A hunter's life. 195 



get, until we bad a respectable load of fine, fat, and fresh 

 deer-meat ; wben off we started for the city. We got on 

 very well, selling some of it along the road. At Hagers- 

 town it met a ready sale, and in Frederick City we dis- 

 posed of over eighty dollars' worth, all for cash, at twelve 

 and a half cents a pound. We then went on to George- 

 town, where we sold out without trouble, and I loaded up 

 urith salt and groceries ; for, as there was no license to 

 take out, I could sell anything I chose, free of any duty 

 whatever. By this means I raised money, paid for my 

 land, and had something left for the family, besides being 

 able to hire a hand in a pinch of work. 



It always appears that, when a man begins to rise, the 

 more he makes the more industriously he will work. So it 

 was with me in those times : I tilled my farm industriously 

 until the leaves had fallen ; when I would go to the woods 

 and hunt till a little before Christmas, and then set off to 

 market with all I could take. 



The following fall I set five or six traps for bears ; and, 

 with what I caught in the traps, and those that I killed 

 besides, I secured fourteen bears and twenty-two deer. 

 With the exception of one, I do not remember how I 

 killed those I took outside of the traps. 



One day, as I was walking rapidly through the feeding- 

 ground, seeing a she-bear running, I let the dog slip at 

 her, and he soon put her up a tree, where I shot her 

 without any fight. 



I know I killed fourteen, by the load of meat and skins 

 I took that fall to Baltimore. 



When the hunting season was coming to a close, 1 pre- 

 pared to take my load to the National Road ; and the 

 roads from my farm to the pike were so bad that we only 

 took half a load out at a time. I hired a team, and send- 

 ing my own with sleds, accompanied them into the hiii't- 

 ng-ground After starting them toward the pike, I told 



