the vain hope of getting it out
time enough for action. Tom had scrambled out of the wagon on the first
alarm, and stood eye, ear, and heart erect, by the off side of the
horses, which were very restless, pawing, and plunging violently, and
almost defying Timothy best skill to hold them; while Harry, having cast
off his box-coat, stood firm and upright on the foot board as a carved
statue, with his rifle cocked and ready; when, headed back upon us by
the yell of Lyn and the loud clamor of his fresh foes, the first buck I
had seen in America, and the largest I had seen any where, dashed at a
single plunge into the round, clearing the green head of a fallen
hemlock, apparently without an effort, his splendid antlers laid back on
his neck, and his white flag lashing his fair round haunch as the fleet
bitches Bonny Belle and Blossom yelled with their shrill fierce trebles
close behind him.

Seeing that it was useless to persist in my endeavor to extricate my
gun, and satisfied that the matter was in good hands, I was content to
look on, an inactive but most eager witness.

Tom, who from his position at the head of the off horse, commanded the
first view of the splendid creature, pitched his gun to his shoulder
hastily and fired; the smoke drifted across my face, but through its
vapory folds I could distinguish the dim figure of the noble hart still
bounding unhurt onward; but, before the first echo of the round ringing
report of Tom's shot-gun reached my ear, the sharp flat crack of Harry's
rifle followed it, and at the self-same instant the buck sprang six feet
into the air, and pitched head foremost on the ground; it was but for a
moment, however, for with the speed of light he struggled to his feet,
and though sore wounded, was yet toiling onward when the two English
foxhounds dashed at his throat and pulled him down again.

"Run in, Tom, run in! quick," shouted Harry, "he's not clean killed, and
may gore the dogs sadly!"

"I've got no knife," responded Tom, but dauntlessly he dashed in, all
the same, to the rescue of the bitches--which I believe he loved almost
as well as his own children--and though, encumbered by his ponderous
white top-coat, not to say by his two hundred and fifty weight of solid
flesh, seized the fierce animal by the brow-antlers, and bore him to the
ground, before Harry, who had leaped out of the wagon, with his first
words, could reach him.

The next moment the keen short hunting knife, witho