A DEER CHASE. 403 



boat and traps we had left behind, and we lay around 

 sunning ourselves in the little clearing until afternoon, 

 when our strange acquaintance proposed to put his 

 hounds out on the mountain, that we might at least hear 

 the music of the chase. Having nothing else to do, we 

 consented ; and so, rowing to the upper end of the lake, 

 our friend stationed John and me near the point of an 

 island to watch for the deer, while he pushed on to the 

 main shore with the dogs. "We watched the boat strike 

 the beach, and saw the three disappear in the woods. 

 Soon the cry of the hounds assured us that they had 

 struck the track of a deer. The cry of one of the dogs 

 had a peculiarly sharp, quick snap to it, showing his 

 tainted blood, and which had an almost ludicrous sound 

 as it broke in between the prolonged, deep bayings of 

 the other, that made the mountain side seem like a great 

 sounding-board. We sat and traced the line of progress 

 by the cries ringing up through the tree-tops, until 

 at length they reached the mountain-summit, dipped 

 over the other side, and were gone. Unbroken silence 

 now brooded over the summer lake, and after listening 

 a while in vain to hear the quarry coming back, I re- 

 marked to John that I reckoned the deer had gone to 

 some other lake or pond, and we should hear no more 



