DAYS IN THE WOODS 287 



see what had scared them, and then off again in 

 a minute. Oh ! we might have got plenty more 

 shots, if we had had a rifle Hke what you have now, 

 sir, but it took some time to load a rifle in those 

 days, especially in winter time, when a man can 

 scarcely take his fingers out of his mits — and so 

 they got clean away. The gentleman was terribly 

 mad, threw his rifle down, and swore he would 

 never use it again. It seemed to me the shots 

 sounded kind of curious somehow, and I thought 

 I would just go and see where the bullets went to. 

 I had not gone twenty yards, when I found the 

 place where one of them had struck the snow. 

 A little further on I found where it had struck 

 again, and then where it had struck a third time 

 a little further on still. And so it went on hopping 

 in the snow, the jumps getting shorter and shorter 

 each time, and the trail circling round as it went, 

 till finally the track ran along in the snow for 

 a few feet and stopped. And there I found the 

 bullet, picked it up, and put it in my pocket. Well, 

 having got one, I thought I would go and trail the 

 other bullet : I soon found where that had struck. 

 It acted just like the first one, and I picked it up 

 also. So I went back to the gentleman, and as he 

 was loading the gun, I said, kind of indifferent like. 



