132 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



creek about two miles south of the Oakdale mill. As the 

 creek was bad to ford I gave up the chase for the day, and 

 going home, waited until the next morning, when I took 

 it up afoot. The next morning, after following the track 

 for a mile or so, I came upon his bed where he had lain 

 through the night in a thicket of brush. From this place 

 the track led northwest, going almost toward Neligh. Fin- 

 ally I started him out of another thicket, but the brush were 

 so thick that there was no chance to shoot. He then ran 

 almost directly west, and when I overtook him again he was 

 lying down on a sandy knoll watching for me. He saw me 

 and started to run when I was a quarter of a mile away. 

 This was almost directly south of Neligh and not more than 

 two miles from the town. I gave it up. The wound had 

 entirely stopped bleeding, excepting a little where he had 

 lain over night, and no doubt the deer got well. 



Afterward I had a similar experience when hunting in 

 Custer county, as already related in a previous article, al- 

 though that time I did not let the deer get away. Also at 

 another time Mr. E. R. Palmer and I lost an elk in a sim- 

 ilar manner when hunting in Garfield county. 



Sometimes deer used to cross the sandy track south 

 of Neligh, going back and forth from the north branch of 

 Cedar creek to the Elkhorn near the mouth of Antelope 

 creek. One winter in the seventies I struck such a track 

 that was coming to the Cedar. I found it about two miles 

 southwest of Neligh. The deer was walking very slowly, 

 examining every thick bunch of tall grass, evidently look- 

 ing for a place to lie down. It needs careful hunting at 

 such a time unless one is content to take chances at a run- 

 ning shot. When not more than a mile and a half from 

 Neligh the track entered a little circular valley, containing 

 four or five acres and covered, although not very thickly 

 with tall grass. From the rim of the basin where I was 



