THE BIG BUCK. 119 



On the following occasion the results were different. In 

 the autumn of 186-, when traveling across the Grand 

 Prairie, about one hundred and fifty miles north of where 

 the last episode occurred, I was caught in the first snow- 

 storm of the season. The vicinity was but sparsely settled, 

 and from the thickness of the drift our charioteer lost his 

 way, and after getting mired times without number, and 

 enduring one of the most disagreeable nights out-of-doors 

 it is possible to imagine, we reached the village of Kent. 

 Under ordinary circumstances it would have presented no 

 great inducements, but the large wood-fire that blazed in 

 the bar-room of the diminutive tavern, after our protracted 

 night of hardship, possessed such attractions, that I deter- 

 mined to lay over for a couple of days. The neighborhood 

 was well stocked with game, I learned the following even- 

 ing, when I presented myself among the hdbitu'es, who 

 commonly made this public-house their place of rendezvous 

 after the toils of the day. No small portion of the conver- 

 sation was in reference to a buck, who for years had' con- 

 stantly been seen, yet none of the heretofore successful 

 hunters had been able to circumvent him. It was evident 

 that this animal was of no ordinary size, as he was dubbed 

 by all with the sobriquet of the Big Buck ; and one regular 

 old Leather-stocking, whose opinion was always listened to 

 with the reverence due to an authority, ventured to assert 

 that he believed the bullet would never be moulded that 

 would tumble him (the buck) in his tracks. This extraor- 

 dinary deer had almost escaped my memory, and I was 

 resting over my next morning's pipe, and beginning to 

 fear that my visit was longer than necessary, for there was 

 absolutely nothing to do but to eat and sleep, unless the 

 prices of pork, corn, or wheat had possessed interest, when 

 a man from the timber land arrived with a load of wood, 

 and held the following conversation with the mixer of mint- 



