Dear Mr.

Kilmer Chapter 1

Pa : Tomorrow is gonna be Richard’s big day.He is going

To get his first deer
Gus: OK Pa,I will prepare the equipment for tomorrow

NEXT DAY:In the forest and near the river

Richard:Where are we going Pa?
Pa :The weather is good.It would be a great day for
Hunting
Richard:I hope no deer would come to drink(in his mind)
Pa :Look at that and dont make any noise.That is a nice
deer to kill
Gus :Let me kill it PA
Pa :No this time I want Rechard to shoot.Rechard come
Here take the rifle and shoot it
Richard:I have to target it some where so it does not hit the
deer (in his mind)
Richard:BANG(Richard miss the shoot)
Gus :Richard you stupit fool!!! How could you miss a shoot
like that
Pa :All hunters miss some times
Gus :Why wouldn’t you let me take the shot,Pa? I can kill
that deer in one shot
Pa :No, you wouldn’t.Go back to the cabin
Gus :what? You mean we are leaving? We got thr rest of
the day
Pa :I want to talk to your brother
Pa :What happened son? Why you missed that buck?
Richard:I just couldn’t do it.Maybe because I didn’t like it.
It’s just so painful to take an animal’s life.
Pa :it’s supposed to be painful.
Richard:So why do you do it, Pa?
Pa :Death is a part of life.We neer to remember that.Ok
now if you don’t like to hunting you don’t have to
come hunting anymore.
Richard:I’m sorry Pa
Pa :Yeah me to.Go to cabin and help your brother
Gus :So,Small Fry,did you catch it from Pa? He yelled at
You for your own good,you know? You got tto learn
how to fit in with other people
Richard:Maybe I just don’t want to fit in
Gus :Not even with your family?come Richard , everybody
Wants to fit in.I keep telling you,get into sports.then
you be popular.You could go out fot baseball this
spring.How about it, Richard
Richard:That would take too much time from the farm,Gus
Gus :I play football and I still do all my work.Just think
about going out for baseball, okey? You’re a good
hitter
Richard:I will
Gus :And you got get over this thing you got against
Hunting.You want Pa to be proud of you, don’t you?
I was lots younger than you when I kill my first buck.
I wanted to make a trophy out of it but Pa wouldn’t
Let me
Richard:Gus, does it ever make you sad to kill an animal?
Gus :Course not,what kind of sissy hunter would be if I
ever felt like that?
On The Way Home
Gus :The Germans are starting their submarine warfare
again.America will go to war.I can’t wait to join the
army, Pa
Pa :You’re not going anyewre until you graduate
Gus :But Pa,you dropped out of fifth grade
Pa :Yes,but now a boy can’t do anything without a high
school education

At Richard Home
Angie :Thanks for drying the dishes,Richard
Richard:Angie’s sacrificed a lot for us.She dropped out of
eight grade and does all the work of a full-time farm
woman(In his mind)

In Richard Room
Richard:I’m relieved that Pa now knew how i filt about
Hunting.But i still could not understand why Pa felt
that it was important to kill beauthiful animals.
I stillfeel sad for the deer that was shot by grandpa
when we went hunting.I was eight then.I’m gonna
make a poem of that incident.
Richard:My crayons made it white and brown,
Nature made it shy,
God made it fllet of foot,
But grandpa made it die.(Richard poem)