l86 . FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



turnpike and as the deer which I was going to look for were 

 making their course, the last I had seen them, in the direction of 

 the road, I was going to go to the road and then go north, alon-j 

 the road to see if they had crossed. The boys would take the same 

 path to the road that I did when they would go south of camp to 

 look after the marten traps. 



I had my gun and stood in the cabin door waiting for my 

 brother and Wells to get ready as I would accompany them as 

 far as the road. The boys were having some trouble belting their 

 leggins and creepers on to their satisfaction. I became tired of 

 waiting and made the remark that I could go and kill a deer 

 before they could get their feet dressed. My brother said that I 

 had better be going then, so I started on up the path to the road. 

 It was thawing a little, just enough to make the snow pack. I 

 had gone about a hundred yards from camp when I saw a track of 

 a deer where it had stepped into the path, then had turned back 

 about forty yards to the left of the path. A. large birch tree had 

 blown down, knocking one or two smaller trees down so that it 

 made a little jam. Seeing that the tracks were so fresh I knew 

 that the deer was close by and as the woods were open I was 

 quite positive that the deer must be about the jam of trees, when 

 a large doe stepped out in sight and it was only the work of a 

 moment to let her down in her tracks. When the gun cracked 

 out jumped a yearling buck that was lying down just in the edge 

 of the jam and bounded over the trunk of a large birch and 

 stopped broadside to me and I let him down. Thinking of what I 

 had said. on leaving the cabin and what my brother had said to me 

 1 ran back to camp as quick as I could go without even stopping 

 to cut the deer's throat. As I came around the corner of the 

 cabin I heard my brother say to Wells, "I bet a gander that he 

 has killed a deer all right, for he would not shoot twice so quick 

 at anything else." 



Well, the boys had not got their feet dressed yet,' but chance 

 had allowed me to make my word good only I had killed two deer 

 instead of one. The boys helped me to hang up the deer and then 

 went to the marten traps while I went in search of the deer I had 

 started after. Soon I struck the trail of the deer and shortly saw 



