th a smart kick, the fawn
sent Charley over on his back, and leaped into the enclosure. At this
instant a bevy of flaxen-haired urchins, hatless, bonnetless,--Tom's
brothers and sisters,--came whooping from the cabin, and joined the
chase. In a moment Tom had forgotten all his gloomy thoughts and high
resolves, and was as eager as any of them, as they tried to secure the
nimble prize. A lively time it was, too; fear and speed against
numbers, noise, and strategy. A good force were the pursuers; the
"olive plants" of the Joneses grew very naturally in regular
gradations, like the steps of a flight of stairs. Tom, Eliza, Charley,
Bob, Sarah, Bill, and Bub, the four-year-old, were all active with
hands, legs, and lungs, while the mother stood in the doorway,
surveying the scene, with baby in her arms.

"Fix up the fence where the deer jumped in!" cried Tom to Charley; and
the latter hastened to repair the breach, for the brush had been
broken down at that point.

From corner to corner and side to side bounded the deer, slipping
through the fingers of one and another of the youngsters; but they
gave him no rest.

"Stop him, 'Lize! Hold him, Bob! Head him off. Say! Get out of the
way, Bub! There! why didn't you catch him, Charley? Mother, can't you
put down baby, and help us? He'll get away! There! he's going over the
fence! No, he isn't!" Amid such vociferations the children rushed on,
pell-mell, till out of breath. Luckily, the brush fence was so thick
and high, being made of dead trees piled upon each other, that the
animal could find no point to push through or scale, especially while
kept in "running order" by his pursuers. Although thus imprisoned, he
was baffling their efforts, refusing to be captured, when Tom said to
the children,--

"We can't catch him this way. But if you will all do as I tell you, I
guess we can." The fawn was standing in the further corner of the
field, as if waiting to see what they would do next. And Tom, ranging
his force in line, himself at the head, gave the word to advance
towards the deer.

"Steady, steady," said he, as they neared the animal. They had
succeeded in approaching within a few yards, and Tom, with outspread
arms and eagle eye, advanced slowly, watching to seize him if he
should attempt to spring away, when little Bub, who had been sent into
the cabin by Tom, having gone around unobserved on the outside of the
garden behind the deer, suddenly ran a sharp stick through t