THE BIG BUCK. 119 
- On the following occasion the results were different. In 
the autumn of 186-, when traveling across the Grand 
Prairie, about one hundred and fifty miles north of where 
the last episode occurred, I was caught in the first snow- 
storm of the season. The vicinity was but sparsely settled, 
and from the thickness of the drift our charioteer lost his 
way, and after getting mired times without number, and 
enduring one of the most disagreeable nights out-of-doors 
it is possible to imagine, we reached the village of Kent. 
Under ordinary circumstances it would have presented no 
great inducements, but the large wood-fire that blazed in 
the bar-room of the diminutive tavern, after our protracted — 
night of hardship, possessed such attractions, that I deter- 
mined to lay over for a couple of days. The neighborhood 
was well stocked with game, I learned the following even- 
ing, when I presented myself among the habitués, who 
commonly made this public-house their place of rendezvous 
after the toils of the day. No small portion of the conver- 
sation was in reference to a buck, who for years had con- 
stantly been seen, yet none of the heretofore successful 
hunters had been able to circumvent him. It was evident 
that this animal was of no ordinary size, as he was dubbed 
by all with the sobriquet of the Big Buck; and one regular 
old Leather-stocking, whose opinion was always listened to 
with the reverence due to an authority, ventured to assert 
that he believed the bullet would never be moulded that 
would tumble him (the buck) in his tracks. This extraor- 
dinary deer had almost escaped my memory, and I was 
resting over my next morning’s pipe, and beginning to 
fear that my visit was longer than necessary, for there was 
absolutely nothing to do but to eat and sleep, unless the 
prices of pork, corn, or wheat had possessed interest, when 
aman from the timber land arrived with a load of wood, 
and held the following conversation with the mixer of mint- 
