A BORDER ADVENTURE. by 3 
a city than of a wilderness forest. As the 
shades of evening were beginning to descend 
and all the hunters had returned except him, 
several muskets and even our little field- 
pieces were fired, but without effect. The 
night passed away, and the morning dawned ~ 
upon the encampment, and still he was ab- 
sent. The firing was then renewed ; but soon 
after he was seen approaching, very sullen 
and dejected. He came with a tale of peril- 
ous adventures and ‘hair-breadth ‘scapes’ 
upon his lips, which somewhat abated the 
storm of ridicule by which he was at first 
assailed. It seemed that he had heard our 
firing on the previous evening, but believed it 
to proceed from a contrary direction—a very 
common mistake with persons who have be- 
come bewildered and lost. Thus deceived 
and stimulated by the fear of Indians (from 
a party of whom he supposed the firing to 
proceed), he continued his pathless wander- 
ings till dark, when, to render his situation 
still more critical, he was attacked by a ‘ pain- 
ter—anglice, panther—which he actually sue- 
ceeded in beating off with the breech of his 
gun, and then betook himself to the topmost 
extremity of a tree, where, in order to avoid a 
similar intrusion, he passed the remainder of 
the night. From_a peculiar odor with which 
the shattered gun was still redolent, however, 
it was strongly suspected that the ‘terrific 
painter was not many degrees removed, in 
affinity, from a—— 
——polecat. 
We had just reached the extreme edge of 
2* of 
