Terms, Four Dollara a V 

 Ten Cents a Oopy^ 



"1 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1877. 



'EVEN AS THYSELF." 



"E'en as a flower?" 

 No, fairest .' not to me a flower ; 

 The uncertain auu calls forth its odorous breath, 

 The sweetest perfume gives the speediest death, 

 The sport and -rtctini of a summer hour. 

 Fairest— bo not as a flower. 



"E'en as a star?" 

 No, brightest 1 be not to me a star ; 

 "Tla one of millions, and the hurrying cloud 

 Ofl. wraps the glittering splendor in its shroud ; 

 Morn pales its lustre, and it Bhinos afar. 

 Brightest— be not a atar. 



"E'on as a dove?" 

 No, purest I be not to me a dovo ; 

 Tho Bpoiler oft breaks in upon Its rest, 

 Bobbing the -young bird of its soft nest. 



And plunging silence through' its^native grove, 

 Purest— be not a dove. 



"E'en as a rook?" 

 No, my most faithful I be not aB a rock ; 

 • It mocks the embracing wave, and stands alone, 

 In loveless gloom, in dreary wastes unknown, 



Senseless alike to Fortune's Bmlle or shock. 

 Changeless— be not a rock. 



"E'en as thyself?" 

 My soul's best Idol I be but as thyself. 

 Brighter than star, fairer than flower, 

 Purer than dove, and in thy spirit's power, 

 Steadier than rock, 



Dearest— be but thyself. 



*■» 



For Forest and Stream. 



She §lab=Saa^d guch 



BX "JOX." 



HAVING- read in the Fobest and Stbeam accounts of 

 successful hunts in different parts of the country, I 

 thought, perhaps, it might bo of interest to your readers to 

 hear how one hunter in this section had hunted for three 

 years after one deer, the truth of which is vduched for. It 

 was on the upper waters of the Susquehanna, in Clearfield 

 County, Pa. ; and one night, as we lounged about the shanty, 

 Jacob, our guide — always ' ' Jake'.' for short — suddenly said 

 that he had that day " crossed the trail of Old Club-Poot." 



This remark on the part of Jake excited the curiosity of 

 some of the party, who failed to understand just what he 

 meant by "Old Club-Foot," and therefore called upon him 

 for an explanation. He had known this particular deer for 

 the past three years, his attention having first been at- 

 tracted by the peculiarity of his trail. When he traveled 

 slowly, as if in a walk, he made about double as many tracks 

 in the snow as any other deer, and here and there was 

 an angling scrape across the trail from left to right. When 

 hard pressed, he made prodigious leaps, leaving each time, 

 as he alighted, a hole prodded backward between the tracks 

 of his hind feet. The cause of these strange marks was a 

 mystery, which every hunter who ever came across him was 

 anxiouB to solve. Jake's theory was, that he had been shot 

 in the shoulder, so as to disable his right fore-leg (and, in 

 fact, there is an old hunter in this neighborhood, who de- 

 clares that he shot him in the shoulder), but his tremendous 

 leaps would appear to oppose this view of the case. How- 

 ever, Jake looked at the matter in his own light, and for that 

 reason had called him the " Club-Footed Buck "—a name by 

 which he was known all through the section of country over 

 which he ranged. 



He received much attention, not only from Jake, but also 

 from many others, and so numerous were the bullet holes 

 claimed, that if his hide contained them all, it would re- 

 semble the lid of a pepper-box. 



He was possessed of cunning almost human, as the follow- 

 ing will serve to illustrate : It is a well-known characteristic 

 of the deer to always make a circle, and come back to within 

 sight of his track before lying down, so that anything pass- 

 ing on the track could bo seen long before the deer himself 

 could be seen ; but the buck of which I write has been 

 known to circle around as often as five and six times, and 

 then move off and lie down on high ground. He invariably 

 made from two to three circl risking a halt, and 



would thus have ample time and opportunity to observe his 

 pursuers, if his hearing fafli >' oh.il rarely did. To 



get a shot at him from the aext to impossible, and 



it was almost as difficult to hit him from in front, unless ho 

 was driven froj t the I come upon the watcher 



soon after being starts raid not run long on one 



tack. 



Well, the club-footed buck had become so notorious that 

 ho was thought to be a prize worth striving to win, and Jake 

 has been spending much time each season, during the past 

 three years, in crawling after him — on his hands and knees, 

 I might say — but he invariably escaped. For the first time 

 during the season, just closed, Jake discovered his track 

 early one morning in the latter part of November, and he 

 immediately sent a man in on his track, while he himself, 

 and two others, went to watch the " crossings ;" but tho old 

 buck was too sharp to keep on the accustomed run-ways, 

 and three times in succession, on three different ridges, he 

 escaped the watchers, always scenting his enemies, and pass- 

 ing over, just out of shot, as would be found when the dri- 

 ver came tip on his tTack. 



