A WET ROAD BUCK-SHOOTING. 75 



with wild honey before me. She tried hard to per- 

 suade me to settle here, and, if possible, induce other 

 Germans to do so ; but my water excursion was still 

 too fresh in my memory for me to take a fancy to the 

 place, although it appeared to be a land of milk and 

 honey, for enormous herds of cattle were pasturing in 

 the prairies, and wild honey was very abundant. 



I was so refreshed by my meal, that I went on my 

 way with the springing step of a sedan-chairman. I 

 had indulged in the agreeable idea of a dry road, but 

 found myself wofully deceived, for as the httle Wabash 

 had overflowed its banks, I had about two miles to 

 wade through water. The road lay along rather high 

 ground, and was clear of ice, but there was plenty 

 of it between the trees on the lower levels. As I 

 approached the end of the watery path, and could see 

 dry land in front of me, I heard something rustling 

 through the water, and crashing the ice: I looked 

 round" and beheld 'five deer coming towards me with 

 long bounds. I stood quite still, awaiting their ap- 

 proach with a beating heart; a. noble buck and four 

 does were passing about fifty paces from me. I amied 

 at the leader; he made a spring into the air, and fell 

 dead. I had some trouble to bring my buck to land ; 

 for although the American deer are smaller than the 

 German red deer, yet the one I had shot weighed at 

 least 140 pounds. I cut him up, skinned him, lopped 

 a branch from a tree, made a bag of the skin with the 

 hair outwards, put the two legs and back into it, then 

 hanging the rest on a tree for any new comer, I 

 trud^cred away with my burden for a couple of miles to 

 the village of MaysviUe. Here I sold my prize, and 



