CHESUNCOOK. 
113 
first I discovered had not been filled for me, — moose- 
men, wood-eaters , the word is said to mean, — clad in a 
sort of Vermont gray, or homespun. Our Nimrod, ow¬ 
ing to the retrograde movement, was now the farthest 
from the game; but being warned of its neighborhood, 
he hastily stood up, and, while we ducked, fired over our 
heads one barrel at the foremost, which alone he saw, 
though he did not know what kind of creature it was; 
whereupon this one dashed across the meadow and up a 
high bank on the northeast, so rapidly as to leave but an 
indistinct impression of its outlines on my mind. At the 
same instant, the other, a young one, but as tall as a 
horse, leaped out into the stream, in. full sight, and there 
stood cowering for a moment, or rather its disproportion¬ 
ate lowness behind gave it that appearance, and uttering 
two or three trumpeting squeaks. I have an indistinct 
recollection of seeing the old one pause an instant on the 
top of the bank in the woods, look toward its shivering 
young, and then dash away again. The second barrel 
was levelled at the calf, and when we expected to see it 
drop in the water, after a little hesitation, it, too, got out 
of the water, and dashed up the hill, though in a some¬ 
what different direction. All this was the work of a few 
seconds, and our hunter, having never seen a moose be¬ 
fore, did not know but they were deer, for they stood 
partly in the water, nor whether he had fired at the same 
one twice or not. From the style in which they went 
off, and the fact that he was not used to standing up and 
firing from a canoe, I judged that we should not see 
anything more of them. The Indian said that they 
were a cow and her calf, — a yearling, or perhaps two 
years old, for they accompany their dams so long; but, 
for my part, I had not noticed much difference in their 
ii 
