My Boyhood and Youth 



kinds of food are then becoming scarce. One 

 of our neighbors across the Fox River killed a 

 large number, some thirty or forty, on a small 

 patch of wheat, simply by lying in wait for 

 them every night. Our wheat-field was the 

 first that was sown in the neighborhood. The 

 deer soon found it and came in every night to 

 feast, but it was eight or nine years before we 

 ever disturbed them. David then killed one 

 deer, the only one killed by any of our family. 

 He went out shortly after sundown at the time 

 of full moon to one of our wheat-fields, carrying 

 a double-barreled shotgun loaded with buck- 

 shot. After lying in wait an hour or so, he saw 

 a doe and her fawn jump the fence and come 

 cautiously into the wheat. After they were 

 within sixty or seventy yards of him, he was 

 surprised when he tried to take aim that about 

 half of the moon's disc was mysteriously dark- 

 ened as if covered by the edge of a dense cloud. 

 This proved to be an eclipse. Nevertheless, he 

 fired at the mother, and she immediately ran 

 off, jumped the fence, and took to the woods by 

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