120 PHAIKIE AND FOREST. 



juleps, cocktails, etc. "Abe, have you e'er a shooting-iron 

 that you can loan this coon ?" 



Abe having replied in the negative, and inquired the rea- 

 son, was told that the most alfiatest big buck had crossed 

 the road about a mile off, and gone into the squire's corn. 

 .Quietly going to my bedroom, I unpacked my heaviest 

 gun, a ten-bore, in which I have particular faith, and hav- 

 ing noted the route that the teamster had come by, I fol- 

 lowed the back track of his sled, and true enough found 

 the prints of a very heavy buck. The day was still young, 

 myself in good walking trim, and with an internal deter- 

 mination not to be beaten, except night overtook me, and 

 very probably with the hope to show the neighbors that a 

 Britisher was good for some purposes, I followed the track 

 with unusually willing steps and light heart. To get into 

 the corn-field the buck had jumped the snake-fence, and 

 afterward doubled back ; and as the wind did not suit for 

 me to enter at the same place, I made a considerable detour. 

 In nty right barrel I had sixteen buck-shot, about the size 

 that would run one hundred to the pound, and a bullet in 

 the left. As the corn had not yet been gathered, and the 

 undergrowth of cuckle-burs and other weeds was tolerably 

 dense, I had little doubt but that I should get sufficiently 

 close to make use of the former. An old stager like my 

 quarry, I knew from experience would be desperately 

 sharp, so with the utmost caution I advanced up wind, eyes 

 and ears strained to the utmost tension. I had only got 

 about a fourth of the field traversed, when I heard some 

 voices right to windward encouraging a dog to hold a pig. 

 The noise of the men, dog, and porker I concluded would 

 start the game off in the reverse direction, so hurriedly re- 

 tracing my steps, I regained the fence, got over it, and 

 took my stand at an angle that stretched close to a slough 

 which was densely covered with a growth of various 



