52 



NOTES OF THE HUNT. 



|u.:!i; 





; :,' .: II 



for the older of them had a cringing and defeated air, 

 while the younger ones yelped or bayed and refused to 

 respond to words of cajolery. Matthews and Archie 

 succeeded in capturing two of the more sedate of them 

 and tried in vain to start them again ; the former de- 

 clares that he walked four miles with this purpose, 

 through woods where deer tracks were as thick as toad- 

 stools. Returning, discomfited, he picked up Robert on 

 the way, and they reached Camp at about two o'clock, 

 finding all the party at home except Louis and Chandler, 

 who arrived an hour later, the former *' fatigued, ex- 

 ceedingly," by the Ox Tongue portage. He had shot 

 a partridge so accurately and so much that not enough 

 was left of it to bring home. 



:. The sorrowful scribe was escorted, at noon, to his 

 departing canoe. Willie looked, on the sad occas- 

 ion, like an American Tom Moore, his eyes singing 



' ' ' '« Oh ! stay— oh ! stay- 



Joy so seldom weaves a chain 



•:: Like this, to-night, that oh ! 'tis pain 



To break its links so soon." 



" All hands loafed around Camp for the rest of the 

 day." This is the way Wilbu put it ; and as he is the 

 Keeper of the Records from this day forward, and has 

 only this to say about Monday evening, it must be taken 

 for granted that the doings and sayings of the boys for 

 this particular evening were barren of excitement or 

 even of incident. 



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