CRUST AND LAKE HUNTING. 531 



oars. The boat would shoot alongside again, and he would 

 seize it by the ears or tail to have the same scene over 

 again, for Turk was on hand to drag it back into the water, 

 when he had lifted it partly out. George became furious at 

 last, and his half-frantic, half-despairing screams of 



"You Turk ! Get away, Turk ! Begone Turk !" mingled 

 with the bleating of the fawn and the angry barking of the 

 dog, and the splash and sputtering of the watery strife, pro- 

 duced a combination of sounds and scene so irresistibly comic, 

 that I sunk to the very earth with peal upon peal of unre- 

 strainable and almost hysterical laughter; for I enjoyed so 

 immensely the agony of George, that I had no time to think 

 of that of the poor little fawn. 



At last this ludicrous contest came to a crisis. The fawn 

 had all this time been making for the shore, and now it had 

 struck shallow water, and was about to make its escape, when 

 George seized his gun and shot it through the head. I had 

 rather the blood of this little spotted thing had been on his 

 conscience than mine, and to do him justice, he seemed very 

 sorry for it afterwards. It turned out that the fellow had 

 missed the deer after all, and let it escape. I now peremp- 

 torily put a stop to that favorite joke of his going alone 

 and as Piscator had lost his chance, went into the boat 

 myself. I was still angry, but I had not the heart to abuse 

 him after affording me so hearty a laugh. 



It was late, but the dogs made another start, and after 

 a short race, a fine young buck entered the water, and instead 

 of swimming, attempted, as the others had, to skulk along 

 the shore. We knew he was lying down, for we should have 

 seen his whole body, had he been standing up in the shallow 

 marsh. We watched in silence to see what the next maneuvre 

 would be when the dog came up, when suddenly a gun 

 exploded from the woods on shore, the deer rose, and with 

 a long bound, made for the shore. It was out of our rifle 

 range, but I could not resist the inclination, and sent a ball 



