io8 Deer of the River Bottoms. 



means so apt to stay in the immediate neighborhood of 

 a ranch, where there is always more or less noise and 

 confusion. The bottom on which my ranch-house 

 stands is a couple of miles in length, and well wooded ; 

 all through last summer it was the home of a number 

 of white-tails, and most of them are on it to this mo- 

 ment. Two fawns in especial were really amusingly 

 tame, at one time spending their days hid in an almost 

 impenetrable tangle of bullberry bushes, whose hither 

 edge was barely a hundred yards from the ranch- 

 house ; and in the evening they could frequently be 

 seen from the door, as they came out to feed. In 

 walking out after sunset, or in riding home when night 

 had fallen, we would often run across them when it was 

 too dark to make out any thing but their flaunting 

 white tails as they cantered out of the way. Yet for 

 all their seeming familiarity they took good care not to 

 expose themselves to danger. We were reluctant to 

 molest them, but one day, having performed our usual 

 weekly or fortnightly feat of eating up about every 

 thing there was in the house, it was determined that 

 the two deer (for it was late in autumn and they were 

 then well grown) should be sacrificed. Accordingly one 

 of us sallied put, but found that the sacrifice was not 

 to be consummated so easily, for the should-be victims 

 appeared to distinguish perfectly well between a mere 

 passer-by, whom they regarded with absolute indiffer- 

 ence, and any one who harbored sinister designs. They 

 kept such a sharp look-out, and made off so rapidly if 

 any one tried to approach them, that on two evenings 



