210 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



After the year 1888 game was too scarce in our old 

 hunting grounds in Nebraska to make it at all enticing to 

 those fond of the sport, and the Black Hills country was 

 the nearest place where large game could be found in any 

 great quantity. I believe, if my memory has not failed me, 

 that I made five excursions to the Black Hills during the 

 nineties, four in the fall of the year for hunting, and one 

 in the summer for camping and trout fishing. It is not the 

 intention to give in this story a full account of these hunting 

 trips, but to tell of four dififerent times, when game was 

 killed by lying in wait tor it to approach near enough for 

 a shot. 



I was hunting with Sam Coe — this was on my first 

 hunting trip to the Hills — had been having fairly good luck, 

 for although I had missed several shots, I had brought down 

 two deer at a shot for each, a black tail and a white tail doe. 

 Sam had done much better, for he was a better shot and a 

 much better hunter than I, and besides he was used to hunt- 

 ing in the timber, but I was not. However, it is probable 

 that I was enjoying the sport as much if not more than he. 



We struck out from camp as soon as it was fairly light, 

 my course taking me almost directly west, through rather 

 thick timber and brush at first, then for a mile or so through 

 open timber with occasional thickets where deer would likely 

 be in hiding, and where two or three were routed out of their 

 beds, but without giving any chance for a shot. The coun- 

 try was beautiful, not rough excepting in a few places, tim- 

 bered with the western mountain pine, with open parks and 

 glades, and occasional thickets of second growth pines stand- 

 ing very thick and from five or six, to twelve or fifteen feet 

 high. It was the first time I had ever been fairly into the 

 Hills, and I was so charmed with the scenery that I nearly 

 forgot to look for game. About two miles from camp, after 

 passing through a narrow strip of timber, I came out upon 

 the edge of an open glade, traversed through its center by 



