140 HILLS AND LAKES. 



man knew the woods like a book, and could always 

 tell by the make of a country, where away a deer 

 would run, when pressed by the dogs. Now, Squire, 

 a deer has ways of his own, which a man who has 

 lived among 'em and hunted 'em, can understand. 

 When pressed, he will take to a ridge, and. follow it 

 till he's tired, and then he'll take to the water if he 

 can, to throw off the dogs. 



;t Well, before the sun was up, we started out 

 back of the lake, and old Pete stationed the Yorkers 

 some forty rods apart, on a low ridge that stretched 

 away from the lake, far into the woods, at a spot 

 where he knew the deer would be most likely to pass. 

 Having placed them to suit him, he lent me his rifle, 

 and took me, may be a quarter of a mile beyond, 

 and placing me near a great oak at the head of a 

 broad, shallow ravine, left me to lay on the dogs. He 

 hadn't no great notion then of my merits, as a hunter, 

 or as a marksman, and I've allers believed he placed 

 me there, more to get me out of the way, and keepin' 

 me from spoilin' sport for the Yorkers, than anything 

 else, for from what I've learned of the ways of the 

 animal and the woods since, there warn't much danger 

 of a deer's comin' near me. * Now,' said he, * Joe 



