EARLY DAY STORIES. 229 



stormy, we hunted to the west in the rough hills for black 

 tail deer. We had eaten luncheon and were working slowly 

 into the northwest wind when we came in sight of a big 

 drove of black tail deer. I do not know how many there 

 were, as we did not count them, but there must have been 

 eighteen or twenty. They were at rest in a patch of rough, 

 but not very high sand hills, some of them standing up, but 

 most of them lying down, and where it was easy to get a 

 good, but not a close shot. Again we fired at the count, and 

 again Deede's rifle fell short, while mine brought down a 

 buck after it had made a few jumps. They seemed confused, 

 and it appeared as if they could not tell from which way 

 the sound came. They bunched and stood still and looked 

 for an instant while I got in another shot which brought 

 down another buck. However he did not fall at once but 

 ran perhaps a dozen rods before falling, the others following 

 him. This brought them somewhat nearer than at first, and 

 as they were passing I got a doe, a very fine large one at 

 another shot. I sent the fourth shot after the bunch but 

 missed. It was late when we got to camp, and we came 

 near missing it, as darkness began to fall when we were a 

 mile away, and it was snowing. This made seven deer that 

 we had gotten very easily, which in part made up for our 

 bad luck with the elk. 



The next day Mr. Beckwith and Roy came, having 

 located the camp from the signal on the hill. It took them 

 some little time however to find the tent, it being so com- 

 pletely hidden by the nearby hills. The two boys from this 

 time on hunted in company, and each killed his deer, while 

 Dan and I hunted separately. We remained at this camp 

 until we had killen seven more deer, making fourteen in all, 

 when we pulled out for home. 



Our tepee was too small for all to sleep in comfortably, 

 and the boys with the spade and ax made a dugout in the 

 side of a steep little hill, covering the front with a blanket, 



BANCROFT 



