246 CRANBERRY LAKE. — THE OSWEOATCHIE. 



shot a deer with a rifle, on the full run, — and I didn't then. 

 We listened, and in a moment the deer "whistled" 

 sharply, and by that token I knew I had not broken the 

 letter of the law, and the deer that ran away, lived to be 

 shot at another day. 



I had enoui2;h vain rci^rels that T didn't " blaze away" on 

 my own judgment of the proper time to tire, although 

 it was not to have ])een anticipated that a deer would 

 depart without the one, customary, "last lingering look," 

 — and, again, if T had missed a fair, still mark like that, 

 my remorse would have been intolerable, and I never could 

 hav(^ U)\d of my loss. As it v.-as, I was comforted by the 

 reflection that 1 missed a flash (tf light into which that deer 

 instantly transformed himself. "So much for Bucking- 

 ham! " 



For the next half hour or so, we hunted up the river 

 for some stray camp for the night, and found one, — the 

 common, ojien bark-cam j), — where Ave landed at eight 

 o'clock P. M., thoroughly tired and desperately hungry. 

 I had taken more than enough trout for supper, and we 

 were soon rolled up in our blankets, with a roaring tire at 

 our feet, and fast asleep. 



The next morning, we breakfasted on trout, crackers and 

 tea, (not so very bad a breakfast, either, if you have a 

 woodsman's appetite,) loaded our small luggage into the 

 boat, and continued our w^ay up the river. We came uj^on 

 a party of three or four men in camp, lazily smoking 

 around their smouldering tire after ( I have no doubt) a 

 somewhat heartier breakfast than wc had taken. No iutro- 



