A TASTE OF MAINE BIRCH. 55 



one ; from its embers and flickering shadows, Uncle 

 Nathan read us many a tale of his life in the woods. 

 They were the same old hunter's stories, except that 

 they evidently had the merit of being strictly true, 

 and hence were not very thrilling or marvelous. Uncle 

 Nathan's tendency was rather to tone down and be- 

 little his experiences than to exaggerate them. If he 



-ever bragged at all (and I suspect he did just a little,, 

 when telling us how he outshot one of the famous 

 riflemen of the American team, whom he was guiding 

 through these woods), he did it in such a sly, round- 

 about way that it was hard to catch him at it. His 

 passage with the rifleman referred to shows the dif- 

 ference between the practical off-hand skill of the 

 hunter in the woods and the science of the long-range 

 target hitter. Mr. Bull's Eye had heard that his guide 

 was a capital shot and had seen some proof of it, and 

 hence could not rest till he had had a trial of skill with 

 him. Uncle Nathan, being the challenged party, had 

 the right to name the distance and the conditions. 

 A piece of white paper the size of a silver dollar was 

 put upon a tree twelve rods off, the contestants to fire 

 three shots each off-hand. Uncle Nathan's first bullet 

 barely missed the mark, but the other two were planted 

 well into it. Then the great rifleman took his turn, and 

 missed every time. 



I " By hemp ! " said Uncle Nathan, " I was sorry I 



shot so well, Mr. took it so to heart ; and I had 



used his own rifle, too. He did not get over it for a 

 week." 



But far more ignominious was the failure of Mr. 

 Bull's Eye when he saw his first bear. They were 

 paddling slowly and silently down Dead River, when 

 the guide heard a slight noise in the bushes just be* 



