WILD SPOUTS IN THE FAU WEST. 



Refreshed and strengthened by the food, I stirred 

 the fire to a bright glow, and, again on good terms with 

 myself and the whole world, I sat patient and watchful 

 under the towering flames. Nothing stirred till about 

 one in the morning, when I again heard a light meas- 

 ured step, and a doe appeared coming straight towards 

 me. She had not the slightest suspicion of danger, but 

 stood staring at the fire with clear shining eyes, hardly 

 six paces from the stand. She was with young ; still I 

 must have a hunting shirt, and I had raised the death- 

 dealing tube, when three more deer arrived on the 

 scene, one of them a fine buck. They passed round 

 the lick, and then stopped about ten or eleven paces 

 behind the doe, who never once moved from her place. 

 Turning the rifle a little aside, I fired at the buck, who 

 bounded high in the air and fell dead, the doe flying 

 off like the wind. She was so close that she must have 

 been singed by the powder. 



Deathlike stillness again prevailed. I was nodding 

 a little, but waking up suddenly and looking before me, 

 I saw -two glowing eyes shining through the dark- 

 ness, and soon afterwards descried the whole form of a 

 deer. lie came straight towards me, stood for a 

 moment, turned a little aside, and disappeared after 

 the crack of the; rifle. I gave myself no concern about 

 him, but reloaded and watched for more. Whip-poor- 

 will had already begun his monotonous song, which 

 regularly resounds through the woods shortly before 

 ihe first gleam of day, when I again heard the meas- 

 ured tread of a deer on the dry leaves, and he re- 

 ceived inv ball just as the gray dawn wa-^ appearing. 

 As it grew lighter I found him lying dead on his 



