A Christmas Buck 



companion, dashed out of the coulee in 

 front, across the basin. It was broad- 

 side to me, and not more than one hun- 

 dred yards distant; but a running deer 

 is difficult to hit, and though I took two 

 shots, both missed, and it disappeared 

 behind another spur. 



This looked pretty bad, and I felt 

 rather blue as I climbed up to look at the 

 trail of the spike. I was cheered to find 

 blood, and as there was a good deal of 

 snow here and there it was easy to follow 

 it ; nor was it long before we saw the buck 

 moving forward slowly, evidently very 

 sick. We did not disturb him, but 

 watched him until he turned down into 

 a short ravine a quarter of a mile off; 

 he did not come out, and we sat down and 

 waited nearly an hour to give him time to 

 get stiff. When we reached the valley, 

 one went down each side so as to be sure 

 to get him when he jumped up. Our 



