230 FORTY-FOUR YEARS OP 



me, and also one of my daughters to cook for us ; and 

 having two scythes, we would mow enough grass in the 

 evening of the day we first went out, to make a good stack 

 the next morning. 



As about this time the deer began to feed, I used to 

 walk into the clear glades and hunt them, frequently see- 

 ing ten or twelve during one morning and evening. As 

 the grass was very high, I could see nothing of them but 

 their heads ; and taking a bush in my hand, to hide me 

 from their view, when they would be feeding I would 

 cautiously advance till I got as near as I wished, often 

 having to shoot through the grass, and guess at the posi- 

 tion of the body of the deer ; though I do not recollect 

 ever having on any occasion missed my mark ; for I would 

 be so close that I was nearly always certain of the position 

 of the deer, and the grass could not stop or turn the course 

 of the ball. 



I seldom killed less than from four to six deer during 

 one hay-making trip ; and when I obtained a load, I sent 

 a boy home with it and the horse, as we at all times kept 

 one with us for that purpose. Frequently, while I would 

 be hunting, the boys would be fishing for trout, and take 

 from fifty to a hundred, to send home to their mother, 

 who would send us, in return, all the best things she had. 

 So we " fared sumptuously every day," having the best of 

 venison fried in butter, and trout, also fried in the fresh 

 and sweet butter which we kept in one of the many fine 

 springs found in that vicinity, which bubble up through 

 beautiful white sand, in half-a-dozcn places — the water 

 being so clear and cold, that it will make a man's arm 

 pain him to the elbow, if he holds his hand in it a few 

 minutes. 



In this way we used to spend a week or ten days every 

 rear in hay-making, and in the fall we took our cattle to 

 the hav, and kept them there all winter ; but as they 



