AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 299 



our want of success utterly astonished him; that he 

 was truly sorry; that he could not account for it, 

 and that we should surely make a killing on the 

 morrow. 



"Have you seen any fresh tracks to-day?" I asked. 



" Oh, yes, plenty of them; haven't youf 



"Well, yes, two or three; but I think the deer 

 that made them were ten miles away when I got 

 there." 



" Why," said he, " when I started out this after- 

 noon I skirted along that big swamp, where you 

 hunted in the morning, and I saw where four deer 

 had crossed your track since you went along. One 

 of them was an awful big buck. I took up his trail 

 and followed it in hopes of overtaking him and get- 

 ting a shot. He roamed and circled around among 

 the hills and through the swamps for, I reckon, 

 more than five miles. I walked just as still as I pos- 

 sibly could, for I knew we were mighty nigh out of 

 meat, and I am gettin' mighty tired of bacon any- 

 how. But somehow that buck heard me or smelt 

 ine, or something, and the first and last I saw of him 

 was just one flip of his tail as he went over a ridge 

 about three hundred yards away. I sat down on a log 

 and waited and studied a long time what to do or 

 where to go next; and finally I concluded I'd just 

 come in and get supper ready by the time you got 

 here. Set up, sir, and have a cup of coffee and some 

 of these baked potatoes and some of this bacon. It 

 ain' t much of a supper, but maybe we'll feel a little 

 better after we eat it, anyway." . 



I surrounded one side of the rough pine table 

 suddenly, and when I got my mouth so full I couldn' t 



