my hunter.
He usually guessed right, and I had found it safe to follow his
advice.

So we watched the sheep walk slowly over the crest of the hill. The
Mongol did not tell me then, but he knew that the animal was on his
way to join the others, and his silence cost us the big ram. You may
wonder how he knew it. I can only answer that what that Mongol did
not know about the ways of sheep was not worth learning. He seemed
to think as the sheep thought, but, withal, was a most intelligent
and delightful companion. His ready sympathy, his keen humor, and
his interest in helping me get the finest specimens of the animals I
wanted, endeared him to me in a way which only a sportsman can
understand. His Shansi dialect and my limited Mandarin made a
curious combination of the Chinese language, but we could always
piece it out with signs, and we never misunderstood each other on
any important matter.

We had many friendly differences of opinion about the way in which
to conduct a stalk, and his childlike glee when he was proved
correct was most refreshing. One morning I got the better of him,
and for days he could not forget it. We were sitting on a hillside,
and with my glasses I picked up a herd of sheep far away on the
uplands. "Yes," he said, "one is a very big ram." How he could tell
at that distance was a mystery to me, but I did not question his
statement for he had proved too often that his range of sight was
almost beyond belief.

We started toward the sheep, and after half a mile I looked again.
Then I thought I saw a grasscutter, and the animals seemed like
donkeys. I said as much but the hunter laughed. "Why, I saw the
horns," he said. "One is a big one, a _very_ big one." I stopped a
second time and made out a native bending over, cutting grass. But I
could not convince the Mongol. He disdained my glasses and would not
even put them to his eyes. "I don't have to--I _know_ they are
sheep," he laughed. But I, too, was sure. "Well, we'll see," he
said. When we looked again, there could be no mistake; the sheep
were donkeys. It was a treat to watch the Mongol's face, and I made
much capital of his mistake, for he had so often teased me when I
was wrong.

But to return to the sheep across the valley which we were stalking
on that sunlit Thursday noon. After the ram had disappeared we made
our way slowly around the hilltop, whence he had come, to gain a
connecting meadow which would bring us to the ravine where the