PRAIRIE LIFE. 



419 



yet adorn the larder. As they turned a corner and were 

 hid to view, I had the spurs into Smoke, and reached the point 

 ere they should have gone barely a hundred yards beyond. 

 Peeping quietly round the rocks there they were, already 

 grazing and apparently undisturbed. The three pairs of long 

 ears went up, however, as Smoke walked into view rider 

 having meanwhile slipped down on the near side, saddle-rope 

 in hand. Deer seldom mind a riderless horse : so Smoke and 

 they stood calmly gazing at each other while I crawled to the 

 end of the thirty-foot rope and carefully appraised the deer- 

 meat (no, sir, not venison. There is no such word in Western 

 phraseology.) An old family doe. She won't do, for reasons 



heavy and obvious. The big buck is a fine fellow tough 

 probably, and with his horns in velvet of course. The third is 

 verily a " Little Billee, young and tender. Little Billee. Yes, 

 let's eat he." And a downhill shot took the yearling between 

 the shoulder blades, and handsomely made meat of him. I 

 felt like a man who has committed charity and that charity 

 the best of all, for it began at home, where six bacon-fed and 

 blood-thirsty mortals awaited my return. 



E E 2 



