HUNTING A CHRISTMAS DINNER. 353 



other hurried on the crude meal for which we were happily in 

 time ; while we threw off our outer encasements and shunned 

 the hot stove as we gradually thawed out. My nose had a 

 white tip to it, and my companion Bronson's ears were almost 

 transparent ; but a handful of snow from outside set them all 

 tingling again, and they gave no further trouble beyond a slight 

 burning sensation during the ensuing night, and an uncomfort- 

 able tendency to freeze again on the scantiest provocation. 



Bacon, bread, and coffee — all of the hottest, and in enormous 

 quantities — having been duly consumed according to the custom 

 of the country, i.e., at railway speed, and with a greedy indif- 

 ference on the part of each individual to all else except satisfy- 

 ing his own hunger as quickly as his neighbour is doing, 

 conversation and tobacco had a chance, and the news of the 

 two ranches was compared, chiefly in reference to live and dead 

 stock. Then it became necessary from Bronson and self to 

 wrap up our features once more, examine our rifles, and again 

 to sally forth — this time on foot. Clarke averred that he had 

 constantly moved black-tailed deer from a willow-banked gulch 

 only a couple of miles away, but that "they had jumped about 

 so he could never hit them ;" and thither we scrambled along, 

 the severe exercise keeping our blood in a warm glow. Peering 

 into every likely nook, and plunging through countless drifts, 

 we had pretty well tired ourselves out before arriving at the end 

 of the gulch and turning our dragging steps homewards. A 

 last bend, containing a few trees and some undergrowth, alone 

 remained, when an exclamation from Bronson (couched in the 

 vivid language of Western wrath) called my attention, and in 

 another moment I saw his Winchester go off in the air, as if he 

 were taking part in firing a feu dejoie. To the sound of his 

 shot a fat black-tail doe leaped from the bushes below me, and 

 for several seconds stood broadside on, offering a beautiful shot 

 at twenty yards' distance. 



Now was my time, and, of course, my thumb quickly sought 

 the hammer of my express to raise it to full cock. The devil 

 a bit would it move, right hammer or left ! The piercing cold 



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