Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/42

lightning—that I could scarcely credit it when I saw the deer twirling and turning over at my horse's heels. Dismounting to secure him, it was some time before his muscular action was sufficiently overcome to allow me to use my knife. He struggled and kicked; I set down my gun, the better to master him. In the midst of my employment, crack went Geordy's second barrel, nearer than the first, and "mind! mind!" followed the discharge. Before I could drop my knife and gain my feet another deer was upon me! He followed directly in the track of the former and passed between my horse and me, so near that I might have bayoneted him! Where was my gun? Lost in the broom grass! What a trial! I looked all around in an instant, and spying it where it lay, caught it eagerly up—the deer had disappeared! It flashed across me that underneath these myrtles the limbs excluded from the sun had decayed, and that in the vistas thus formed a glimpse of the deer might yet be gained. In an instant I am on my knees, darting the most anxious glances along the vista; the flash of a tail is seen—I fire—a struggle is heard—I press forward through the interlacing branches—and to my joy and surprise, another deer is mine! Taking him by the legs, I drag him to the spot where the other lay. Then it was my turn to sound a "vaunty" peal! Geordy pealed in answer, and soon appeared dragging a deer of his own (having missed one of those that I had killed). Three deer were started—they were all at our feet—and that without the aid of a dog! It was the work of five minutes! We piled them in a heap, covered them with branches and myrtle bushes, and tasked our horns to the uttermost to recall the field. One by one the hounds came in, smelt at the myrtle bushes, seemed satisfied, though puzzled, wagged their tails, and coiling themselves each in his proper bed, lay down to sleep. Yet had any stranger approached that myrtle-covered mound every back would have bristled, and a fierce cry of