A COOL DEER. 395 



form through the trees, toiling slowly along with his 

 burden. The rest of the day he kept close to the heels 

 of one or the other of the party. His experience had 

 thoroughly sobered him, and he seemed but little inclin- 

 ed to talk. 



Indeed, we none of us felt much inclined to talk the 

 latter part of the day, except as we at short intervals 

 questioned Charlie as to the distance yet to be traversed. 

 Our dinner, beside a mossy rill, somewhat refreshed us ; 

 but, for one, I did not wonder that Charlie grumbled at 

 taking this tramp. Now we would flounder through a 

 springy morass, with our loads bearing us down, and 

 now crawl and climb under and over a windfall that 

 would form a respectable abattis to a fort, and again 

 swing ourselves wearily along the sides of the moun- 

 tain. 



But every journey must have its end, and we at 

 length came to a boggy meadow, which, we were sure, 

 was the head of some lake. In this we were not dis- 

 appointed, and soon gladly launched our boats on a little 

 pond. On one side of it a fine deer was feeding, and it 



was proposed that C , who had not yet had a shot 



at one, should try his double-barrelled fowling-piece, 

 loaded with buck-shot, on him. So we lay on our oars, 



