110 AD1RONDAC. 



naturally vigilant and keen. I was ready 

 for any disclosures ; not a sound was heard. 

 In a few moments, the trees along-shore were 

 faintly visible. Every object put on the 

 shape of a gigantic deer. A large rock 

 looked just ready to bound away. The dry 

 limbs of a prostrate tree were surely his 

 antlers. 



But what are those two luminous spots? 

 Need the reader to be told what they were ? 

 In a moment the head of a real deer became 

 outlined ; then his neck and fore-shoulders ; 

 then his whole body. There he stood, up to 

 his knees in the water, gazing fixedly at us, 

 apparently arrested in the movement of put- 

 ting his head down for a lily-pad, and evi- 

 dently thinking it was some new-fangled 

 moon sporting about there. "Let him have 

 it," said my prompter, and the crash came. 

 There was a scuffle in the water, and a 

 plunge in the woods. " He 's gone," said I. 

 " Wait a moment," said the guide, " and I 

 will show you." Rapidly running the canoe 

 ashore, we sprang out, and, holding the jack 

 aloft, explored the vicinity by its light. 

 There, over the logs and brush, I caught 

 the glimmer of those luminous spots again. 

 But, poor thing ! there was little need of the 



