lock tree. Without hesitating a moment, I fired at what I
could see of the deer and it dropped out of sight as the gun cracked.
I hurried through the jam of timber to where I saw the deer and there
the doe lay, trying to get on her feet. I soon ended her misery by
shooting her in the head. I soon had her entrails out and hung up as
I had the buck. It was the trail of this bunch of deer that the buck
was on when he ran into me.

After I had hung up the deer I hustled on down the ravine to the bear
trap. When I got to the place where the trap was set it was gone. The
trail led down the ravine and was easy to follow as I hurried along
and I soon found a small bear tangled up in a thicket of small brush.
It was only the work of a moment to fix bruin in shape to skin. After
I had the hide off, I cut the bear up into quarters and hung the meat
up in the trees. I toted the trap back up to where it was set and
reset it then I went back down the hollow to where I had left the
bear skin and took it on my shoulder and made tracks down the hollow
to the main creek where I had a string of deadfalls set for mink and
coon. The bear skin was about all the load I cared to tote, but I had
not gone far down the creek before I had the skins of two good sized
coon and one mink tied to my load. The coon and mink skins I could
get in my knapsack so they did not bother much.

After following the creek a distance of about one mile I left the
creek and went up a long narrow sawtooth point to cross the divide to
the Cross Fork waters where I had some bear, fox and marten traps
set. When I was about two-thirds of the way up this point I stopped
at the side of a large rock which would shelter me from the cold
wind. The point was covered with low laurel. I had been watching down
the side of the hill to see if I could not catch sight of some animal
on the move, but I had not got a glimpse of even a squirrel.

I had about finished my lunch, when I saw the motion of something
move in the laurel, forty or fifty yards below me. I picked up my gun
and stood watching, when I again caught sight of the animal and in a
moment I saw the horns of a deer. I could get the outline of the
deer's body so I said, "Now or never," and let go the best I could at
the bunch, but when the smoke from the gun was gone, I could neither
see nor hear anything but stood ready with my gun to my shoulder. I
again saw a part of a deer move in an open space in the laurel. I
again