CRUST AND LAKE HUNTING. 581 
oars. The boat would shoot alongside again, and he would 
seize it by the ears or tail to have the same scene over 
again, for Turk was on hand to drag it back into the water, 
when he had lifted it partly out. George became furious at 
last, and his half-frantic, half-despairing screams of— 
“You Turk! Get away, Turk! Begone Turk!” mingled 
with the bleating of the fawn and the angry barking of the 
dog, and the splash and sputtering of the watery strife, pro- 
duced a combination of sounds and scene so irresistibly comic, 
that I sunk to the very earth with peal upon peal of unre- 
strainable and almost hysterical laughter; for I enjoyed so 
immensely the agony of George, that I had no time to think 
of that of the poor little fawn. 
At last this ludicrous contest came to a crisis. The fawn 
had all this time been making for the shore, and now it, had 
struck shallow water, and was about to make its escape, when 
George seized his gun and shot it through the head. I had 
rather the blood of this little spotted thing had been on his 
conscience than mine, and to do him justice, he seemed very 
sorry for it afterwards. It turned out that the fellow had 
missed the deer after all, and let it escape. I now peremp- 
torily put a stop to that favorite joke of his—going alone— 
and as Piscator had lost his chance, went into the boat 
myself. I was still angry, but I had not the heart to abuse 
him after affording me so hearty a laugh. 
It was late, but the dogs made another start, and after 
a short race, a fine young buck entered the water, and instead 
of swimming, attempted, as the others had, to skulk along 
the shore. We knew he was lying down, for we should have 
seen his whole body, had he been standing up in the shallow 
marsh. We watched in silence to see what the next maneuvre 
would be when the dog came up, when suddenly a gun 
exploded from the woods on shore, the deer rose, and with 
a long bound, made for the shore. It was out of our rifle 
range, but I could not resist the inclination, and sent a ball 
