EARLY DAY STORIES. 131 



approach game when so protected. I always made a prac- 

 tice of doing this when it was necessary to leave the game 

 out over night. In the morning I have often seen wolf 

 tracks in the snow only a few rods away, but they did not 

 dare to touch the game. The next morning I went with 

 the team and sleigh and brought in the three deer. 



Sometime in the seventies, but I cannot tell just when 

 I had a very peculiar experience in hunting in this same 

 neighborhood. I started on horseback, having a very ex- 

 cellent riding mare, but she was nervous, and somewhat 

 afraid of a gun, and of the game, especially if it was close 

 by. This time also, I found the track of a big buck that 

 had been feeding in one of Mr. Swett's cornfields during 

 the night. Dismounting and leading the mare, so as to be 

 ready to shoot quickly when the game started, I came upon 

 this deer lying down in a ravine on the George Hunter place, 

 perhaps a quarter of a mile southeast of the place where the 

 house now stands. Only the head and horns and part of 

 the neck could be seen, and these not very distinctly. Aim- 

 ing as well as I could at the neck, the head dropped at the 

 crack of the rifle. Going up to the deer intending to stick 

 him, I stepped on one horn so as to hold his head down, 

 but the mare was afraid and kept pulling back on the bridle, 

 the deer in the meantime kicking with his hind, and strik- 

 ing with his fore feet. I had to give it up, and looking 

 around for a place to tie the mare, saw some big weeds a 

 dozen rods away that would answer the purpose. Having 

 tied the mare, I picked up the rifle and turned to go back 

 to the deer, when to my surprise I saw him running up the 

 bank of the ravine nearly a hundred yards away. I fired 

 but of course the shot missed him. This was the first case 

 of this kind that I had ever met with. I followed on, not 

 having a doubt that the deer would be overtaken and killed. 

 The tracking snow was good and the track easy to follow. 

 I rode the mare to the place where the deer crossed Cedar 



