“The deer made for our shore,” says Irving in his journal.  “We pushed ashore immediately, and as it passed, Mr. Ogden fired and wounded it.  It had been wounded before.  I threw off my coat and prepared to swim after it.  As it came near, a man rushed through the bushes, sprang into the water, and made a grasp at the animal.  He missed his aim, and I jumped after, fell on his back, and sunk him under water.  At the same time I caught the deer by one ear, and Mr. Ogden seized it by a leg.  The submerged gentleman, who had risen above the water, got hold of another.  We drew it ashore, when the man immediately dispatched it with a knife.  We claimed a haunch for our share, permitting him to keep all the rest.”

Irving had one or two experiences with the Indians which were not altogether pleasant at the time, but which afterward appeared very amusing.

On one occasion he went with another young man to a small island in a river, where he hoped to be able to hire a boat to take the party to a place some distance farther down the stream.  They found there a wigwam in which were a number of Indians, both men and women; but the Indian they were looking for was away selling furs.

He soon came in, with his squaw, who was rather a pretty woman.  Both he and she had been drinking.  While the other young man was trying to explain their business, the Indian woman sat down beside Irving, and in her half drunken way began to pay him great attention.

The husband, a tall, strapping Hercules of an Indian, sat scowling at them with his blanket drawn up to his chin, and his face between his hands, while his elbows rested on his knees.

But soon the Indian could no longer endure the flirtation his wife was carrying on with Irving.  He rushed upon him, calling him a “cursed Yankee,” and gave him a blow which stretched him on the floor.

While Irving was picking himself up and getting out of the way, his friend went to the Indian and tried to quiet him.  By this time the feelings of the drunken redman had quite changed.  He fell on the young man’s neck, exchanged names with him after the Indian fashion, and declared that they would be sworn friends and brothers as long as they lived.

Irving hastened to get into his boat, and he and his companion made off as quickly as possible, having no wish for any further intercourse with drunken Indians.

CHAPTER IV

IRVING GOES TO EUROPE

Irving’s health was by no means good, and his friends were so alarmed that when he was twenty-one they planned a trip to Europe for him.  As he stepped on board the boat that was to take him, the captain eyed him from head to foot and remarked to himself, “There’s a chap who will go overboard before we get across.”

To the surprise of the captain and other passengers, however, he did not die, but got much better.