A BIG BUCK. 95 



night at the tavern bar in the most ostentations 

 manner, in presence, of the assembled crowd, I order- 

 ed a team to be got ready in the morning to bring 

 in the big buck ; old leather-stocking, sotto voce, 

 remarking, that I had not been reared on the light 

 soil to be able to come that game. Howev^er, next 

 morning, when I arrived Avith my trophy, tlie crowd 

 congratulated me, wliile leather-stocking remarked, 

 that he knew not what the world was coming to, by 

 G — d, when a Britisher with a bird gun could kill 

 the biggest buck in Illinois. In conclusion I would 

 say, that in skinning we found tliat at the first shot 

 one grain had gone through the lungs, while two 

 more had lodged farther back. The gross weight 

 of this deer was one hundred and eighty-four 

 pounds. 



