the winter came on, the fawn and its mother were all at
once missing. The general supposition was that they had been killed,
but when spring came the doe and the white fawn (now a yearling deer)
again appeared on its old haunts of the year before. They had merely
gone back into the more dense woods to winter.

Along in June it was noticed that there were three deer instead of
two. Another fawn had appeared on the scene, this time an ordinary
spotted fawn. They were again daily seen during the summer the same
as they were the year before. Now it had been strongly urged by the
people all about the country that these deer should not be killed,
and there was none that was more strongly in favor of this than I
was. The deer were regularly seen again all summer and up to the last
days of October, when they again disappeared and all were anxious for
spring to come to see if they would return as usual. When spring came
the deer came back as before, but in June "the whole bunch came up
missing," and it was generally thought that they had changed their
haunts or they had been killed. The latter was strongly suspected.

I had taken a scout through the woods on the hills back of the
locality where these deer had been frequenting and had seen signs
that convinced me that the white deer, at least, was still alive,
although it had not been seen for a number of weeks. Here I wish to
explain that Coudersport is two miles from Lymansville and it is on
the hill between the two places that the white deer had been seen
most, and it was in the former place that the loudest cry for the
protection of this white deer came from.

Now about this time I had killed a deer in the big woods where
several of us had been on a fishing trip and I took a piece of this
venison to a friend in town. It so happened that one of the side
judges of our court (Stebens by name) was at the house of my friend.
A few days later I was in a store belonging to a brother of the
Judge, when the Judge came in and accused me of killing the white
deer. Of course I denied, and told the Judge that I would wager two
dollars that the white deer was still living. The Judge said "Very
well," and at the same time handed a two dollar bill to a man
standing by, by the name of Abison, who was listening to our
conversation, which was quite heated. I told the Judge at the very
first opportunity I would kill the white deer.

The white deer was not seen in the woods any more, and I wa