74 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



night proves that I had some sleep. Otherwise I doubt 

 if an eye was closed. 



Two boys joined the party before we had gone far. 

 They were Henry Tripp and my later army comrade, 

 Colonel M. N. Dickinson, both living in Warrensburgh 

 to-day. Ben Kellam and another man made up the party 

 of six, and there were about as many hounds. 



A man took all the dogs and put them out singly as he 

 found a deer track, while the rest went on to take stands 

 on the runways. I was placed in a road looking over a 

 field to a piece of woods some two hundred yards off, and 

 told to watch a point where a deer might come out, but 

 not to shoot until it had jumped the rail fence, when it 

 might stop to look up and down the road if not frightened, 

 and so a good shot could be had. It seemed many hours 

 it may have been half of one when a hound that had 

 been baying for some time in the distance was evidently 

 getting nearer ; still he was afar off. A farm wagon came 

 rattling up the road with three men in it. When opposite 

 me, as I turned to look at them, one arose and yelled : "See 

 that deer !" I looked back and saw something like a small 

 calf turn and re-enter the woods. So that little thing was 

 a deer! Where was the hound? In the pictures the 

 hounds were pressing the deer hard, some of them tearing 

 at his flanks. More time passed ; such long hours I never 

 did see; the sun was not yet at meridian, and the hound 

 kept slowly approaching oh, so slow! and finally old 

 Gunner came out of that bit of wood, giving tongue at in- 

 tervals, and after slowly getting to the place where I first 

 saw the deer he turned and followed its track, making a V 

 out into the field. I had at last seen a real live deer! 

 That was a thing to tell John Atwood and Port Tyler, and 

 to brag about. 



Young Tripp, who had been stationed next to me, 



