jutv 14, i9ooj FOREST AND STREAM. 
yersdf into trouble, an' that's 'bout all. He don't monkey 
'round much durin' the day. Night's the time fer him, 
specially when ihar's a m.oon. Then's the time he'll make 
a man feel like a dodgasted id jut. Jest ask me ef y' 
don't b'lieve it. He's made me cuss more 'n onct." 
''Did you ever get a shot at him ?" Jim asked. 
"Lots an' heaps o' times by moonlight, an' onct, an' only 
onct, in the day time." 
"Did he get the best of you that once?'' asked Jack. 
"Did he? Waal, I sh'd say he did. Makes me 'shamed' 
o' myself when I think 'bout it. How'd it happen ? Whj 
jest like this: I was out with the haounds one day, that's 
Sooner an' the old gal. The old gal's as fine as they 
make 'em, but Sooner's naterly a dern fool. He's always 
in a hurry, an' always doin' things sooner 'n he orter. 
That's why I calls him Soonei-. His wust trick is runnin' 
on his back track. Time an' ag'in I've seed him come 
tearin' into camp, givin' tongue at every jump, an' him 
a-thinkin' all the time that he was followin' a trail. He 
pulls up foolish like, then, an' goes off somewheres an' 
lays down an' thinks 'bout it. That's Sooner. 
"Waal, this time the old gal 'd struck somethin' an' 
gone yelpin' off one way, an' Sooner he'd struck some- 
thin' privit an' gone yelpin' off tother way, an' I was 
a-settin' on a log near a runway wonderin' which dorg 
was right, 'cause 'casion'ly Sooner makes a mistake an' 
strikes it right. 
"While I was thus a-settin' ah' thinkirf^I never kin 
I crept softly from my bunk, felt around for my rifle, 
found it and stepped noiselessly outside the tent. The 
moonlight shone clear and white in the open space before 
the tenc, making the black shadows of the woods beyond 
seem all the blacker. As I stood there, straining my 
eyes to penetrate the darkness, a deer — an enormous buck 
— stalked forth, like a specter from the dark shadows, an4 
stood full in the light, gazing straight at me. 
Now 1 !iad shot many deer before then, and buck fever 
was a thing of the past. I considered myself immune, 
having passed through all the different stages of that 
strange maladjr. But before 1 could raise my rifle to my 
shoulder to fire, a suspicious trembling seized every nerve 
and muscle of my body. Buck fever? Why, the worst 
attack of buck fever that I had ever suffered from in 
my most verdant days was simply nothing compared with 
this "fever and ager" sensation. The end of my rifle 
described the arcs of many circles, embracing all portions 
of the buck's anatomy, and portions of the landscape as 
well, as I took aim after a fashion and pulled the trigger. 
At the crack of the rifle, without a sound, without any 
apparent movement, the buck disappeared, or rather 
vanished from my sight. It was a case of "now you see 
him and now you don't." 
Jack and Jim came stumbling from the tent only half 
awake. 
"Wasser matter?" demanded Jack, rubbing his eyes and 
blinking sleepily. 
say: "You fellows are all right, but there's a thing; or 
two you don't know that you ought to know* Now just 
watch me.^' 
JNot having' anything else to do we watched hira,. 
Presently he raised his head, and with a joyful cry that 
meant, "Come on, boys; I've struck something," off he 
went. 
"Same old story," I said wearily. "Evidently he was 
aroused again last night." 
"I suppose so," said Jack: "shall wc follow him up?" 
"Might as well," said Jim. "Let's get in the canoe. 
Maybe he'll take to water. It'll he fun watching Sooner, 
if nothing else. 
So we .got our rifles and started. We could hear the 
dog in the distance, the sound of his baying gradually 
dying away into faint echoes. 
We went down to tne lake, entered tlie canoe and 
shoved oft from shore. There was one chance in a 
thousand that Sooner would drive the deer to water, but 
we did not mind the odds. It was a beautiful Indian 
summer day, and very delightful floating about out there 
on the Avater. 
Before long we heard- Sooner's lovely voice drawing 
nearer and nearer. 
"He's working toward the lake, all right," said Jim. 
