120 HILLS AND LAKES. 



wake up the sleeping echoes of the mountains, to hear 

 my voice thrown back by the Adirondacks, who will 

 say I have broken the peace, or disturbed the quiet 

 of the people ? 



" The truth is, Squire, away off here in the wild 

 woods, the law you speak of has no force. If I'm 

 hungry, I've a right to furnish myself with venison. 

 The law of nater and necessity permits it, and that I 

 say again, is higher than the statut' book. But I've 

 no right to steal your rifle, or murder you, even in 

 the deepest and darkest recesses of the Shatagee. 

 Why ? Because the law of nater and of conscience, 

 of the great God himself, as well as of man, forbids it. 

 And though you might rot where I slew you, and no 

 man look upon your bones, though I myself should 

 escape suspicion, yet the guilt would be as deep, and 

 the wrong as great, as though done in the highways 

 of the settlements, or the crowded streets of a city. 

 But killin' a deer here in the woods, that belongs to 

 nobody, that no one ever before saw, that no live man 

 can lay any claim to, is another thing, even though 

 there may be law agin it. It don't go agin my con- 

 science to break such a law, and I don't care who 

 knows it. If by killin' a deer when I want steaks for 



