CHAPTER XX. 

 Deer Hunt Turned Into a Bear Hunt. 



^j^J FRIEND by the name of Dingman invited me to come to 



mm his camp on More's 'Run, a tributary of the Sinnamahoning. 



j I This was something like forty years ago, when deer were 



plentiful and several men in this section made it a business 



to hunt for the money that there was in it, and Nathan Dingman 



was one of those men. It was about eight miles from my place to 



Mr. Dingman's camp. 



iOne morning after we had a fall of snow, I packed my knap- 

 sack with as much grub stake as I was able to carry, with my 

 gun and blanket, and started over the hill to Mr. Dingman's camp. 

 After I had crossed the divide, I did not go far before I began 

 to see deer tracks. There was no road or trail down the run, and 

 the run was pretty well filled with timber. I had about all that 

 I could handle without deer tracks, but when I was within about a 

 mile of Mr. Dingman's camp, I came onto the trail of several 

 deer that had only been gone a few minutes. I could not stand it 

 longer, so I hung my pack and blanket up in a tree and took my 

 track back up the stream until I was quite sure that I was well out 

 of range of the deer, and then climbed the ridge until I was 

 near the top of the hill and on advantageous ground. 



The direction of the trail of the deer where it crossed the 

 stream led me -to think that the deer were going south, or down 

 the ridge but on the contrary they had turned to the right and 

 up the ridge. I had not gone far along the ridge before I began a 

 sharp lookout. I suddenly found the deer lying in a thicket of low 

 laurel. They broke from cover at a breakneck speed. I fired 

 both barrels at them with the best aim that I was able to get, 

 and had the satisfaction of seeing one of the deer, a good sized 



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