188 EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 



thing, boyees. I guess I chawed that thur buffler's 

 hump that night wi' a hearty appetite. I did so." 



Here the old hunter relapsed into silence, occasionally 

 chuckling over the recollection of his early exploits. 

 Pierre and Gaultier confessed that they had never 

 before heard of a hunter being saved from one buffalo 

 by the unintentional intervention of another. 



" Ye hain't lived as long in the perairies an' in the 

 woods as this old nigger," replied Jake ; " but it seems 

 somehow as if the old days wur better than the new. 

 I hain't," he continued, " had sich close shaves nor been 

 in sich tight places as I used to be, these years an' 

 years. Things are settlin' down and gettin' tamer 

 every day, I think." 



" I fancy," said Pierre, " that the game has not now- 

 a-days the boldness it had forty years ago. There has 

 been too much shooting; and no doubt the different 

 animak have learned that discretion is the better part 

 of valour." 



" That's so, you bet," replied Jake. " I cud tell yer 

 some queerities that I've come acrost in my time wi' 

 most sort o' critters ; but most on 'em happened years 

 agone, an' that jest squares in wi' what yer says." 



" What was the tightest place you were ever in, 

 Jake ? " asked Gaultier. 



"Wai, young fellur," replied the trapper, "I hain't 

 edzactly figured that out. I've often said to meself 

 that I've had so many near things happened to me 

 that I never cud settle which were the tightest on 'em 