There was one more chance. Jake arranged things with 

 the greatest precision and judgment, determined that noth- 

 ing but some new dodge on the part of the old buck should 

 frustrate his designs. It was the driver who came very near 

 doing the mischief this time, by being too hasty ; for 

 scarcely had Jake reached his post, and stepped upon an 

 old root to have a fair out-look, when he saw the buck com- 

 ing directly toward him. He leveled his rifle on an opening 

 in the bushes, into which he knew the buck would jump, 

 and had but a moment to wait until his sights were dark- 

 ened, when he sent a bullet whizzing in that direction. The 

 buck raised up on his hind-legs, like a kangaroo, and quick 

 as a flash was off over the hill, in. the opposite direction. It 

 was but a few minutes until all four of the hunters appeared 

 on the brow of the hill, just in time to see him leaping up 

 the opposite slope, several hundred yards distant, having 

 passed through an almost impenetrable laurel bed. With a 

 parting volley from four rifles, the club-footed buck made 

 his escape for that day. But Jake was not through with 

 him, nor had he left him entirely uninjured this time, for 

 there were blood marks all along his trail, and on the bushes, 

 so high up that it was supposed he had struck him in the 

 neck. The following night it snowed heavily, and for two 

 weeks the buck hid himself completely. Finally, in the 

 second week in December, the writer and three others, all 

 novioes, went to spend the balance of the season with Jake. 

 Having occupied several days in unsuccessfully hunting 

 over the hills, we were becoming a little low-spirited, when 

 new interest was inspired by Jake's remark, that he had seen 

 the track of this famous buck, and his recital of the forego- 

 ing made each one still more anxious to try his metal. We 

 " turned in " at rather a late hour, but nevertheless were up 

 early in the morning, impatient for the start. 



By the time we had breakfasted all was in roadiness ; Jake 

 had made up his mind that this particular deer was not to 

 be his meat, and he replaced his gun upon the pegs, with 

 the remark, that he would follow the track, and give each one 

 of us an equal chance to put a feather in our cap. 



Now, one of the party, who was particularly anxious to 

 slay this rival of the Creedmoor sheet-iron deer, reached for 

 Jake's rifle, as well as his own, and started off with the two 

 double-barrelled weapons, one on each shoulder. The first 

 watch was about a mile from camp, and here the man with 

 the guns halted, resting his arsenal against a jack-pine. 

 After Jako had put the rest of us in position, he took his 

 way off to one side of the thicket, striking the track where 

 he had the day before discovered it. In about half an hour 

 the toot-toot of Jake's tin horn reached our ears, and each 

 one looked anxiously for the buck to come his way. Three 

 of ua were disappointed, for suddenly, from the direction 

 of the first watch, came bang ! bang ! in close succession. 

 The second shot settled the question, to be sure, and all 

 hands made haste to have tho first look at tho hero of so 

 many battles, and to congratulate our comrade on his good 

 fortune ; but when we arrived on the ground, there he stood, 

 with Jake's gun in his hands, and casting upon it the most 

 contemptuous look. The buck had passed him at about 

 Beventy-five yards, but, he said Jake's gun was too light on 

 tho trigger, and he had discharged both barrels without hav- 

 ing it to his shoulder either time. No, he didn't get the 

 ague, but ho had forgotten to take off his mittens ! As boys 

 are wont to do who are hunting for amusement, we wasted 

 considerable time in making sport, at the expense of our 

 crest-fallen companion, but were called to order by Jako, 

 who said: " Well, boys, don't fool your time away. We 

 must give old Club-Foot another heat." 



We started off, to make the next- crossing, but before we 

 reached it, we came upon two fresh tracks, and Jake de- 

 cided that it was best to take these, and leave the old buck 

 for the next day. We accordingly dispersed to the four 

 sides of tho thickets, while Jako wont in ; and he was not 

 long in bringing out a fine doe and a well-grown fawn. The 

 doe was "brought down "by one of our number, but the 

 fawn made good use of its legs, and escaped. When Jake 



had dressed the doo — he was Master of Ceremony here, aa 

 elsewhere — we " snaked " the carcass to camp, being some- 

 what elated over our 'trifling success, and were satisfied to 

 lay over until the next morning. We were all in a happy 

 mood that night, and. before going to bunk, a preamble 

 and resolution were adopted, expressive of the sentiment of 

 the crew, which set forth that no man should carry more 

 than one rifle ; Lnd, secondly, that it was inexcusable to at- 

 tompt to shoot with mittens on, unless a bad case of ague 

 should be acknowledged ! 



