72 MEN 1 HAVE FISHED WITH. 



ing it with a pole and starting any others that had lodged 

 along the banks; when he saw us he pushed up ashore, 

 and, after the usual greeting, said: "Simpkins, we are 

 going to have a deer hunt day after to-morrow; will you 

 go?" 



"Yes; where are you going to make the drive?" 



"Over on the West River, where we went last year. 

 Our boys haven't had a bite of venison this summer, and 

 they think it about time for it; we'll look for you, sure," 

 and he poled his raft into the stream and was soon lost to 

 sight. 



The "West River" was a local term for the Hudson, 

 the Schroon being the "East River." I had heard that 

 Simpkins was a mighty hunter, especially good at still- 

 hunting. He said that the season was too early for the 

 latter sport, because the trees and underbrush were in full 

 leaf. He brought out his favorite gun, oiled the locks 

 and cleaned the barrels. It was a double gun, one barrel 

 a rifle and the other a smooth-bore, quite heavy and hand- 

 somely finished. I had been using a single-barreled shot- 

 gun on the grouse and squirrels, and had not seen this 

 one. Old Gunner, his hound, had an eye on the gun, and 

 it might have been hard to say whose excitement was 

 greatest, his or mine. There was this difference between 

 us: Gunner was asking and expecting to go, and I would 

 not ask and did not expect to be invited to join in a hunt 

 with men who might not like the intrusion ; but you have 

 no idea how much I would have liked an invitation ! 



"Ever shoot a rifle?" Simpkins asked. 



"No; but I've seen a man shoot at a mark lots of times, 

 and have often sighted it on his targets, and I know how 

 to load one." All this to show that I thought I could be 

 trusted with a rifle if he'd only ask me to go. Oh, if he 

 only would! "I know you put the bullet on your flat 



