A 11 UNTER'S LI F K . t5 



breakfast, nicely fried in his little pan, and butter gravj 

 swimminf? round them, until they were beautifully browned 

 all over. Then we sat down to the finest kind of venison 

 steaks, fried in the same way, and good light rolls, well 

 buttered, all placed on pieces of chesnut bark just peeled 

 from the tree. All this, together with a sharp appetite, 

 made the meal, I thought, quite good enough for a Go- 

 venior, or even the President himself, if he were there, 

 and as hungry as I then was. After helping ourselves to 

 as much as we needed, we were satisfied with what we had 

 done. 



Our next business being to get home with our venison 

 and fish, before they could get spoiled, our horses were 

 saddled in haste. We loaded up, and off we went for 

 home. We had about ten miles to travel, wliich we com- 

 pleted by the middle of the afternoon. When we arrived 

 at the house, who should be there with my aunt, for com- 

 pany, but my little Mary ! Well, said I, is not this good 

 luck ? I '11 bet this has been done for me. I shall go 

 part of the way home with her again, at all hazards ; and 

 we will keep it from the old man's knowledge the best way 

 we can. 



After taking a long and earnest look at her, and ad- 

 miring her well-shaped form, which was about medium 

 size — she then weighing one hundred and twenty pounds, 

 and having well-proportioned shoulders and breast ; full, 

 clear blue eyes, expressive of the wildness of a fawn in its 

 most playful moments ; and cheeks like roses, L(n'd ! 

 said I to myself, won't she be a prize for me some day, if 

 I can only keep things as they now are, till the time 

 comes ? But I think I can manage that, unless some 

 enemy int* "feres between us, as I think they did at Wheel- 

 ing. Yes, yCS, I must let nothing of that Wheeling busi- 

 ness come to Mary's ears, or she will be off at once, I 

 reckon ; and that would be the indeed. 



