JACK-SHOOTING IN A FOGGY NIGHT. 187 



a heap, was about to alight upon his back. He 

 missed the back, but, as good luck would have it, 

 even while the buck was in the air, — the deer 

 going up as Martin came down, — the fingers of 

 the guide closed with a full and desperate grip 

 upon his tail. Quick as a flash I recovered myself 

 from the bogs, replaced the jack, which fortu- 

 nately had not been extinguished, upon my head, 

 and stood an interested spectator of the proceed- 

 gs. Now everybody knows how a wild deer 

 n jump when frightened; and the buck, >vith 

 artin fastened to his tail, was thoroughly 

 used. The first leap straightened the poor fellow 

 ut like a lathe, but it did not shake him from his 

 old. If the reader has ever seen a small boy 

 anging to the tail-board of a wagon, when the 

 orse was at full speed, he can form a faint idea 

 f Martin's appearance as the deer tore like a 

 hirlwind through the tall grass. Blinded and 

 wildered by the light, frenzied with fear, the 

 uck, as deer often will, instead of leading off, 

 ept racing up and down just within the border 

 f light made by the jack, and occasionally mak- 

 g a bolt directly for it. My position was 

 ique. I was the sole spectator of a series of 

 nastic evolutions truly original. Small as the 

 audience was, the performers were thoroughly in 

 earnest. Had there been ten thousand spectators, 

 the actors could not have laid themselves out with 



