204 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE STILL-HUNTER'S CARDINAL VIRTUE. 



SPACE forbids the much further continuance of this 

 realistic style of teaching the ways of the woods and 

 hills, as it involves the repetition of too much that is 

 already become familiar from former chapters. There 

 is still another kind of open ground that must be con- 

 sidered, and I shall use it mainly as a text for a ser- 

 mon upon the greatest of all virtues in still-hunting, 

 viz. Patience. 



The frequent necessity of Patience you have already 

 seen. But you have not yet had an opportunity to 

 fully realize its indispensable character in very many 

 cases. There arise many perplexing questions in still- 

 hunting the only key to the solution of which is Pa- 

 tience. It is true that these arise mainly in open 

 ground, more especially open ground of the kind we 

 are about to consider. But there are times in the 

 woods and on all kinds of ground when it is quite 

 as essential. 



We are now in a broad open country with few or no 

 hills beyond mere swells. In general appearance it is 

 very much like heavily rolling prairie. But instead of 

 the sloughs filled with long grass so abundant on 

 some rolling prairies, you see here and there long 

 strips of a deep dark green from quarter of a mile to 

 several miles in length, running generally through 

 the lower portions, but sometimes seaming with a 



