"Stop him, 'Lize! Hold him, Bob! Head him off. Say! Get out of the way, Bub! There! why didn't you catch him, Charley? Mother, can't you put down baby, and help us? He'll get away! There! he's going over the fence! No, he isn't!" Amid such vociferations the children rushed on, pell-mell, till out of breath. Luckily, the brush fence was so thick and high, being made of dead trees piled upon each other, that the animal could find no point to push through or scale, especially while kept in "running order" by his pursuers. Although thus imprisoned, he was baffling their efforts, refusing to be captured, when Tom said to the children,-- "We can't catch him this way. But if you will all do as I tell you, I guess we can." The fawn was standing in the further corner of the field, as if waiting to see what they would do next. And Tom, ranging his force in line, himself at the head, gave the word to advance towards the deer. "Steady, steady," said he, as they neared the animal. They had succeeded in approaching within a few yards, and Tom, with outspread arms and eagle eye, advanced slowly, watching to seize him if he should attempt to spring away, when little Bub, who had been sent into the cabin by Tom, having gone around unobserved on the outside of the garden behind the deer, suddenly ran a sharp stick through the brush into the creature's back, saying,-- "I make 'im wun!" Frantically jumped the deer at this--a _denouement_ so unexpected to his assailants, that the line became broken, the little soldiers were tumbled together, with Tom on top of them, and the deer stood almost at the same instant at the other end of the patch, the whole being accomplished with marvellous quickness. "Get off my head!" screamed Sarah from under the heap. "O, dear, you'll break my arm!" cried Eliza. "What did you fall on me for?" angrily demanded Bob of Charley, as he spit the dirt from his mouth. "You did it on purpose--you know you did!" "No, I didn't!" "Yes, you did!" "I should a thought Tom might a held the deer, an' not fell on us so heavy," sobbed Sarah, rubbing her eyes with her begrimed gown. But while they fretted, the fawn had been critically examining the fence to find egress, seeing which the children dried their tears, and made for him again; and at length the graceful creature, bewildered by the din, and foiled by numbers, was forced to surrender himself after another vigorous scramble, in which the basket of potatoes was overturned, and the corn scattered in delightful disorder, and was borne by Tom in triumph to the cabin, accompanied by the excited group. "We've got him, marm--we've got him!" they shouted in chorus as they followed their leader into the house. "And where will you keep him to-night?" she inquired. "He tan seep with me!" promptly answered Bub, at which there was much merriment. "No," replied Tom, shaking his head at the mischief-maker, "you will stick a stick into his back, and 'make 'im wun' again."