A Christmas Buck 



them within half a mile of the house. 

 Nevertheless, they are so cunning and 

 stealthy in their ways, and the cover is 

 so dense, that usually, although one may 

 know of their existence right in one's 

 neighborhood, there is more chance of 

 getting game by going off eight or ten 

 miles into the broken country of the 

 black-tail. 



One Christmas I was to be at the 

 ranch, and I made up my mind that I 

 would try to get a good buck for our 

 Christmas dinner; for I had not had 

 much time to hunt that fall, and Christ- 

 mas was almost upon us before we start- 

 ed to lay in our stock of winter meat. So 

 I arranged with one of the cow-boys to 

 make an all -day's hunt through some 

 rugged hills on the other side of the river, 

 where we knew there were black-tail. 



We were up soon after three o'clock, 

 when it was yet as dark as at midnight. 



43 



V" 



