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through the woods. I could fancy his teeth 

 gritting and his eyes at squint as some snap- 

 ping branch whacked his sensitive antlers 

 and made him grunt with the pain of it. 

 But the fear behind was all-compelling, and 

 in a moment I had lost him in the shadow 

 and silence of the big woods. 



It was that same night, I think, for my 

 notes make no change of time or place, 

 that I had another bit of this hunting which 

 fills one's soul with peace and gives him a 

 curious sense of understanding the thoughts 

 and motives of the Wood Folk. I was glid- 

 ing along in my canoe in the late twilight 

 over still water, in the shadow of the wild 

 high meadow-grass, when a low quacking 

 and talking of wild ducks came to my ears. 

 I pushed the canoe silently into the first 

 open bogan in the direction of the sounds 

 till I was so near that I dared not go 

 another foot, when I rose up cautiously and 

 peered over the grass tops. There were per- 

 haps thirty or forty of the splendid birds 

 four or five broods at least, and each brood 

 led by its careful mother that had gathered 



