138 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 



and brought him to the ground, but he was up again in 

 a moment, and would have been oif, had not Smitli lodged 

 a dose of buckshot in his body. On receiving this, he 

 wheeled about once or twice, as if he were dazed, then 

 swayed and staggered, and finally fell in a lump. 



When we approached him we found he was full grown, 

 and the doctor said he was one of the finest stags he had 

 ever seen. 



''Yes," exclaimed Smith, ''and you and I made him 

 stag around nicely, didn't we? " 



" Pillbox looked at him in a melancholy manner, as if 

 he were sorry that a man should be troubled with such a 

 mania, but he said nothing, and turning to me he pointed 

 out where the bullet had entered the heart. 



"' This hart's bowed down with weight of woe' just 

 now," said Smith, pointing to the same hole, and assum- 

 ing the air of an undertaker. 



" That shot of mine would have killed him, had you 

 not fired," answered the doctor; "so I'll claim first 

 blood, for luck, for nothing can stand a dose of lead in 

 the heart. The shock to the system alone would have 

 scared him to death, for it was severe enough to kill a 

 cow, let alone a deer." 



"I know that," responded Smith; "you may claim 

 him, for I know that nothing can cow that hart like a 

 dose of lead in the right ventricle." 



" Go to blazes witli your old puns!" shouted Pillbox; 

 " one might think you had just come out of a lunatic 

 asylum for punsters." 



This display of assumed choler caused us to laugh 

 heartily, and actually silenced Smith, for he did not at- 

 tempt to make a pun for fifteen or twenty minutes; but 

 when I bagged a badger, it was too much for him, and, 

 on saying that I would not have killed it did I not want 

 it for a specimen, he, in a slow and solemn tone, said : 



** I can understand how bad-ger must have felt when 



