824 FORTY-FOUR YEARS OF 



was sitting quietly in my place, when, raising my eyes, 

 there stood a beautiful buck, with a pair of velveted horns, 

 looking me in the face, apparently afraid to approach. As 

 the breech of my gun was lying in my lap, I had to raise it 

 in order to level it at my game, which I commenced slowly 

 to do ; but, being over anxious to secure the deer, I sup- 

 pose that I did not arrange my sights properly; and, 

 though I fired at a distance of only thirty steps, the ball 

 never touched a hair of his hide, and he ran off, leaving 

 me *o seek venison elsewhere. 



We staid over night, and I helped Mary to gather an 

 many berries as she wanted, and had the comfort of riding 

 home without being encumbered with anything but the 

 berries. 



The affairs of my farm occupied my attention, with the 

 exception of killing a few deer in the glades during the 

 haying season, until the latter part of September. 



My old uncle Spurgin had removed his residence to 

 Preston County, Virginia ; and having some business in 

 that quarter, Mary proposed to accompany me on a visit 

 to the old people. I had been to see the old man a short 

 time before, when he told me that he knew of three large 

 bucks which frequented a great thicket, though he could 

 never see them. 



Taking with me Mary, my rifle, and my dog, I set out 

 for Virginia, and traveled on until I arrived in the neigh- 

 borhood of the thicket; when I told Mary to continue 

 along the road to the old people's house, while I would 

 bunt through the woods, and join her before dark. So 

 we parted, and I went into the woods and found the thicket 

 of which the old man had spoken. 



A light shower of rain fell a short time before I ap- 

 proached the thicket, which made it as good an evening to 

 hunt a buck as could be desired. I entered the thicket 

 with all possible caution, and in the midst of the worst 



