“This was just what the wily woodsman desired. Lying flat on a branch almost within reach of the beast’s antlers, he reached down and dealt him a blow in the neck. A second thrust went deeper, and struck a more vital part, almost under the throat. The blood gushed out in a torrent, and the hunter congratulated himself that deliverance was near at hand.
“Presently the great animal stood still, and looked about him with a puzzled, anxious air. He felt his strength going from him, and could not understand it.
“Soon he began to sway from side to side, and had to brace his feet apart to keep from falling. At last he fell. Then the hunter, stretching himself, came down out of the tree and stood beside his noble and defeated antagonist.
“Story was too weak and cold and hungry to think of waiting to cut off the animal’s head and hide it from the bears. He slipped on his snow-shoes, found his gun, and started back in haste for the camp. Before daylight he had reached the ‘yard’; and there, to his intense delight, he met a party of his comrades who had set out in the night to look for him.”
DAN.
“And now,” said I, “I’ll tell you of Dan’s great fight. It was fought before he came into my possession; that is, before my friend H——, going away to study in Germany, handed him over to me. It was just a few weeks before H——’s departure, and we were setting out for a farewell trip to the wilderness together.
“As for Dan, he was not much to look at certainly; and I was prejudiced against him by the fact that he took up room in the canoe. To carry a great bulldog in a birch canoe was contrary to all my notions of the fitness of things. But H—— had protested so vehemently against the idea of leaving him behind, and the dog had behaved with such sobriety and good sense when I took him out to try him in a choppy sea, that I yielded a reluctant consent.
“Our proposed route was through the chain of the Chiputneticook Lakes, down stream all the way, with no difficult water to contend against, and no bad rapids to shoot. We had two canoes,—that which bore H—— and myself, and that in which our Indian carried the baggage; so that really it was not impossible to make room for the addition to our party, and Dan was formally enrolled a member.
“He took his place in the forward mid-section of my canoe, immediately behind his master, where he coiled himself up into a compact bundle. There he calmly ignored the wildest vagaries to which the lake waves could impel our little craft. This good seamanship of his, with his dignified manner toward myself and his adoring devotion to his master, gradually won my respect; and before we had been many days out we were on terms of mutual consideration. I ended with a cordial enjoyment of his company.
“I think I began by declaring that Dan was not much to look at. This was my first and biassed impression. But it must be modified by the acknowledgment that his splendid proportions and great strength were apparent to the most casual observer. In fact, he was a perfect specimen of his breed.