44 CHAPTER VI. 



Old Mother Nature was doing her work and as usual slighting 

 nothing. Having punished me in the early hours of my intimate con- 

 tact with her in her stronghold she was now paying me back for being 

 a good boy and taking my medicine without unseemly whimpering. 



You can imagine by this time how keen I had grown on the subject 

 of shooting a stag. Everybody had been so nice about my misses 

 and you will recall they were now four explaining them away and 

 excusing me, that I felt that it was absolutely up to me to show them 

 that I was not a complete dub, and that I could kill at least one stag. 

 So I hunted hard this Saturday morning, and Danny, feeling my 

 desire, gave his whole heart to completing a successful stalk 



We made several trials but the wind was shifty and four different 

 times we came to where we expected to see the deer within shooting 

 distance to find them awav. 



Late in the afternoon, after many fruitless attempts, we stalked up 

 a corrie (big gulch) with walls so steep and high it was morally 

 certain a deer could not climb them without extra effort. But when 

 we completed the stalk and came to the vantage point Mr. Stag was 

 gone. Vanished as if into air. We never did find out how he 

 escaped without attracting our attention. 



Now it was dark or near it, and we made for the path to strike it 

 at a point which would be about seven miles from the Lodge. Here 

 we found the ponies waiting, but no ponies for me on this night I 

 walked on ahead, alone, and covered every inch of it at a good swing- 

 ing four miles an hour, trotting sometimes on the downhill places. 



The path went around by the big burn, and across little ones. The 

 moon came out over the jagged hills and painted misty and weird 

 pictures, as only the moon, master artist of the mysterious, can. I 

 drank up the sweet, fresh, night air, in great deep breaths. I thanked 

 God from the bottom of my heart for the opportunities, the fresh 

 chances, He had given me; for His merciful kindness in letting me 

 live; for His forgiveness of my many shortcomings and weaknesses; 

 for His generous and considerate permission just to be alive, and be 

 able to feel as I felt. 



