A DAY OF LUCK. 307 



I was making good time when on looking ahead along the ridge 

 I saw a good-sized buck come from the left hand side of the ridge. 

 He would take a jump or two then drop his head to the ground 

 and then take another hop or two and again drop his head to the 

 ground. I knew that he was on the trail of other deer. I had 

 hardly time to bring my gun to my shoulder when the buck 

 wheeled and disappeared back over the ridge from where he had 

 come. I started on a run to where the deer had gone out of sight, 

 thinking that possibly I might catch him before he got out of 

 range down the side of the hill. Imagine my surprise when just 

 as I reached the top of the hill, where I saw the deer disappear 

 from my sight, I almost ran against the buck. He had turned 

 back to cross the ridge when I met him. He whirled down the 

 hill but I was too close onto him and I caught him before he 

 could get out of reach. I took out the deer's entrails and bent 

 down a sapling and hung the deer up, then I crossed the ridge 

 and started down the ravine to look after the bear traps. 



I was hurrying down the hill near a jam of fallen timber, 

 when all at once out jumped five or six deer from this timber. In 

 an instant the whole bunch was out of sight behind the jam with 

 the exception of one large doe. I could see, one of her hips stand- 

 ing out from behind a large hemlock tree. Without hesitating a 

 moment, I fired at what I could see of the deer and it dropped 

 out of sight as the gun cracked. I hurried through the jam of 

 timber to where I saw the deer and there the doe lay, trying to 

 get on her feet. I soon ended her misery by shooting her in the 

 head. I soon had her entrails out and hung up as I had the buck. 

 It was the trail of this bunch of deer that the buck was on when 

 he ran into me. 



After I had hung up the deer I hustled on down the ravine 

 to the bear trap. When I got to the place where the trap was set 

 it was gone. The trail led down the ravine and was easy to fol- 

 low as I hurried along and I soon found a small bear tangled up 

 in a thicket of small brush. It was only the work of a moment 

 to fix bruin in shape to skin. After I had the hide off, I cut the 

 bear up into quarters and hung the meat up in the trees. I toted 



