42 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



"Don't let him quiz you on that mishap, gentlemen; older 

 hunters than you have fared as badly. Did you ever hear of my 

 blunder in fire-hunting ? " 



Of course we had not. 



" Then I'll tell it to you." 



JACKSON'S STORY OF A FIRE-HUNT. 1 



" It came about this way. I was up country looking around 

 for a good two-year-old to run at Charleston races, when I met my 

 old comrade, Stockton. We had been chums together at Princeton, 

 as thick as two cats in a bag, sometimes studying, sometimes court- 

 ing, and then we were good friends. When we had nothing else 

 to do we quarrelled ; it is a sure sign of a good friend when he 

 loves you enough to quarrel with you. Strangers don't care a 

 picayune, and won't quarrel about you any way. Stockton had 

 settled down to a sober life, owned a pew in the church, and as 

 many little carroty-haired tokens as you could stand up endwise in 

 a ten-acre lot. / was — well, about the same sort of fellow as when 

 a boy, only the devil had covered me up with his wicked ways. 



" The first thing after seeing Stockton that was proposed was 

 a fire-hunt, and a fire-hunt it was. Dark still night — you could 

 hear a peeper squeak a mile off, and run your nose against a cotton 

 bale without seeing it.  Just the night,' said Stockton. ' Just the 

 night,' says I. 'Come, Jake,' says he to his son, a boy about 

 sixteen, long and lank like his father, and always ready to poke 

 away from home. Accordingly, all things ready, we trailed off 

 into the woods, and took a course along the sea-side, thinking to 

 find more deer. 



" I led the way with the frying-pan on my shoulder, keeping 

 the fire in it well up with pitch-pine knots, Stockton right behind 

 with his rifle, and Jake keeping within sight in the rear. We had 

 gone about a mile or so and the pan began to grow heavy, when I 

 suddenly felt Stockton's hand on my shoulder, compelling me to 

 stop, and then the crack of his rifle from under my arm told me 

 that he had fired at a deer that I had not seen. ' That deer shone 



1 For this tale I am indebted to the graceful pen of my friend, Guillermo. 



