rd, and Joe observed a majority of the
deer leaping affrighted in the direction of his position. The foremost
passed within twenty yards of him, and, his limbs trembling with
excitement, he drew his gun up to his shoulder and pulled the trigger.
It snapped, perhaps fortunately, for his eyes were convulsively closed
at the moment; and recovering measurably by the time the next came up,
this trial the gun went off, and he found himself once more prostrate
on the ground.

"What in the world is the reason you won't stand still!" he exclaimed,
rising and seizing the pony by the bit. The only answer Pete made was
a snort of unequivocal dissatisfaction. "Plague take your little
_hide_ of you! I should have killed that fellow to a certainty, if
you hadn't played the fool!" continued he, still addressing his pony
while he proceeded to load his gun. When ready for another fire, he
mounted again, in quite an ill humour, convinced that all chance of
killing a deer was effectually over for the present, when, to his
utter astonishment, he beheld the deer he had fired at lying dead
before him, and but a few paces distant. With feelings of unmixed
delight he galloped to where it lay, and springing to the earth, one
moment he whirled round his hat in exultation, and the next caressed
Pete, who evinced some repugnance to approach the weltering victim,
and snuffed the scent of blood with any other sensation than that of
pleasure. Joe discovered that no less than a dozen balls had
penetrated the doe's side, (for such it was,) which sufficiently
accounted for its immediate and quiet death, that had so effectually
deceived him into the belief that his discharge had been harmless. He
now blew his horn, which was answered by a blast from Glenn, who soon
came up to announce his own success in bringing down the largest buck
in the party, and to congratulate his man on his truly remarkable
achievement.

An hour was consumed in preparing the deer to be conveyed to the
house, and by the time they were safely deposited in our hero's
diminutive castle, and the hunters ready to issue forth in quest of
more sport, the day was far advanced, and a slight haziness of the
atmosphere dimmed in a great measure the lustre of the descending sun.

Animated with their excellent success, they anticipated much more
sport, inasmuch as neither themselves nor the hounds (which hitherto
were not required to do farther service than to watch one of the deer
while th