84 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



of camp. As the schoolmaster, from want of success, 

 had almost given up the use of his gun, the report 

 struck me as ominous of evil, so I hurried rapidly 

 forward to discover what could have induced him to 

 shoot, nor was I long kept in suspense, for in an open- 

 ing, a few yards in front, I saw a fine stag Wapitti 

 engaged in a determined battle with my comrade. 

 The deer was on three legs, one of the fore ones being 

 smashed below the knee, while my companion with his 

 gun clubbed carefully watched his assailant. Fortu- 

 nately for the schoolmaster, the stag's agility was 

 seriously impeded by the shattered limb, or the con- 

 test would have been ere this finished ; as it was, he 

 had to display his activity, and rivalled in it any 

 French dancing-master I had ever met. But for the 

 rapid evolutions of assailed and assailant, I could 

 have easily killed the deer, but twice as I was about 

 to press the trigger, the wrong object was in the line 

 of fire. The position of this eccentric man was not 

 without danger, yet when I approached the combatants 

 to give him assistance, I was almost rendered inca- 

 pable of the task by the risibility of the whole affair, for 

 even in his most adroit movements, even when the foe's 

 antlers were within a foot of his body, he kept chaunting 

 through his nasal organ something or other about let- 

 ting the hills resound, only stopping in his vocal exhi- 

 bition when he struck the assailant a blow with the 

 butt of his musket, when the exclamation, one for his 

 knob, would come from his lips with much emphasis. 



At length my approach was perceived, when he re- 

 treate(J towards me, expressing his conviction that he 

 had never doubted that the Lord would send him 

 succour. After the gallant stag had subsided to a 



