252 RECREATION. 



man was helpless, and it was fast be- hate, and the warrior of a thousand 

 coming evident that he could devise battles among his kind was con- 

 no means of reaching it without ex- quered. Not in equal conflict, but in 

 posing himself to a sure and horrible the unequal battle of stealth against 

 death. He finally began to call for honor; of bravery against myself, a 

 help. Why, I do not know, as I was coward, firing from a safe retreat. I 

 supposed to be miles away and no one had coldly committed murder. I felt 

 else was known to be in the moun- like a villain then, and I do yet when 

 tains. He did not call long at a time, I think of it. I do not think Joe was 

 for the buck chased him off his perch particularly worried about any mur- 

 as regularly as he put himself on it. der just then, for with a half tumble, 



The whole thing was so funny, half climb, he came down from the 



though so serious and dangerous, that perch and finished the scene by cutting 



I almost fell off my ledge during par- the buck's throat. 



oxysms of laughter. Why we are The old man was completely fagged, 



such heathen you must explain, as you but the ecstasies of safety kept him 



and I both have many times laughed from succumbing. I told him how I 



long and loud at the serious misfor- had had a hunch so strong as to com- 



tunes of our friends. The old man's pel me to toil for hours to get to his 



face was a study. He himself, in spite trail. How I had saved him, he knew, 



of his pains, in spite of his wearying As he was a confirmed spiritualist, he 



limbs, sometimes laughed. Sometimes gave a reasonable explanation from 



he cried, but oftener he swore ; not the his point of view. I called it chance, 



weak oaths of an effete civilization, but maybe the old man was right, 



but good, plain, old fashioned, next-to- Who knows ? 



nature oaths, trimmed with all the After a rest we proceeded to find 



grandeur and massiveness of the sur- out why the first shot had not killed, 



roundings ; great round oaths that As I recalled the scene I remembered 



rolled out from the fullness of the that the shot had sounded strangely, 



heart; that, leaping from stone to It was one of the jay-bird loads of the 



stone, broke into a thousand echoes as day before, which Joe had thoughtless- 



they were lost in the canyon below ; ly left in the chamber, although he had 



oaths that carried conviction. Verily properly filled the magazine with good 



such swearing was not the ejaculation cartridges. Being so close at the time 



from sudden impulse, but rather was of firing, the shot were still bunched 



the result of long training, the work- sufficiently to stun, but not to kill, 



ing of an exact science. I really think I never told Joe how I had watched 



the buck understood him, and being him during the greater part of an 



equally determined, cussed back in his hour. He would have been grieved, 



own way as best he could. I never told him of my heartless, 



As a certain man wished to die at heathenish laughter. I feared the 

 the supreme moment of happiness, so grand orchestra of his profanity. I 

 I wished to kill that buck at the su- never told him how mean I felt about 

 preme moment of Joe's dejection, that murdering the deer. He would have 

 thereby I might behold the bridging called me a tenderfoot. For 20 years 

 of the distance between despair and he had lived his own life in his own 

 joy as pictured on the human face, way, so why attempt to change it by 

 One shot from the Ballard ; one leap the introduction of modern squaw- 

 straight into the air ; one last glance of heart notions ? 



Bilson — So you have a titled son-in-law? 

 I suppose you consider him a high honor? 



Tribbler — Well, yes, he did come rather 

 high ; but Carrie seemed sort of set on 



buying him. — Boston Transcript. 



