“How far are you going, Mr. Sikes?” I inquired, endeavouring to shake off the lazy fit which inclined me to keep my seat.
“Only jest up the branch a little bit—not beyant a mile from your fence, at the outside. Look at him!” he exclaimed in a louder tone, as he gave the reins a jerk. “Thar’s deer a plenty up at the forks, and we’ll have r’al sport. Come, you better go, and—Why, look at him!” giving the reins another jerk, at the same time that he sent a kick to his mule’s ribs that might have been heard an hundred yards, “and I’ll show you how to shine the eyes of a buck.”
As he sat in his saddle persuading me to go, his mule kept frisking and turning in such a manner as to annoy him exceedingly. Upon his left shoulder he bore his blazing-pan, and upon his right he held his musket, holding the reins also in his right hand; so that any efforts on his part to restrain the refractory movements of his animal was attended with much difficulty. I had about made up my mind to go, when the mule evinced a more resolute determination to get at the shrubbery.
“Whoa! wha, now!—confound you! Now, look at him!”—then might be heard a few good lusty kicks. “Come, Major, git your gun, and let’s—will you hold up yer head, you ’bominable fool?—and let’s take a little round—it’ll do you good.”
“As I only go to satisfy my curiosity, I’ll not take a gun. You will be able to shoot all the deer we meet.”
“Well, any way you mind, Major.”
We were about to start, when suddenly the mule gave a loud bray, and when I turned to look, his heels were high in the air, and Sam clinging to his neck, while the fire flew in every direction. The mule wheeled, reared and kicked, and still Sam hung to his neck, shouting, “Look at him!—whoa!—will you mind!—whoa!—whoa, now!”—but all to no purpose, until at length the infuriated animal backed to the low paling fence which enclosed a small flower-garden, over which he tumbled—Sam, pan, gun and all, together!
When Sam had disengaged himself, he discovered that the saddle-blanket was on fire, which had been the cause of the disaster.
“Cus the luck,” said he; “I thought I smelt something burnin’.”
Then addressing himself to the mule in a louder tone, he continued: