A hunter's life. 321 



killing a good lot of deer, until the close of the week ; 

 when we returned home, and sent our horses for our 

 game. 



The following week, myself and my oldest son, William, 

 went out again ; and the same evening there fell a new 

 snow, which made fine hunting ; but, as it was Sunday 

 morning, we agreed to lay in camp until the next day. 

 After our breakfast, William said he would go and spend 

 the day with young Mr. Brooke, who was keeping bache- 

 lor's hall within three miles of our camp. I told him that 

 I expected he only wanted to hunt, and made that an ex- 

 cuse to get into the woods, when he would go to hunting ; 

 but he declared he did not intend to hunt, and that if 1 

 would remain alone until evening he would join me. I 

 agreed to his proposal, and ofif he started. 



After he was gone, as I felt lonesome, I began to reason 

 with myself whether it would be committing a sin to walk 

 out and look for a deer by way of amusement ; and the 

 more I thought about it the more I felt inclined to go. It 

 next occurred to me that my desire to go after the deer 

 was equivalent to going ; and that it would be no greater 

 crime for me to go than to lay there all the time wishing 

 to do so. 



Reasoning thus, I took my gun, and started off with my 

 dog. After a short hunt, I put up a fine buck, which ran 

 but a short distance, and then stopped to look at me. I 

 fired at him, when he sprang forward a few yards, and fell 

 dead. I cleaned and hung his carcass up, and took to the 

 woods again, where I found the tracks of a lot of deer, 

 among which were those of one very large buck, which I 

 was determined to secure. 



I pursued the tracks with the utmost care, and at last 

 came in sight of the deer ; but, though I looked carefully 

 for the big buck, I could see none with horns. I then 

 abf^t at what I thought was a large doe, when off scam- 



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