all of snow, I packed my knapsack with as
much grub stake as I was able to carry, with my gun and blanket, and
started over the hill to Mr. Dingman's camp. After I had crossed the
divide, I did not go far before I began to see deer tracks. There was
no road or trail down the run, and the run was pretty well filled
with timber. I had about all that I could handle without deer tracks,
but when I was within about a mile of Mr. Dingman's camp, I came onto
the trail of several deer that had only been gone a few minutes. I
could not stand it longer, so I hung my pack and blanket up in a tree
and took my track back up the stream until I was quite sure that I
was well out of range of the deer, and then climbed the ridge until I
was near the top of the hill and on advantageous ground.

The direction of the trail of the deer where it crossed the stream
led me to think that the deer were going south, or down the ridge but
on the contrary they had turned to the right and up the ridge. I had
not gone far along the ridge before I began a sharp lookout. I
suddenly found the deer lying in a thicket of low laurel. They broke
from cover at a breakneck speed. I fired both barrels at them with
the best aim that I was able to get, and had the satisfaction of
seeing one of the deer, a good sized doe, stumble and partly fall,
then hobble on in the direction that the other had gone.

It was nearly sundown and I only followed the trail a short distance
when I could plainly see that the deer had a foreleg broken, and she
soon left the trail of the others, and went down the hill all alone.
Knowing that the wounded deer would soon lay down if not disturbed. I
left the trail, went back, got my pack, blanket and went on down the
creek to Mr. Dingman's camp. I found Mr. Dingman about to sit down to
a supper of roast potatoes, venison and other good things to be found
in abundance in the woods in those days.

The next morning we were out at daybreak after the wounded doe. Mr.
Dingman said that when the doe was started up that she would come to
water, and that she would stop on the creek below where I had left
the trail, which led down the hill until in sight of the creek, when
it turned to the right, then went back up the hill only a few yards
to the right of her trail where she had gone down.

When I saw what the doe had done, I thought to myself, old lady, you
are well onto the game, and we will have lots of sport before we get
you. I was well a