Benson's story of the deer-hunt: 68 



the little let-up of the darkness where the trees were separa- 

 ted and the sky had a chance to look down. 



" B}' good luck, we found the old scow where we left it 

 when we hunted it up the other day. We found tlie oUl 

 tin can under the seat and hailed out the water, hut the 

 wretched craft leaked like a riddle, and we had to do a 

 little more plug'g'ingup of cracks and holes hefore we dared 

 to start off with her. " 



"How on earth did you do all that, in the dark?" asked 

 Johnson, "and without anything to caulk her with ? " 



"Oh, Horace lighted up the jack, and kept the light from 

 flaring by holding his coixt all around it, — made a regular 

 dark lantern of it, j'ou see. And 1, — well, I parted with a 

 good piece of my shirt-flap ft)r caulking purposes. A man 

 in the woods can't be particular about these little matters. 



"Well, finally we rigged the jack in the boat and got 

 afloat. Luckily it didn't rain just 3^et, although the air was 

 a'^full of moisture as a balloon is of gas. We went down the 

 fly ' forty rods, perhaps, about where I thought, the other 

 da}', a deer ought to come in, if anywhere. Before we got 

 ver}' near, I touched a match to the caudle and the thing- 

 sputtered a minute and then went out. A drop of water 

 had got on it, somehow. I thought we were in a fix, but 

 after two or three matches had been held to the wick, the 

 water dried off. ;uid the blaze started. Then I saw what a 

 glorious night it was for jacking. The darkness was so 

 thick that you could cut it. That I could see b}' the candle- 

 light. I thought some of slicing off a few nice pieces to 

 cover Horace up with; — but it wasn't necessar3\ — a deer 

 couldn't have seen either of us if he had worn spectacles. 



