64 jock's lake. 



"Horace paddled as if he was creeping up to a camp of 

 Comaiiclies, — slowly, and so still that at one time I almost 

 looked around to see if the fellow hadn't given me the slip, 

 and gone ashore again. I had enough on liand, though, 

 looking out under the jack in the space covered by the 

 light to see the tirst show of deer, and listening with ])Oth 

 ears and my mouth to hear a step or a splash. A little 

 rascal of a frog startled me, once, jumping off 'a lily-pad 

 into the water. ' Gracious! ' thinks I, ' there's a deer that's 

 got scent of us before I've got sight of him, — and he's off 

 in a minute, if that's the stjde of step he's taking!' But 

 that was a false alarm, of course, and one that Horace wasn't 

 fooled by, either. Then I had the dickens' own time with 

 the punkies and mosquitoes. Something like five million 

 of 'em settled down on me and kept off five million more 

 that wanted to get on but couldn't find room. I didn't dare 

 put on any tar-oil. Might as well've staid in camp as to have 

 advertised in that way, — a deer would've- smelled me a 

 quarter of a mile off. And I couldn't slap 'em, for a deer 

 is keen to hear the slightest sound, and he can tell a frog- 

 jump from a slap at a mosquito as quick as he can 

 wink. So, all I could do was to rub my hands together, as 

 well as I could and hold my gun, — and get mad enough to 

 stand it." 



" But tell us about the deer, old fellow, and not be both- 

 ering about the frogs and mosquitoes, " intei-rupted Thomp- 

 son, who grudged the loquacious huntsman the time he 

 took, at that hour of the night, to relate all the marvels of 

 his deer-hunt. 



