58 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



pounds, while in the northern states they grow to an average of 

 double that weight. 



The last I saw of Jackson he was winding around the swamp 

 with Mike, having left his daughter on a little knoll that com- 

 manded a fair view of the hummock, and where her bright bay 

 horse and little figure stood out in relief against the dark pines 

 beyond. The Doctor I could not see, but my negro, Scipio, stood 

 between us, and only a short distance from me, and perfect still- 

 ness reigned over pine woods and hummocks. Moment after 

 moment slipped away, but we could hear nothing, save the impa- 

 tient champing of my horse. Away down the woods a fox-squirrel 

 flirted his broad tail as he chased his comrade up a tree, or a 

 painted woodpecker passed by in undulating sweeps as silently as 

 a moth. At length a distant call, so faint it just reached me, but 

 I recognised it as the driver cheering the hounds as he cast them 

 off. Now for it. Another pause. The cry was repeated, and with 

 it the low yelp of a dog, then another, and then a ringing shot away 

 down the woods. My horse pricked his ears, and Scipio mounted 

 a fallen tree the better to survey the scene. No cheering shout 

 announced the death of the deer, though the dogs stopped yelping. 



At this moment I heard in the bushes the rapid bound of some 

 animal; it came nearer and nearer. From the higher ground 

 where I stood X could see over the bushes a pair of antlers, and 

 I supposed it to be the same deer that had been fired at down the 

 swamp. I dismounted to take surer aim. How my heart beat in 

 unison with the bounding of his feet, while every sense converged 

 into the coming of his presence ! But, alas ! he did not come out 

 by me, but between me and the Doctor, and very near to him. 

 Pang ! pang ! I heard his rifle, and immediately the deer turned 

 in again, just keeping the edge of the bushes, and showing his 

 back at every jump. As he passed me, I took aim, and when his 

 flag showed over the grass, I fired, but the deer only moved with 

 an accelerated speed down past the next stand, and receiving a 

 shot there, and two from Miss Jackson, rushed back into the 

 swamp from whence he came. The dogs, with the firing, broke 

 out into a louder chorus. I heard Jackson's horn nearer and 

 nearer ; he was following up the dogs, keeping in the open woods, 



