f powder in my pouch, and as I might have been afther
starving when I had shot it all away, I felt gloomy enough. However,
there was no use sighing, so I got up and set forward. As ill-luck
would have it, I missed the first two shots, but with the third I killed
an aigle, or bird of that sort. It was not very good ateing, anyhow,
but it kept body and soul together for a day or two. I had now got only
one charge remaining, and thinks I to myself, I'll never be reaching
Fort Ross with this, if I don't manage to kill a deer or some other big
baste which would give me mate enough to last me all the way. I went on
all day, eagerly looking out for a deer or a buffalo or a bear, and
thinking how I could get up to it to make shure. At last, what should I
see between the trees but a crayther with big horns cropping the grass
all alone. Thinks I to myself, `If I can creep up and put a shot into
his head, I'll have mate enough to last me for a month to come.' There
was no time to be lost, so creeping along Indian fashion, I made towards
him. I kept my gun all ready to fire, not knowing what moment he might
start off. All the time I felt my heart beating pit-a-pat, for thinking
what I should do if I missed. `Take it easy,' says I to myself, but
that was no aisy matther. At last I got within twenty yards of the
deer, who hadn't yet seen me. It may be if I thry to get nearer, he'll
know there's danger near and will be off with a whisk of his tail, and
my bullet will be flying nowhere; so, just praying that I might shoot
straight, I raised my piece as he was lifting his head to look about
him. I fired. He leaped into the air, and I thought he was going to be
off; but instead of doing that same, over he fell. `Hurrah! good luck
to ye, Pat Casey,' I cried out, making the forest ring with my shouts.
I soon had some slices off the deer, and lighting a fire where I was, I
quickly cooked them, for I had had nothing to eat since I had finished
the aigle. I had now food enough to last me till I could reach the
fort, but how to kape it swate till then was the question. I thried to
smoke some, but I did not manage it altogether well. I was still
considering what to do when, going into the wood to get some more sticks
for my fire, I saw the river running directly in front of me. At first
I thought it was the big sthrame itself, but when I looked down it and
up it, I saw that it was neither, and that if I was going to reach Fort