be
something to boast of."

"Or a wolf, rather," cried Fred. "That is nobler game, for he shows
more fight."

"Yes, I should like to fall in with a wolf," responded his brother.
"But I say, Fred, how are we to kill him if we find him?"

"Knock him on the head with the butt end of our whip! That is what he
deserves, at all events."

"Easier said than done," observed Harry. "However, I'll stick by you,
don't fear, if we should find one of the rascals. I shall ever hate a
wolf after the story we heard the other night."

Thus talking, the lads galloped on. Suddenly a deer started up from an
open glade which lay before them. They looked round for the old fox--he
was nowhere to be seen, and the dogs appeared to have lost the scent.
However, as soon as the deer began to run they followed, evidently not
at all particular as to what they had to pursue.

"Rare fun this is," shouted Fred and Harry, as they galloped after the
deer. But the dogs, already tired, had not the slightest chance of
overtaking the nimble-footed animal, though, had the young hunters been
provided with rifles, they could quickly have brought her to the ground.

"Hallo! Where is she?" exclaimed Fred, as the deer darted among a thick
clump of trees.

"I am sure I saw her but a moment ago," answered Harry. "Let us get
round to the other side of the clump, she will have gone through it."

If she had gone through the clump, she had gone a long way beyond it,
for she was nowhere to be seen on the other side. The dogs also were
equally at fault, and began to stray about, as if each one was resolved
to have a hunt by himself. Where our friends had got to by this time,
they could not tell. They proposed returning to the ruined house where
the hunt had met, but in what direction to find it was the puzzle.

"This is worse than losing ourselves in the streets of Saint
Petersburg," cried Harry, who was in no ways daunted. "The fox and the
deer have brought us all this way--I wish we could find a wolf or a bear
to show us the road home again."

"Not much chance of that," answered Fred, as they rode on in the
direction they fancied would lead them whence they had come. "But, I
say, hallo, what is that shaggy-looking brute showing his head out of
the hollow stump of that old tree there?" As he spoke, a loud snarling
growl saluted their ears.

"A big she-wolf and her cubs," shouted Harry. "Let's knock her over,
the brute."

"For mercy's sake