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NOTES OF THE HUNT. 



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shaking under the tread of the deer. ** If you can see 

 him at all let him have it ! " called out Archie, while 

 we were yet at loo yards distance, but Hedley, his 

 heart beating like a trip-hammer and his eyes full of 

 stars, could see only with the eye of faith, and while 

 awaiting a clearer view, whisk ! went the deer, crash- 

 ing behind alders and cedars along shore, and in among 

 the hemlock woods. 



Returning, dejected, to our waLching pomt, we were 

 puzzled to see old Stevens' birch pop out from shore, a 

 flat-boat from another point, a gigantic dug-out from a 

 third, converging upon an object which looked like a 

 loon. It was a deer, and the race became a hot one. 

 One of the other chasers coming unpleasantly close, 

 Pete, suddenly jealous, called out in jerky sentences, 

 between strokes of his paddle : " Heah ! yo' man — 

 thish yer's my deer — let him alone, I tell yer — what yo' 

 want botherin' roun' yeah ? — I'm good for him, yes, in- 

 deedy." So he labored on, getting betwixt his prey 

 and the shore. Back into the open lake swims the 

 doomed creature, and with all three canoes close 

 around him, our own and a settler's in addition, at 

 some distance. Pete lets drive, his rifle misses fire ; 

 tries again, and this time it is he and not the gun that 

 misses. An ole Virgin ny sort of malediction follows 

 from the lips of the darky, — he is out of ammunition, 

 surely, and we are ready to see the next canoeist 

 take a shot when, unexpected generosity, the man 

 who*-!! Pete had been railing at, Dick Lee, paddles 

 up and hands Pete his venerable gun, a carabine 

 that carried an ounce bullet. This, too, snaps, 

 and for a fourth time the old man has to paddle closer 

 up, but at last he puts a ball through the neck of the 



