EARLY DAY STORIES. 157 



only a short distance when they stopped, turned about and 

 looked at me. I took aim at another but put down the rifle 

 without firing — I had enough for the first day's hunting. 

 The buck had a fine set of horns, and I afterward had the 

 head mounted by Sessions & Bell of Norfolk. It is now 

 owned by my oldest daughter. Some years ago it took the 

 premium at the state fair as the finest speciment of the kind 

 on exhibition. This had been my lucky day, only twice in 

 all my hunting experiences have I had better luck than on 

 this day. Once I killed three elk in a day and once two elk 

 and four deer. This day I had killed four deer at five shots. 

 Often I would only get one, if any at five shots. 



It took a good part of the next day to get the game 

 into camp and we did no hunting. We then moved camp 

 about a quarter of a mile to a place thought to be more con- 

 venient; this, however, not taking up a great deal of time. 

 We then hunted two or three days more with indifferent 

 success. I got in several shots, getting only two deer and 

 doing some very poor shooting. One is apt to get careless 

 in hunting, and even if one tries to be careful, some poor 

 shooting is apt to be done. I got one very fine standing 

 shot at a large doe not more than a hundred yards off, and 

 never touched her. This surprised me so that I did not 

 throw in another cartridge until she was out of reach. At 

 another time I shot at a large buck that was running past 

 within easy range — it ought to have been a dead shot, but 

 the ball struck too far back, and so high up that he could 

 not be followed by the blood. Charley could not coax the 

 deer up close enough to reach them with his shot gun, and 

 he did not have good luck in approaching them, so that in 

 all this time he did not get a shot. However, we had six 

 deer on hand, besides what was left of the antelope — we were 

 about out of bread, and some arrangement must be made 

 to get our game to town. What we did do, and how we 

 did it, will be told in the next chapter. 



