How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I was so startled that I froze, mouth half open. Then I let go of the shrub and fell back down the mud incline. (3.18)
Sometimes Paulsen is comically clumsy, like when a dog startles him (he thinks it's a bear) and he falls down an embankment. Do you think that animals have the advantage over people in the wilderness?
Quote #5
With the smell of powder still in the air, almost before the duck finished falling, the dog was off the bank in a great leap, hit the water swimming, his shoulders pumping as he churned the surface and made a straight line to the dead duck. He took it in his mouth gently, turned and swam back, climbed the bank and put the duck by my right foot […]. (3.35)
In sharp contrast to Paulsen, who has trouble shooting ducks, Ike the dog knows exactly what to do. This description oozes skill.
Quote #6
He knew hunting. Clearly somebody had trained him well. […] On those occasions when I missed—I think more often than not—he would watch the ducks fly away, turn to me and give me a look of such uncompromising pity and scorn that I would feel compelled to apologize and make excuses. (3.43)
Ike the dog's reaction to Paulsen's inexpert shooting is pretty hilarious. But which do you think is harder—shooting a flying duck and hitting your target, or retrieving the dead duck in the water?