ant
you to say anything about it to your friends, for they would laugh more
than ever, but the fact is I have never yet been able to shoot a deer if
it looked me in the eye. With a buffalo, or a bear, or an Indian, it is
different. But a deer has the eye of a trusting child, soft, gentle, and
confiding. No one but a brute could shoot a deer if he caught that look.
The first that came over the knoll looked straight at me; I let it go
by, and did not look at the second until I was sure it had passed me."

He seemed somewhat ashamed of his soft-heartedness; yet to me it was
but one of many little incidents that revealed a side of his nature the
rough life of the frontier had not corrupted.

Will expected to reach the Dismal River on the third day, and at noon
of it he remarked that he had better ride ahead and give notice of our
coming, for the man who looked after the ranch had his wife with him,
and she would likely be dismayed at the thought of preparing supper for
so large a crowd on a minute's notice.

Sister Julia's son, Will Goodman, a lad of fifteen, was of our party,
and he offered to be the courier.

"Are you sure you know the way?" asked his uncle.

"Oh, yes," was the confident response; "you know I have been over the
road with you before, and I know just how to go."

"Well, tell me how you would go."

Young Will described the trail so accurately that his uncle concluded
it would be safe for him to undertake the trip, and the lad rode ahead,
happy and important.

It was late in the afternoon when we reached the ranch; and the greeting
of the overseer was:

"Well, well; what's all this?"

"Didn't you know we were coming?" asked Will, quickly. "Hasn't Will
Goodman been here?" The ranchman shook his head.

"Haven't seen him, sir," he replied, "since he was here with you
before."

"Well, he'll be along," said Will, quietly; but I detected a ring
of anxiety in his voice. "Go into the house and make yourselves
comfortable," he added. "It will be some time before a meal can be
prepared for such a supper party." We entered the house, but he remained
outside, and mounting the stile that served as a gate, examined the
nearer hills with his glass. There was no sign of Will, Jr.; so the
ranchman was directed to dispatch five or six men in as many directions
to search for the boy, and as they hastened away on their mission Will
remained on the stile, running his fingers every few minutes through the
hair over