of me and one old
inquisitive porcupine came up the tree to see what I was doing. He
perched himself on a limb not more than two feet from my face and sat
there and chattered his teeth until I could stand it no longer. I
took the large powder horn that I had strung over my shoulder with a
cord and gave the porcupine a rap on the nose that sent him tumbling
down the tree. I remember well how other animals scampered from under
the tree when the porcupine tumbled down. At that time I wondered
what it all was, but later I learned that all these animals were only
flying squirrels, rabbits and porcupines, but I imagined that the
noises were made by anything but squirrels and rabbits.

Well, about eleven o'clock I heard something coming towards the lick
with a steady tread like that of a man and again I was taken with a
chill that caused the scaffold to shake, but the chill only lasted
for a moment. Soon I heard the animal step in the soft mud and
directly it began to suck the salt from the dirt and I was sure that
it was a deer and that it was the right time to pull the trigger,
which I did. When the report of the gun died away all that I could
hear were the same noises that were made when I knocked the old
porcupine from the tree. I now feared that I had pulled the gun on
some other animal rather than a deer. I thought the report of the gun
would frighten all the deer in the woods, so that no deer would go to
the licks the men were watching. I was afraid I would get a terrible
scolding by the men who were watching the other licks when they came
to camp in the morning.

After waiting some time and hearing no noise of any kind, I concluded
to get down and go to camp. Upon getting down from the tree I decided
that I would go and look in the lick and see if I could tell what it
was that I had heard there and had shot at. As it was so dark that I
could not see from the blind, you can imagine my surprise when I got
to the lick to see a large buck deer lying broadside as dead as could
be.

I immediately lost all fear of being scolded by the other men, so I
claimed first blood. I began calling for the man who remained in camp
but could get no answer from him so I went down to camp and found him
fast asleep. I awakened him and we immediately made a torch and went
to the lick and dragged the deer to camp. Then we took out the
entrails and bunked down for the rest of the night.

The next thing that I knew, one of the men who had