CHAPTER 9
The next afternoon, Ethan waited in the school parking lot. Soon, his dad picked him up in the old pickup truck. They began the long drive up north to the cabin.
As the forest on the side of the road became thicker, Ethan got more excited. He couldn’t wait to get to the cabin.
“Do you have any questions?” his dad asked. “About hunting, I mean.”
Ethan thought for a minute. “I’ve always wondered how there are more deer every year,” he said finally. “I mean, if the hunters shoot the deer, how come there are more the next year?”
Ethan’s dad laughed. “Well, we don’t shoot all the deer,” he said. “And the Department of Natural Resources — the DNR — manages the hunt every year. They make sure that the hunters obey the rules about how many deer they shoot.”
“What else does the DNR do for deer hunting?” Ethan asked.
“Well, they set other rules,” Dad said. “There are also rules about shooting female deer and young deer. You can’t shoot the young ones or the female deer unless you have a special paper. I only shoot bucks, the adult males.”
As they got closer to the cabin, Ethan was so excited that he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to sleep.
“You’re sure we’ll see some deer, right?” Ethan asked.
“Definitely,” his father said. “This cabin is on land that lots of deer live on. We’ll see deer.”
The old pickup truck pulled into the dirt driveway that led to the cabin. It was dark out, but the truck’s headlights lit up the cabin.
“We’ll need to go to sleep right away,” Ethan’s father said as he parked the truck in front of the small wood cabin. “We’ll be going out before first light.”