We were out again early the next morning, eager for the 

 fray. We partook of a hastily-prepared breakfast, examined 

 the priming of. our guns, and started. After a brisk walk 

 of about three miles, we arrived in tho neighborhood of 

 where we supposed the old buck would be, examined the 

 ground, and found that ho had not passed over the ridge, 

 and quietly scattered out, and took our stations. It was a 

 cold day, with a strong, cutting wind, and I had kept my 

 stand until about half frozen, and had made up my mind 

 that the shrewd old fellow had given us the slip, although 

 we thought we had him so nicely caged. My reverie was 

 disturbed by the well-known signal from Jake's horn, and 

 taking another look in the direction from which the Bound 

 came, I saw the old buck bounding toward me, in such a 

 way that he would cross in front of me at an angle. He 

 came to within about sixty yards and stopped, broadside, 

 close beside a chimp of chestnut saplings. The instant he 

 stopped he turned his head to look back, and I did not wait 

 for a better opportunity, notwithstanding the sapling. 

 With the crack of my gun, he raised upon his hind-legs, as 

 he had previously done, and was out of sight in the oppo- 

 site direction long before I was ready with another load. I 

 found blood where he had stood, and would probably have 

 killed him ; but a scar on one of the chestnut bushes told 

 the tale. This time he had almost baffled Jake by his re- 

 peated circling around on the night before, and on this oc- 

 casion he also exhibited shrewdness which surpassed any of 

 his former tricks. He followed on the last circle ho had 

 made until he came to an old log, thickly grown about with 

 bushes, off to one side, when he made a tremendous leap 

 over the log, without leaving any suspicious marks in hia 

 trail, thus delaying Jake for some time in hunting his track. 



We took Mb trail, and followed it until darkness set in ; 

 but, although bleeding all the way along, he was apparently 

 little hurt by my shot. The next morning wo resumed the 

 chase ; he traveled as well as ever. By noon wo had driven 

 him back to within two miles of camp. With the exception 

 of Jake, we returned to camp for dinner, but this time we 

 couldn't coax him off with promises of a warm dinner, as 

 we had always succeeded in doing before. We had not left 

 him long, when he found that the old buck was again re- 

 sorting to his circus-ring business, "and Jake immediately 

 loft the track, and went around, and came in from the oppo- 

 site direction. It appears^that the buck, for the nonce, had 

 lost a little of his customary shrewdness, for, so entirely ab- 

 sorbed was he in watching his back track, that Jake came 

 upon him lying down. He was shrewd enough still, how- 

 ever, to lie down behind a log, so that nothing but his houd 

 oould have been seen from his track. Jake chuckled, and 

 slowly and deliberately brought his rifle to a level with hia 

 eye ; he knew that he was unobserved, and could afford to 

 be deliberate. " After many weary years " this was too much 

 satisfaction ! He hesitated. He chuckled again, and en- 

 joyed his position too much to be in a hurry ; but he thought 

 "now, or perhaps never," and pulled the trigger. The old 

 buck, imagining the shot to have, come from tho direction of 

 his track, leaped up, and almost ran over Jake, who, to make 

 the matter certain, gave him the contents of tho other barrel 

 as ho passed, "on the wing." With a few more leaps, he 

 was out of sight. Jake reloaded, and following up, found 

 the buck lying dead near by. 



At last ! It was great satisfaction to Jako, to be sure; but 

 the chagrin of four boys can better be imagined than de- 

 scribed, as they saw the former dragging the old buck down 

 the hill toward camp. I, for one, however, did not be- 

 grudge him his good fortune, for he wns^deserving of it, if 

 ever a persevering hunter was. 



The first thing in order was a close inspection of the noble 

 slain. He was a large deer, measuring six feet along tho 

 spine. The mystery concerning his trail was solved. His 

 right shoulder was out of place, the shoulder-blade lying 

 close against, and parallel with, the spine. The right fore- 

 log was ten inches shorter than the left, and the cords con- 

 tracted in such a way as to keep it drawn across to the left 

 side, and bent up toward the body at tho kneo. The leg 

 was, of course, useless, and like any other four-footed ani 

 inft-1 aimilurly situated, he could run without much diffl 

 onllf 5 bat to walk, it vould be necessary for him to 



