EARLY DAY STORIES. 213 



five acres, in which there was not a tree, but which was 

 surrounded by timber, some of it being quite dense. I had 

 stopped perhaps five minutes to look around, and was about 

 to go on again when I heard a bunch of deer approaching 

 on the run. They would run for a little way, then stop and 

 listen then run again. They kept coming nearer, making a 

 good deal of noise in breaking through the crust. They saw 

 me as soon as I saw them and stopped in the edge of the 

 timber where there was no chance for a fair shot. However, 

 I took my chance and missed. They scattered somewhat, 

 but three or four ran through an open place in the trees, 

 among them a large doe at which I fired. I did not know 

 whether she was hit or not, but following the tracks soon 

 found blood, and within forty rods I found her lying dead. 

 I do not know how many deer there were in the herd, but 

 certainly there were a dozen or more. 



A day or two later I was standing in an open place, 

 looking and listening, when I heard three or four shots not 

 very far away. I was in a little valley, probably twenty rods 

 wide, with steep rocky ledges on either side. If these shots 

 were at deer, and any of the deer came my way, it was pretty 

 certain that they would pass through this valley. I there- 

 fore, as quickly as possible, climbed up among the rocks on 

 one side and getting ready, waited. I did not have to wait 

 long before two black tail does came through the gap on the 

 run, passing within seventy-five steps of where I was hid- 

 den. I got one at a single shot, but missed the other. 



This was on Thanksgiving day, and our outfit was 

 moving camp. We made the new camp within a mile of the 

 spot where the deer was killed, and there we cooked and 

 ate our Thanksgiving dinner. Our camp was in a very 

 thick grove of pine timber, plenty of dry wood all around, 

 a fine spring near by, an open glade close at hand that fur- 

 nished grass for the horses, although they had to paw the 

 snow away to get to the grass, flour and baking powder for 



