could not perceive how this was to affect his gun, passively submitted.

On the following day, when Pete awoke, the events which we have described, appeared to him as a dream; and resolving to know the truth, he seized his gun, and hastened to the woods. But, alas! every experiment produced the same vexatious result. The gun was charmed! and the hunter stalked harmlessly through the forest. Day after day, he went forth and returned, with no better success. The very deer themselves became sensible of his inoffensiveness, and would raise their heads, and gaze mildly at him, as he passed; or throw back their horns, and bound carelessly across his path! Day after day, and week after week, passed without bringing any change; and Pete began to feel very ridiculously. He could imagine no situation more miserable than his own. ride through the woods, to see the game, to come within gun-shot of it, and yet to be unable to kill a deer, seemed to be the ne plus ultra of human wretchedness. There was a littleness, an insignificance, attached to the idea of not being able to kill a deer, which to Pete's mind was downright disgrace. More than once, he was tempted to throw his gun into the river; but the excellence of the weapon, and the recollection of former exploits, as often restrained him; and he continued to stroll

To

through the woods, firing now and then at a fat buck, under the hope, that the charm would sometime or other expire by its own limitation; but the fat bucks continued to frisk fearlessly in his path.

At length, Pete bethought himself of a celebrated Indian doctor, who lived at no great distance. An Indian doctor, be it known, is not necessarily a descendant of the Aborigines. The title it is true, originates in the confidence which many of our countrymen repose in the medical skill of the Indian tribes. But to make an Indian doctor, a red skin, is by no means indispensable. To have been taught by a savage, to have seen one, or, at all events, to have heard of one, is all that is necessary, to enable an individual to practise this lucrative and popular branch of the healing art. Your Indian doctor is one who practises without a diploma, and without physic; who neither nauseates the stomach with odious drugs, nor mars the fair proportion of nature with the sanguinary lancet. He believes in the sympathy, which is supposed to exist between the body and the mind, which, like the two arms of a Syphon, always preserve a corresponding relation to each other; and the difference between him and the regular physican is, that they operate at different points of the same figure-the one practising on

the immaterial spirit, while the other boldly grapples with the bones and muscle. I cannot determine which is in the right; but must award to the Indian doctor at least this advantage, that his art is the most widely beneficial; for while your doctor of medicine restores a lost appetite, his rival can, in addition, recover a strayed or stolen horse. If the former can bring back the faded lustre of a fair maiden's cheek, the latter can remove the spell from a churn, or a rifle.

To a sage of this order did Pete disclose his misfortune, and apply for relief. The doctor examined the gun; and having measured the calibre of the bore, with the same solemnity with which he would have felt the pulse of a patient, directed the applicant to call again. At the appointed time the hunter returned, and received two balls--one of pink, the other of a silver hue. The doctor instructed him to load his piece with one of these bullets, which he pointed out, and proceed through the woods to a certain hollow, at the head of which was a spring. Here he would find a white fawn, at which he was to shoot. It would be wounded, but would escape; and he was to pursue its trail, until he found a buck, which he was to kill with the other ball. If he accomplished all this accurately, the charm would be broken.

Pete who was well acquainted with all the loca

lities, carefully pursued the route, which had been indicated, treading lightly along, sometimes elated with the prospect of speedily breaking the spellsometimes doubting the skill of the doctor-and ashamed, alternately, of his doubts and of his belief. At length he reached the lonely glen; and his heart bounded as he beheld the white fawn, quietly grazing by the fountain. The ground was open, and he was unable to get within his usual distance, before the fawn raised her head, looked mournfully around, and snuffed the breeze, as if conscious of the approach of danger. His heart palpitated. It was a long shot, and a bad chance; but he dared not advance from his concealment.

"Luck's a lord," said he, as he drew up his gun, and pulled the trigger. The fawn bounded aloft at the report, and then darted away through the brush, while the hunter hastened to examine the signs. To his great joy he found the blood profusely scattered; and now flushed with the confidence of success, he stoutly rammed down the other ball, and pursued the trail of the wounded fawn. Long did he trace the crimson drops upon the snow, without beholding the promised victim. Hill after hill he climbed, vale after vale he passed, searching every thicket with penetrating eyes; and he was about to renounce the chase, the wizzard, and the gun, when lo! directly in his path, stood

a noble buck, with numerous antlers, branching over his fine head!

"Ah, ha! my jolly fellow! I've found you out at last!" said the delighted hunter, "you're the very chap I've been looking after. Your blood shall wipe off the disgrace from my charming Bess, that never missed fire, burned priming, nor cleared the mark in her born days, till that vile Yankee witch cursed her!-Here goes!"

He shot the buck.-His rifle was restored to favour, and he never again wanted venison.