as already planned. It was
about one-fourth of a mile from camp to the turnpike and as the deer
which I was going to look for were making their course, the last I
had seen them, in the direction of the road, I was going to go to the
road and then go north along the road to see if they had crossed. The
boys would take the same path to the road that I did when they would
go south of camp to look after the marten traps.

I had my gun and stood in the cabin door waiting for my brother and
Wells to get ready as I would accompany them as far as the road. The
boys were having some trouble belting their leggins and creepers on
to their satisfaction. I became tired of waiting and made the remark
that I could go and kill a deer before they could get their feet
dressed. My brother said that I had better be going then, so I
started on up the path to the road. It was thawing a little, just
enough to make the snow pack. I had gone about a hundred yards from
camp when I saw a track of a deer where it had stepped into the path,
then had turned back about forty yards to the left of the path. A
large birch tree had blown down, knocking one or two smaller trees
down so that it made a little jam. Seeing that the tracks were so
fresh I knew that the deer was close by and as the woods were open I
was quite positive that the deer must be about the jam of trees, when
a large doe stepped out in sight and it was only the work of a moment
to let her down in her tracks. When the gun cracked out jumped a
yearling buck that was lying down just in the edge of the jam and
bounded over the trunk of a large birch and stopped broadside to me
and I let him down. Thinking of what I had said on leaving the cabin
and what my brother had said to me I ran back to camp as quick as I
could go without even stopping to cut the deer's throat. As I came
around the corner of the cabin I heard my brother say to Wells, "I
bet a gander that he has killed a deer all right, for he would not
shoot twice so quick at anything else."

Well, the boys had not got their feet dressed yet, but chance had
allowed me to make my word good only I had killed two deer instead of
one. The boys helped me to hang up the deer and then went to the
marten traps while I went in search of the deer I had started after.
Soon I struck the trail of the deer and shortly saw that one of them
had a broken leg and I did not follow the trail far when the wounded
deer dropped out and left the others. I