lder. But instantly the dog gave chase, and kept so exactly in the
line of flight, that Jack durst not fire.

"You silly boy's dog!" he said; "don't you know better than that? You'll
get a stray shot some day, if you run before my gun-barrels in that
fashion. Now go to the horse, and stay."

The dog, who had fancied that he was doing good service, dropped ears
and tail at this rebuke, and retired from the field.

Jack was continuing the hunt, when all at once a strange spell seemed to
come over him. It found him on one foot, and he remained on one foot,
poising the other behind him, for several seconds. Then, softly putting
down the lifted leg, and lowering his gun, he stole swiftly back, in a
crouching attitude, to his wagon by the woodside.

Taking his horse by the bridle, he led him down into a little hollow.
Then, piercing the undergrowth, he hastened to a commanding position,
where, himself hidden by the bushes, he could look off on the prairie.

His heart beat fast, and his hand shook, as he drew the bird-shot out of
the two barrels of his fowling-piece, reloading one with buck-shot, the
other with an ounce ball.

All the while his eye kept glancing from his gun to the shadowy slope of
a distant hill, where were two objects which looked like a deer and a
fawn feeding.

CHAPTER IV.

A DEER HUNT, AND HOW IT ENDED.

They were a long way off,--more than half a mile, he thought. Evidently
they had not seen him. Though marvellously quick to catch scent or
sound, deer have not a fine sense of sight for distant objects.

"They have left the covert early, to go out and feed," thought he. "If
not frightened, they will browse around in the hollows there until
dark."

He was wondering how he should manage to creep near, and get a shot at
the shy creatures, when the dog barked.

"That won't do!" he muttered; and, hurrying to silence Lion, he saw a
stranger loitering along the prairie road.

Jack stepped out of the bushes into the hollow, and beckoned.

"I've sighted a couple of deer that I'm trying to get a shot at; if you
go over the hill, you'll scare 'em."

The stranger--a slender youth in soiled shirt-sleeves, carrying a coat
on his arm--looked at him saucily, with his head on one side and a quid
turning in the cheek, and said,--

"Well! and why shouldn't I scare 'em?"

"I can't hinder you, of course; but," said Jack, "if _you_ were hunting,
and _I_ should be passing by, I should think it a mat