t of one gun hanging fire.

"Keep still," said P----, in a low voice, as he stooped down and glanced
through the firs; "here he comes!--but,--no;--it's no wolf."

"Ja," replied the Norwegian, who had asked me what P---- said;
"ja!--varg;" and he placed himself in an attitude to fire at the
shortest possible notice.

"It's no wolf, I tell you," answered P----, rather louder than he had
spoken at first; "it's too big--why, damn it!" and he again stooped
down, moving his body from side to side, as he looked between the pines
that obstructed his view; and placing his left hand over his eyes, used
it as a kind of shade,--"surely--yes;--I'm sure--it's a jackass!"

"Is it?" said R----; "well, then, let's shoot him as a nuisance."

"Nej, nej," exclaimed the Norwegian, with much trepidation, laying hold
of R----'s fowling-piece, that he had jokingly raised to his shoulder
preparatory to its discharge.

The animal, whatever it was, still continued trotting towards us,
winding its way by the circuitous track of the forest. P---- kneeled
down to have a more exact range both for his gun and sight; but
springing to his feet almost instantly, he exclaimed,----

"I'll be shot, if it isn't the old doe again!"

Panting from fatigue, and the unflagging speed with which she had
travelled, the deer, with her fawn, came close to us, and tamed by
weariness, stood within a foot of the Norwegian.

"Kommit," he said; "salt; kommit, kommit," and filling his hand with
salt, the animal came near, and devoured it greedily, and allowed the
Norwegian to pat her on the neck and shoulder.

The extreme fondness of the rein-deer for salt cannot be better
exemplified; for this animal had followed us from her natural abode on
the top of the mountain to its base, and could not have performed a
lesser journey than twenty miles. She approached us with so much
confidence, and licked our hands with that domestic affection which is
so winning in dumb animals, that we declined to accept and take her from
her native haunts; but strove by every discordant noise and angry
gesture to drive her back to the mountains. With the same care, however,
that the deer had avoided us, she now sought our society, and did not
leave us until we had reached the precincts of the village, and leaping
a high, wooden fence that separated it from the forest, we gave her the
alternative of doing as we did, or remaining where she was. With the
decorous conduct of her sex she mad