"Maybe it isn't him (the phantom) after all," said 
Jack, hopefully, "It's not the right time of day to start 
him. I hope it isn't, anyway. I'm dead sick of him." 
THE LITTLE MOTHER. 
tell how it happined — I all to onct found myself lookin' 
square m the race of tlie biggest buclc i ever seed in my 
huil liie. tie was lookm' uie over sort o' cur ous like, 
waitin to see what 1 was gom' to do 'bout it. Where on 
'arth he come from the l^ord only knows. 
"I was tnat flabbergasted 1 sort o' jumped back'ards a 
bit, an' I lost my balance an' over the log i went kerflop, 
an' my gun took it into its head to go oif, an' I made a 
gen'ral mess of the hull bizness. I crawled up an' sort 
o' collected myself, an' looked 'round jest to see, an' I'll 
be cussed ef that blame buck warnc a-standin' thar lafiin' 
me. Yes, sir, that's the gospel truth. 
Wr"l was that plum disgusted 1 jest picked up my gim an' 
I sez, sez I, 'You go on 'bout your bizness, an' I'll' go on 
'bout my bizness,' an' I turned away an' left him standin' 
thar, lookin' at me an' laffin' at me, an' I sneaked home, 
an' I knowed how Sooner felt after makin' a fool of his- 
self worse 'n usual. 
"That's the phantim buck. Ain't it. Bill?" 
"Hit air that," said Bill, solemnly. 
"Waal, Bill, guess we'd better be gittin' 'long," the old 
man added, knocking the ashes from his pipe and slowly 
rising to his feet. "It's full moon now, an' 'twan't s'pnse 
me ef the phantim buck makes you boys a visit. He's 
always speshul perlite to strangers." 
"Did you find out which dog started the buck that 
time?" asked Jack. 
"Oh, Sooner done it. That goes without sayin'," 
' Hogarth replied. "That buck makes a bigger fool out'n 
Sooner than he made out'n me, an' that's sayin' a heap. 
Ef you boys want anythin', jest come after it. We ain't 
got much, but what we has is yourn fer the askin'. 
S'long." 
We said good night, and after a quiet laugh over 
Hogarth and liis story, turned in to dream of phantom 
bucks and Sooner and many other things a man dreams 
[ about his first night in camp. 
The next day we were very busy getting things in 
shape about the camp, and had no time for hunting. 
We sat around the fire late that evening smoking and 
swapping lies. When we finally turned in for the night, 
tired as I was, I could not get to sleep, but lay in my 
bunk wide awake, listening to the different night sounds 
of the forest. I could hear Brer' Porcupine rumaging 
around outside, gnawing ever}i:hing in . sight that was 
gnawable. and the dry snapping of twigs and the rustle of 
the underbrush as some larger animal prowled about the 
I camp on a tour of inspection. 
And then suddenly my ears were greeted with a new- 
found — the loud snort and whistling sonnd that a deer 
I gives vent to in expressing its surprise at some un- 
familiar object. 
"That's a buck," said I to mvself, "He don't know 
what to make of the tents." And immediately the thought 
flashed through my brain, "Why not have a shot at him ?" 
Photographs of nesting partridge. By Miss Eugena W. Gainesi 
"Shot at a deer," I explained. 
"The deuce you say," exclaimed Jack. "Where is it?" 
"Missed him, I guess," I replied. "You .see if vvas too 
dark to get a good shot. It was a big buck." 
"'That's the phantim buck, ain't it, Bill?'' said Jack 
with a grin. 
" 'Hit air that,' " said Jim, laughing. "Go to bed, Joe, 
and go to sleep. You've had a bad dream." 
I was only too glad to follow Jim's advice and escape 
any further questioning. 
The next morning I was up and dressed before the 
others were awake. I examined the spot where the buck 
had stood, and there, sure enough, were his tracks, and 
from their size the indications were that their owner 
was a whopping big fellow. 
Hogarth happened along the next day, and I told him 
my experience — or as much of it as I deemed necessary — 
and showed him the tracks. 
"That's him, all right," was his comment. "You've 
had a call from the phantim buck an' 'tain't likely it'll 
bo; the last one. Notice the size of that 'air hoof mark. 
They ain't another deer in these yere parts makes a track 
more'n half that size." 
