24:6 THE FIRE HUNTER. 



<lem buck ?' "What Pompey guine to say ? dey fat 

 for tru." 



" Fat or no fat, I liave one of tliem to night I'll 

 do it, by jingo, if I have to walk for it. Here he's 

 been writing to me, as if I was a nigger ; telling 

 me to keep them bucks till he comes over with his 

 friends to hunt them. Dang me, if I do. Who 

 gave them to him ? were they boin in his cattle- 

 pen? have they got his mark and brand upon 

 them ? all that have white tails are in my mark, 

 and I'll shoot them as I please, and ask no odds." 



"Dey fatten on maussa peas, anyhow," said 

 Pompey. 



" How do you know they're fat ?" said the inde- 

 pendent overseer. 



" Case I see dair tracks, and de print deep in de 

 eart, where dey walk." 



" I've seen them, too," said Slouch, " and more 

 besides than you think for. Who was it, pray, that 

 took off the rider from the fence, and slipped away 

 one rail, that they might jump that panel? and 

 who set the stakes, to snag them, when they were 

 used to the path ? And no thanks to you, that you 

 did not kill them, for I found the hair on the point 

 of your stake where it just grazed them in their 

 leap." 



Pompey cast down his eyes, convicted of having 



