A DAY IN THE BIG WOODS 167 



moment or two he began rolling himself into a ball, as 

 if to prepare for battle, but when he saw I had no in- 

 tention of making an attack, he unrolled himself and 

 waddled along beside me until \ve reached the dam, 

 under which he crawled, perhaps to take a rest and 

 sleep. Of course I laughed at my mistake, and made 

 all sorts of excuses to my sportsman's self. But ex- 

 cuses were of no avail. The thought would creep to 

 the top of my mind that there must be a screw loose 

 in a hunter's optics or in his education if he doesn't 

 know a bear from a porcupine. 



My stomach now began hankering for its breakfast. 

 I looked about me for some kind of game that might 

 make a foundation for it, but finding none in sight I 

 baited a fishing line, that I always kept there, made a 

 few casts and caught enough fish for a comfortable 

 morning meal ; then I returned to camp, where the 

 cook dressed and broiled them, and with the breast of 

 a fat, plump partridge, killed the day before, I man- 

 aged to satisfy my inner-man. Then, at a few minutes 

 after seven, I started for the Caribou Bog. 



On entering the road which begins at right angles 

 from the brook two deer bounded out of the grass into 

 the woods ; they were both does. A half mile further 

 up a good-sized buck jumped out of an old logging 

 yard and disappeared in a jiffy. It now began to 

 drizzle a little, causing the noise made by walking to 

 be almost imperceptible, else why should that most 



