nding upon it with one foot. After each use
or practice the buoy line should be restored to its pegs for instant
use.

[Illustration: Life buoy and ice ball/]

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Notes

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Notes

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CHAPTER VIII

GAMES AND ATHLETIC STANDARDS THE GAMES

_By Ernest Thompson Seton, Chief Scout_

Deer Hunting

The deer hunt has proved one of our most successful games.

The deer is a dummy, best made with a wire frame, on which soft hay is
wrapped till it is of proper size and shape, then all is covered with
open burlap. A few touches of white and black make it very realistic.

If time does not admit of a well-finished deer, one can be made of a
sack stuffed with hay, decorated at one end with a smaller sack for
head and neck, and set on four thin sticks.

The side of the deer is marked with a large oval, and over the heart
is a smaller one.

Bows and arrows only are used to shoot this deer.

[Illustration: Wooden Legged Deer.]

A pocketful of corn, peas, or other large grain is now needed for
scent. The boy who is the deer for the first hunt takes the dummy
under his arm and runs off, getting ten minutes' start, or until he
comes back and shouts "ready!" He leaves a trail of corn, dropping two
or three grains for every yard and making the trail as crooked as he
likes, playing such tricks as a deer would do to baffle his pursuers.
Then he hides the deer in any place he fancies, but not among rocks or
on the top of a ridge, because in one case many arrows would be
broken, and in the other, lost.

The hunters now hunt for this deer just as for a real deer, either
following the trail or watching the woods ahead; the {292} best
hunters combine the two. If at any time the trail is quite lost the
one in charge shouts: "Lost Trail!" After that the one who finds the
trail scores two. Anyone giving a false alarm by shouting "Deer" is
fined five.

[Illustration: Burlap Deer, 3 ft. high.]

Thus they go till some one finds the deer. He shouts: "_Deer!_" and
scores ten for finding it. The others shout: "_Second_," "_Third_,"
etc., in order of seeing it, but they do not score.

The finder must shoot at the deer with his bow and arrow from the very
spot whence he saw it. If he misses, the second hunter may step up
five paces, and have his shot. If he misses, the third one goes five,
and so on till some one hits the deer, or until the ten-yard limit is
reached. If the finder is within ten yar