" GATHERING AS IT ROLLS." 187 



if I discharge my gun, he will hear it and come to my 

 deliverance. And while summoning him, could I not 

 turn my powder to some profit, and kill one of these 

 Satanic peccaries? Immediately I carried my thought 

 into practice, and the biggest of the troop rolled at the 

 foot of the tree in convulsions of agony. One idea led to 

 another. I had twenty bullets in my game-bag, and I 

 could count just nineteen peccaries at the foot of the tree. 

 Nothing could be easier than to kill them all, one after 

 another ! I began my musketry exercise, incessantly 

 reloading and firing, and at each victory uttering an 

 ' Hurrah ! ' which awoke every echo in the forest. At 

 length, this continuous fusillade attracted my friend's 

 attention ; but just as he appeared on the scene, I slew the 

 last peccary. You may conceive his astonishment at the 

 spectacle of the wholesale slaughter I had committed." 



The Texan hunter's hearers had listened to his recital 

 with great interest, and now heartily congratulated him 

 on his skill as a marksman. 



Two months afterwards, I descended the Mississippi 

 from St. Louis to New Orleans, on board the steam-boat 

 Black Eagle, and my Texan hunter happened to be one 

 of my travelling companions. In the evening, the pas- 

 sengers, gathering around the stove, discussed political and 

 commercial subjects, and adventures by flood and field. 

 My Texan took care that his peccaries should not be for- 

 gotten. I did not think it my business to remind him 

 that I had already heard his narrative ; but judge of my 

 surprise when he varied the latter part of it as follows : 



" One hour, two hours, three hours passed ; no help 

 arrived. Both physically and morally I felt ill at ease. 