I told Jack and Jim about it, and we all became un- 
duly excited over the event, and forthwith planned to lay 
for that buck. 
It would be too lo'ng a story to tell of all our doings 
for the next three weeks, and our many disappointments 
in our search for the phantom buck. We hunted him 
by sunlight, and we hunted him by moonlight. We lost 
sleep over him. Of course we shot other ganie, but 
that was all incidental. Even when Jim shot a bear it 
failed to arouse our enthusiasm to any great extent. 
Several times did we "meet up" with the spectral 
beast, but always when it was least expected, and at the 
most inopportune times. We also wasted much am- 
munition on him in our nightly hunts, and we might as 
well have- shot at the moon, for all the good it did us. 
Furthermore, whenever we set out with the sole purpose 
and intention of hunting the phantom buck some mis- 
hap Avas sure to overtake us, even as old Hogarth had 
predicted. Our final experience along these lines brought 
us to a proper realization of our inability to cope with 
that uncanny animal. It happened in this wise: 
One daj' Sooner strolled into camp with a sort of 
'Tve-seen-everything" expression on his countenancd", 
and began sizing things up, I haven't mentioned it be- 
fore, but this was his habitual r expression. He was the 
most blase lookin.g jdqg . J^^ver. knew. Sometimes his 
looks belied him. - \'r,^ 
On this particular occasion .he seemed to like the looks 
of things, and proceedecl to give us an exhibition of a 
few of his accomplishments. He began circling around 
the camp, in ever widening circles, now and then throw- 
ing us a careless glance over his shoulder, as much as to 
THE NEST. 
"Look!" Jim exclaimed, interrupting, and pointing up 
the lake. 
We followed the direction of his finger, and then stared 
at one anotlier witn various emotions depicted on our 
countenances. 
branding on a small sand spit that ran out into the 
lake a tew rods was the phantom buck. There was no 
mistaking him. He was not more than a quarter of a 
mile away. He was looking back m the direction of the 
hound, whose baying could now be plainly heard, and he 
seemed in no particular hurry to move. But Sooner 
was hot on his trail, and coming fast. The buck started 
tor the opposite shore, swimming at a remarkably swift 
pace. We let him get some little distance from shore 
and then started after him. 
"He's our meat tms time," Jack shouted, in his ex- 
citement. 
1 ^^^''^ ^'O'c^' wheeled about and 
headed directly for us. We stonped paddling and gazed 
■'w if^"r° 'r' •■'"^ .""K^^^ ^""^^ blank surprise? 
claimed Jim. 
. "Why don't you shoot?" I shouted at him "We're 
in range. Let hmi have it" 
Jim raised his rifle and fired. The shot went wide of 
the mark .Again 1 Felt myself beginning to tremble and ' 
I noticed tfiat both Jack and Jim we:^-e shaking 'coi 
siderably. The three of us began blazing away tofether 
but the phantom buck came steadilv on. uSathed 
through the shower of bullets ' "'^^atnea. 
And then— well it all happened in a second, and it has 
matter laJf^'^ T ^T' "^^'^^ be! fo^ tha 
matter. Each one lays it to the other two. Anyhow 
before we knew it, we found ourselves in the water S 
he canoe bottom side up and nothing to do bm 'sw r 
for land. Fortunately the distance was not grea as we 
7z:^Ssi^-^ ^^«-' 
We reached the shore none the worse for our drench- 
ing and immediately looked about for the phin torn 
buck. Not a sign of him was to be seen It eeS 
impossible that he could have reached the shore ah^Sd 
Cthe^fwJsSoot;'''-*^-""''^^ P^^-'W^ eSanaW 
ant there was Sooner swimming around in a circle where 
the buck had last been seen, apparentlv as much at sea 
as we were We gave it up in disgust and went back 
to camp and took a "three-finger bracer" to calm our 
feehngs. Sooner was ashamed to be seen in con - 
Pf'n3^ any longer, and so made for home 
fhat was our last experience with the phantom burV 
He IS probably haunting the shores of thr" norfhern 
W.sconsm lake to this day. If you think yot would like 
V t^T^^ ^^u P°"der well these things 
which I have here written, and save thyself much need 
less distress of mnd and body, p °" 
