142 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



dress, for it was a simple calico, made graceful by no other acces- 

 sories than their good taste and Venus-like forms. It is a pecu- 

 liarity, or I might say a feeling- of paternal pride, in all Western 

 men, that the moment they are able to purchase a piano they 

 do it for the sake of the daughters, for, as they say locally, 

 "boys are boys, and gals are gals;" and while one wants "a 

 rifle, a dog, and a horse, the other wants nothing but a 

 new dress or a hat, and a ' pi-anor/' J The boys are nobodies, 

 the girls are everything ; the former can hunt or fish, or be 

 anything they please ; the girls must be educated, and able to 

 talk a little French and play the " pi-anor/' else they are also 

 nobodies. What with music, singing, story-telling, and the 

 contents of a barrel of cider, the evening was pleasantly spent, 

 and by midnight we were all soundly sleeping. 



We were awake before daylight, and had breakfast by 

 lamp-light, and after that we saddled our steeds, and each 

 taking a spare horse with him, we were off by four a.m., and 

 in half an hour after we were amid the haunts of the prowling 

 coyote. We had scarcely reached the ground before we espied 

 a vagrant trotting about, and, getting after it close behind, we 

 ran it for five miles at a rattling rate, and the hounds killed 

 it on a knoll, before we were within shooting range. The 

 " blooding " then received seemed to have sharpened their 

 appetite for more coyotes, for they were jumping about and 

 giving tongue as if they were on a trail ; but we supposed 

 it was the buoyancy of their feelings at a prompt victory 

 that caused them to indulge in such an unusual display of 

 melody. Having skinned the slain animal, we moved down 

 into the plain, and there the dogs found the scent so fierce that 

 they raised their heads in the air, and went away at full cry. 

 We could see nothing to cause this outburst, but before we had 

 gone a few yards, out jumped from their burrows two dog 

 coyotes, and away we went after them. The hounds separated 

 on the quarries, two couples following one, and three the other. 

 I kept with the former, and in a run of less than seven miles 

 had the satisfaction of planting a bullet in the fugitive's head 

 as he swerved past me on a new tack ; and the hounds on 

 coming up found him dead, much to their astonishment, and, 



