It proved to be, not one of those we had been following,
but an old buck that had just got up out of the bed where he had been
lying and was standing over it when I fired. I looked and saw some short
hair lying on the snow, and told Mr. Sheldon that that looked as if I had
made a square shot and that the dogs had gone after the well ones we had
been following, that this one was an old buck which we hadn't disturbed
before. I thought perhaps he had got up to see the flock that we were
following go by. We didn't follow him more than ten rods before we found
where he lay last. He was a very large buck, a full mate for either of
those we already had.
A little ways back we had crossed a coon's track and we knew that he had
been along in the latter part of the night, as it snowed in the earlier
part of the night. We thought he hadn't gone far, so we agreed that
Sheldon should follow his tracks and find his tree, (at that time coon
skins were valuable) while we went back about a mile, to a lone
settler's, by the name of Plaster, (who lived on the openings) and
borrowed an ax. When we came back to the woods we were to halloo and he
was to answer us.
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