THE WHITE DEER. 303 



they again disappeared and all were anxious for spring to come 

 to see if they would return as usual. When spring came the deer 

 came back as before, but in June "the whole bunch came up miss- 

 ing," and it was generally thought that they had changed their 

 haunts or they had been killed. The latter was strongly suspected. 



1 had taken a scout through the woods on the hills back of 

 the locality where these deer had been frequenting and had seen 

 signs that convinced me that the white deer, at least, was still 

 alive, although it had not been seen for a number of weeks. Here 

 I wish to explain -that Coudersport is two miles from Lymansville 

 and it is on the hill between the two places that the white deer 

 had been seen most, and it was in the former place that the loudest 

 cry for the protection of this white deer came from. 



Now about this time I had killed a deer in the big woods where 

 several of us had been on a fishing trip and I took a piece of this 

 venison to a friend in town. It so happened that one of the side 

 judges of our court (Stebens by name) was at the house of my 

 friend. A few days later I was in a store belonging to a brother 

 of the Judge, when the Judge came in and accused me of killing 

 the white deer. Of course I denied, and told the Judge that I 

 would wager two dollars that the white deer was still living. 

 The Judge said "Very well," and at the same time handed a two 

 dollar bill to a man standing by, by the name of Abison, who was 

 listening to our conversation, which was quite heated. I told the 

 Judge at the very first opportunity I would kill the white deer. 



The white deer was not seen in the woods any more, and I 

 was charged with killing it. I said nothing in regard to the charge, 

 for I had now made up my mind to kill it if I could. One day 

 three or four weeks after I had made the wager, Mr. Abison came 

 to me and handed me two dollars and said that the Judge had got 

 his money and told him to give me my money back as he (the 

 Judge) did not want to take the money, that 1 had killed the white 

 deer all right. 



Now 1 was quite positive that the Judge had learned that the 

 white deer was still alive. I had heard that the white deer had 

 again been seen in a field near town. Now this made me all the 

 more determined to kill the white deer. 1 will explain that I had 



