170 A GOOD-SIZED BUCK. 



in the round world where mosquitoes have longer bills, 

 or the black flies swarm in mightier hosts, I don't Jmow 

 where it is, and shan't go there if I happen to find out 

 its location. I've a tolerably thick hide, but if they didn't 

 bite me some, I wouldn't say so. But you ought to have 

 seen the deer feedin' on the pond-lilies and grass in that 

 lake ! They were like sheep in a pasture ; and out some 

 fifty rods from the shore was a great moose, helpin' himself 

 to the eatables that grew there. I laid my jacket down 

 for Crop to watch, and waded quietly in towards where the 

 moose was feedin'. I got within twelve or fifteen rods of 

 him, and spoke to him with my rifle. He heard it, you 

 may guess. Without knowin' who or what hurt him, he 

 plunged right towards me for the shore ; but he never got 

 there alive. You ought to have seen the scampering of the 

 deer at the sound of my rifle ! Maybe there wasn't much 

 splashin' of the water, and whistlin', and snortin', and puttin' 

 out for the shore among 'em. 



" The next mornin', I got up just as the sun was risin', 

 and a little way down on the shore of the lake I saw a 

 buck. Wai, he was one of 'em that buck was. The 

 horns on his head were like an old-fashioned round-posted 

 chair, and if they hadn't a dozen prongs on 'em, you may 

 skin me ! He wasn't as big as an ox, but a two-year-old 

 that could match him, could brag of a pretty rapid growth. 

 I crept up behind a little clump of bushes to about fifteen 

 rods of where he stood on the sandy beach, and sighting 

 carefully at his head, let drive. My gun hung fire a little, 



