The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-07-20

surveying, he spent much of his time in
travelling over the wooded territory
along the upper North Potomac. locat-
ing tracts of land that he might some
. time wish to acquire. And a trip
through that country at that time
could scarcely be devoid of incident.
At home he was a miller and a
farmer; abroad he was surveyor and
hunter. His experiences as hunter
will probably be the most interesting,
so we shall dwell upon them to the
exclusion of his deeds in other pro-
fessions, and let the old men tell the
stories of his life nearer home.
Once Thomas III broke faith with a
living being. He was hunting in the
Glades by himself when he saw a large
buck standing in stream, drinking.
Aiming very deliberately, he fired, and
down went the buck. But when he
went into the water TO claim his prize,
the deer sprang up and charged. Now
the soft muddy ground on the side of
the stream made the mans footing in
secure, so he failed in his attempt to
get hold on the beasts horns by which
he might be free to WELD the knife with
effect. The bucks horns were very
large, and in some manner during the
course of the tussle, the man got fast
in the horns in such a way that he could
not continue hostilities and neither
could the buck. After some minutes of
vain striving to eXtricate himself, he
invited the enemy to parley and at the
end OF the negotiations it was declared
that peace should exist between the
two, Then, by their united efforts,
they released themselves from each
other and Thomas gained the bank
where his rife rested against a bush
As he picked up the rife, sharp twinge
of pain made itself evident in the side
where prong of the horns had been
particularly uncomfortable. Momen-
tarily forgetting the treaty of peace
which had been agreed to, he loaded the
gun quickly, and shot the buck before
he could make good his escape. Then
his conscience panied him for having
forgotten his promise and broken his
faith, but the buck was now dead, so
what was he going to do about it?
Manlfestly, the only thing to be done
/, was to perform the customary funeral
rites and transfer the body to camp
where, with the aid of fire and salt, it
could be properly prepared for burial.
On one OF his hunting excursions, he
camped for the night under a large tree.
Late in the night he was awakened by
falling timber around him and finally
the tree under which he had lain fell.
A terrible wind storm had come up and
timber was falling all about him, nearly
every tree in the dense forest around
him being blown down before morning.
Even at the present day the passage of
that storm across Backbone Mountain
may easily be traced by the absence of
, large timber.
But the tree that had fallen Just by
him was so large that by scraping out
the leaves and brush from under it's
side he was able to make for himself
safe shelter. He crawed into this snug
retreat and lay close till daylight when
the storm quoted. When he got up he
, saw that the ground was covered with
. trees, their trunks in some places
crossed three or four on top of each
! other and the tops piled into heaps at
places twenty or thirty feet high.
/ As he stood on the log looking on the
, destruction that had been wrought
, around him, he saw a deer looking
, across a log not far from him. At first
he thought of going his way and leav-
ing the deer alone, for he felt sort of
, sympathy for an animal that had shar-
ed the great danger with him; but, re-
. fleeing that it could scarcely make It's
way through the mass of tops and
: trunks about him. and thinking it bet
ter to kill the poor frightened thing
outright than to have it starve in its
enclosure, he raised his gun and fired.
When the smoke cleared away there
was still deer's head looking over the
log. Wondering somewhat how he
could have missed, he loaded and fired
again, this time taking most deliberate
aim. But still the deer looked over the
log. looking trihe more frightened
than before, perhaps, but evidently I'M
hurt. Resolving Ito kill that deer or
break his neck, he fired twice more,
and the last time the deer disappeared
Making his way through the tangled
brush he came to the place where the
deer had stood, and saw-not one deer
lying dead there, but four! Dazed by
the terrors of the night, they had NOV
ed up to nearly the same spot, one at a
time, to see what this new danger might
be; and the hunter had been too much
excited to note the difference in them.
The task of getting his venlson out
of the fallen timber was a heroic one,
/, but in some way he managed it. He
reached home none the worse for his ex-