6 MIDNIGHT DISTURBANCE. 
x 
boundary-line. ‘In this store our storeman slept 
for some time, and, as bedsteads were superfluous 
luxuries, he camped on the floor. By some evil 
chance, a small colony of skunks obtained an 
entrance into the dormitory, and deemed a consti- 
tutional trot over the bed an enfoyable luxury. 
The skunk, jealous of interryfstisn, if the sleeper 
(the victim of skunk incubffS), hastily turned, 
then, as from a powerful syringe (as I have seen 
young ladies squirt scent from small metal bottles _ 
purchased at the Crystal Palace), the offended 
little night-walker fired its bottled nuisance over 
both the man and his bed. ‘Once bit, twice 
shy,’ says the adage. A light was carefullyy 
concealed behind.a package; a double-barrelled_ 
gun, loaded with No. 5, capped and cocked, was 
placed within easy reach, and careful watch and 
ward kept.. In happy ignorance, in marched the 
skunks for their nocturnal lounge, and, in the 
dead silence of the night, bang, bang! goes the 
gun, awaking everyone in the camp adjoining. 
I heard a Yankee packer, who slept near my tent, 
rouse up and exclaim, in nasal anger, ‘ Waal, 
thar’s that varmint a fire-huntin’ again. I'll be 
dog gone if I wouldn’t sooner roost in a tree 
than camp down war them skunks is a makin’ 
tracks all the night ; I can smell em har!’ 
