THE NEW-ENGLAND SCHOOL-MASTER. 103 
wood for the coming night’s consumption. The day had 
been dark and gloomy; the season, Indian summer; the 
hour, as far as I judged, three in the afternoon, when, to 
my surprise, I heard the report of a gun in the direction 
of camp. As the school-master, from want of success, had 
almost given up the use of his gun, the report struck me 
as ominous of evil, so I hurried rapidly forward to discover 
what could have induced him to shoot, nor was I long kept 
in suspense, for in an opening, a few yards in front, I saw 
a fine stag Wapitti engaged in a determined battle with 
my comrade. The deer was on three legs, one of the fore 
ones being smashed below the knee, while my companion, 
with his gun clubbed, carefully watched his assailant. For- 
tunately for the school-master, the stag’s agility was seri- 
ously impeded by the shattered limb, or the contest would 
have been ere this finished; as it was, he had to display 
his activity, and rivaled in it any French dancing-master I 
had ever met. But for the rapid evolutions of assailed and 
assailant, I could have easily killed the deer; but twice as 
I was about to press the trigger the wrong object was in 
the line of fire. The position of this eccentric man was not 
without danger; yet when I approached the combatants to 
give him assistance, I was almost rendered incapable of the 
task by the risibility of the whole affair; for even in his 
most adroit movements, even when the foe’s antlers were 
within a foot of his body, he kept chanting through his 
nasal organ something or other about letting the hills re- 
sound, only stopping in his vocal exhibition when he struck 
the assailant a blow with the butt of his musket, when the 
exclamation, “ One for his knob,” would come from his lips 
with much emphasis. 
At length my approach was perceived, when he retreat- 
ed toward me, expressing his conviction that he had never 
doubted that the Lord would send him succor. After the 
