A hunter's life. 126 



ae ran, and killed hira. I then skinned him ; and taking 

 the saddle, skin, head, and horns, I carried thera up a high 

 mountain, and was never more fatigued in my ]\U\ than 

 when I got home with my load — the saddle weighing 

 eighty-seven pounds, the head and horns nineteen pounds, 

 and the skin eleven pounds. I believe that was as good a 

 deer as I ever killed in my life, although I have killed 

 larger animals ; but he was so fat, and the venison was so 

 tender, that I thought it was fully equal to, if not better, 

 than any I had ever eaten ; and Mary and her mother had 

 as much of the best venison as they could wish for. 



The fall was advancing, the weather was becoming cold, 

 and the leaves had nearly all fallen, when one evening 1 

 said to Hugh that we would take the dogs into the corn- 

 field, and catch some coons which had been eating the 

 corn. We went to the field ; and as soon as we arrived 

 there, the dogs set oflF in fine style, and we, being full of 

 fun, screamed after them, expecting every minute to hear 

 the coons squealing. But the dogs ran on until they 

 almost got out of our hearing, before they came to bay. 

 We followed by the light of the moon till we came up to 

 them, when we found they were barking up a stout oak 

 Presently down came a good-sized bear, and the dogs went 

 at him ; but it was so dark under the tree (it being a red 

 oak, with very thick top, and the leaves still green on it), 

 that we could not see the fight. But the dogs being more 

 than a match for the bear, he again ascended the same 

 tree ; and as he did so, observing him between myself and 

 the sky, I fired at him ; but he still went on, until he got 

 among the thick limbs of the tree, where we could not see 

 him at all. 



I was about to reload my gun, when I found I had not 



a single ball left. Here was a predicament, and what to 



do we could not tell. At last I told Hugh that 1 would 



climb the tree a-^d with my knife cut a long pole, on which 



11* 



