows my name, incredible - from inside the garage as I passed.  We greeted each other, talked for awhile, he filled me in on how he knew of me, and so on.  I complimented the deer head he had in his garage.  He just gave it to me, despite my protests.  We wished each other well and parted.