AN ANIMATED SANDHILL AND AN ALBINO DEER 201 



Next morning he started by the light of the 

 moon, so as to be at the knoll by daylight. 

 Billy went up river, while Arthur and I de- 

 cided to be lazy and sleep. The sun was 

 not yet up when Fred returned and woke us 

 with the remark, "I've got one." "Where 

 is he?" we asked. "Hid him in the 

 woods," was the answer. Then while 

 we laughed he told us how he got a white 

 deer. 



After leaving camp he had hurriedly 

 made his way to the first clearing and then 

 "moved with more caution. The moon was 

 still shining and daylight scarcely in evi- 

 dence. This first clearing was about half 

 a mile long and he had traveled but a short 

 distance when he caught sight of a sand 

 knoll at the farther end. Slowly he moved 

 ahead, watching in all directions, and, at 

 length, saw the deer coming from the edge 

 of the woods toward the sand knoll. Si- 

 lently he crept along and was about 300 

 yards away when the deer raised its head 

 and looked uneasily in his direction. Fear- 

 ing he could do no better, he took as care- 

 ful aim as possible on the shoulder, hold- 

 ing a trifle high. The bullet sped true to 

 its mark, a really wonderful shot in such 

 uncertain light. The deer staggered a few 

 feet and fell. But right here occurred a 

 most remarkable thing. As Fred expressed 

 it, "When the deer dropped, the sand knoll 

 jumped up and ran like the devil." 



His deer was a fat sheep, and the sand 

 knoll a large flock lying down. He remem- 



bered later that he could not have been 

 within a mile of the sand knoll he had start- 

 ed for. Can you wonder we laughed? We 

 sympathized with him and told him we were 

 sorry the deer was not standing on the knoll, 

 for then he might have made a double. 

 He could not help but see the funnv side 

 and then he felt better. The question was, 

 what to do with the game. We decided 

 to take it to camp, so after it we went and 

 were soon back to find Billy waiting. As 

 he noticed we were dragging something, he 

 started to help, but when he got near 

 enough to see the white wool he stopped 



short. "What in " he began, but his 



expression was too much for us, and we 

 dropped our load and roared. The sheep 

 was skinned, dressed and hidden under a 

 thick fir a short distance from camp, much 

 ingenuity being used meantime to get a 

 camera focussed on Fred and the sheep col- 

 lectively, but to no purpose. He didn't 

 need anything to look at, he said, to make 

 him remember that morning's hunt. 



After breakfast we all started down river 

 to watch Fred break the news to the farmer 

 who owned the sheep. He was found and 

 the news broken, and the fact that he had 

 several men at work with him at the time, 

 who of course gathered round to listen, as- 

 sured us that the news would spread all 

 right. It did. Fred paid onlv about twice 

 what the sheep was worth, but said it was 

 worth the money to know ■ he could make 

 such a shot. 



A Freak of the Forest, 



