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The ability of keeping still in a disagreeable situation, for a long time, is most desirable and necessary in the character of a hunter;–some men have a faculty for holding a fishing-rod hours at a time over a fishless tide, with wondrous ardor; and I have known men to watch deer, bear, and other game, in one position, for ten or twenty hours. Sauntering up and down in the dark, with wind and rain, and a musket in your arms for company, is not pleasant pastime; but my patience revolted at the idea of squatting on the wet log, all cramped up, three or four hours, and no deer making their appearance; Doctor and I made up our minds to arouse “old traps,” and patter back to the camp. Just as the resolution was about to be put in action, two deer, fine antlered customers, made their appearance about three hundred yards from us, out on a small plain, where their sprightly forms could just be made out as they leisurely stepped along. Getting near “old traps,” he soon convinced us that his eye was still open, although we had concluded he was fast asleep. The sharp, whip-like crack of “old traps'” rifle brought down one of the deer, and the other, in bounds of thirty or forty feet at a spring, whisked nearly over us, and the Doctor and I fired at the flying deer as he came; neither shot took effect, and off he sped.

“Hurrah! for the old boy!” shouted the Doctor, as we all bustled up to where the deer lay kicking and plunging in his death throes. “By Jove, ‘traps,’ you’ve put a ball clean through his head!”

“Yes, sir,” said traps; “I ollers fix game that way, myself.”

“Except when you fix them with the traps, eh?” said I.

“‘Zactly,” said traps. “But now, boys,” he continued loading up his rifle, “now let’s snatch off the creature’s hide, quarter it, and travel back to the camp, for we ain’t gwoine to have any more deer to-night.”

This was soon accomplished. Trap seized the hind quarters and hide, and travelled; Doctor and I brought up the rear with the rest of the meat and fat.

To avoid the muddy “bottom,” in going back, we concluded to take a little round-about way, and relieved one another by taking “spells” at carrying the rifles and the meat. We jogged along, chatting away, for some time, when it occurred to us that we were getting very near the camp, or ought to be, for we had walked long and fast enough.

Doctor was trudging on ahead with the meat; I was behind some twenty yards with both rifles; we were passing through some thin timber which skirted a little prairie, out on which we could see quite distinctly; Doctor made a sudden halt–

“Hollo! by Jove, what’s that?”

“What? eh? where?” said I, bustling up to the Doctor, who made free to drop the meat, wheeled about, snatched his rifle out of my fists and broke!

“A grizzly bear coming, by thunder!”

Upon that hint there were two gentlemen seen hurrying themselves somewhat, I reckon, on the back track. Doctor was what you might call a fast trotter, but when he broke into a full gallop the odds against me were dreadful! I was fairly distanced, and when perfectly blowed out stopped to pull the briars out of my torn trowsers, scratched face and dishevelled locks, listen to the enemy, and ascertain where the Doctor had got to. No sound broke the reigning stillness, save the sonorous “coo-hoot” of an owl. My rifle was empty, and a search satisfied me that my caps were not to be found. My own cap had also disappeared in the fright, and I was in a bad way for defence, and completely at a dead loss as to the bearings of the camp.