AN UNEXPECTED TREAT 35 



" a thing of beauty " that charmed our eyes and rap- 

 tured our conceit. 



The day waned, the sun dropped behind the hills, 

 twilight came and went, yet there she stood, motion- 

 less, entranced, and silhouetted against the evening 

 sky like a graceful statue. Her eyes were still fast- 

 ened on us, and when the cloak of night shut us from 

 her sight her curiosity seemed to become uncontrolla- 

 ble. We heard her cross the brook softly, then steal 

 down the left bank, picking her way daintily behind 

 the alders and cedar trees until she was abreast of us. 

 Then she stopped, and in the silence we imagined her 

 letting loose her wild inquisitiveness : "Who can 

 these mortals be ? Poor things ! How can they sit 

 so long on the water and keep so still? What do 

 they want here anyway ? And where did that heav- 

 enly music come from ? " 



Perhaps she thought all this if she did not speak it. 

 Then she stepped out in the open and came so close to the 

 canoe that we could almost have hit her with a paddle. 

 Did we shoot ? No, sir ! No thought had we of kill- 

 ing the soft-eyed, unsuspicious creature whose beauty 

 and grace of form and pose had, for an hour, regaled 

 oar sense with such an unexpected treat of loveliness. 

 Venison ? Why, we would have gone without the 

 dainty dish for many a day rather than have bad it 

 through the foul murder of that gentle, gazelle-like 

 doe of Chesuncook Lake. 



