Young Hunters 



the way she came. The fawn danced about 

 bewildered, wondering what had become of its 

 mother, but finally fled to the woods. David 

 fired at the poor deserted thing as it ran past 

 him but happily missed it. Hearing the shots, 

 I joined David to learn his luck. He said he 

 thought he must have wounded the mother, 

 and when we were strolling about in the woods 

 in search of her we saw three or four deer on 

 their way to the wheat-field, led by a fine buck. 

 They were walking rapidly, but cautiously 

 halted at intervals of a few rods to listen and 

 look ahead and scent the air. They failed to 

 notice us, though by this time the moon was 

 out of the eclipse shadow and we were standing 

 only about fifty yards from them. I was carry- 

 ing the gun. David had fired both barrels but 

 when he was reloading one of them he happened 

 to put the wad intended to cover the shot into 

 the empty barrel, and so when we were climb- 

 ing over the fence the buckshot had rolled out, 

 and when I fired at the big buck I knew by the 

 report that there was nothing but powder in the 



