104 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
gallant stag had subsided to a neat shoulder-shot, I was 
graciously awarded a solution of the situation in which I 
discovered him. 
“T was singing the ‘Old Hundred,’ and I was in prime 
voice ; and didn’t the echoes take it up rejoicingly! for 
you see it is the first time that this benighted heathen 
land has heard the voice of a Christian, when that beast— 
the emissary of the evil one, doubtless— without a bit of 
provocation, came ramping at me. There was no mistake 
in his intentions, for his eyes were bleared, and I could see 
he was panting for my blood. So I thinks of my weapon; 
but in my hurry to let it off, I forgot to fetch it to my 
cheek; so you see it was a merciful interposition of Provi- 
dence that caused the charge to go straight;” and, looking 
at the carcass, he spoke a soliloquy about the children of 
darkness everssuccumbing to the children of light. 
If he had got the weapon to his cheek, our worthy friend 
would doubtless have missed the stag, which from its ap- 
pearance was rutting, and, like all the deer family when in 
that state, exceedingly dangerous. 
A month’s residence with the New England school-mas- 
ter gave a considerable insight into his character. He was 
always trying to be good, very good, unless when temptation 
came in his way; and one of these, which he could not re- 
sist, was to cheat at cards. At it I again and again detected 
him, lectured him in consequence, asserting I would not 
play further with him if it re-occurred, and in the very 
next deal he would be guilty of the same malpractices; so 
at length we both agreed, our stakes being nil, to cheat our 
darndest; and from that time forth to see how right and 
left bowers, aces, and kings, used to be turned up in that 
peaceful, sequestered valley, was something awful, and that 
often to the tune of the “Old Hundred.” 
During the rutting season terrific combats take place be-. 
