o shoot at him.
Or, perhaps, you mean to bring us a deer to-day; you know you have
promised to do that every morning for a week."

"You shall eat a slice from as fine a saddle of venison to-day, father,
as you ever saw smoke over a chafing-dish."

"In good truth, shall I, boy? You are a brave promiser! You remember
your own adage,--Brag was a good dog, but Holdfast was better."

"In right down earnest, father, you shall. You needn't laugh. Now,
you're thinking I have the deer to shoot; there's your mistake. The
saddle is this minute lying on the dresser in the kitchen. He was a
running buck yesterday; and I could tell where the powder and ball came
from (here Henry made the motion of opening a hunting pouch at his side)
that put an end to his capers."

"He is a monstrous braggart; is he not, Mildred?" said Lindsay,
directing a look of incredulity at his daughter.

"What Henry tells you is true," replied Mildred. "Stephen Foster was
here at sunrise with a part of a buck, which he says was shot
yesterday."

"Indeed! Then it is to Stephen's rifle we are indebted. You kill your
bucks by proxy, master."

"I'll bet," said Henry, "that Stephen Foster hasn't the impudence to
charge one penny for that venison. And why? Because, by the laws of
chace, one-half belongs to me."

"Oh, I understand," interrupted Lindsay, with affected gravity; "it is a
matter of great doubt which of you shot it. You both fired at once; or,
perhaps, Stephen first, and you afterwards; and the poor animal dropped
the moment you took your aim,--even before your piece went off. You know
your aim, Harry, is deadly,--much worse than your bullet."

"There is no doubt who killed him," said Henry; "for Stephen was on that
side of the hill, and I was a little below him, and the buck ran right
to Stephen, who, of course, gave him the first shot. But there was I,
father, just ready, if Stephen had missed, to bring old Velvet-Horns to
the ground, before he could have leaped a rod."

"But, unluckily, Stephen's first shot killed him?"

"I don't know that," replied Henry. "Another person's knife might have
done the business; for the deer jumped down the bank into the road, and
there"--

Mildred cast a sidelong look of caution at her brother, to warn him
against alluding to a third person, whom it was not discreet to mention.

"And there," said Henry, taking the sign, "when I got up to him he was
stone dead. I would almost think a deer couldn't be shot