60 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



squarely in her face, seemed to affect her 

 unpleasantly ; at all events she blinked a 

 good deal. Her manner of stepping about, 

 her motions in catching her prey, driving 

 her nose deep into the grass and pushing it 

 home, and in short her whole behavior, 

 were more catlike than doglike, or so we all 

 thought. Plainly she had no idea of ab- 

 breviating her repast, nor did she betray 

 the slightest gram of suspiciousness or wari- 

 ness, never once casting an eye about in 

 search of possible enemies. A dog in his 

 own dooryard could not have seemed less 

 apprehensive of danger. As often as she ap- 

 proached the surrounding wood she turned 

 and hunted back across the field. We 

 might have played the spy upon her inde- 

 finitely ; but it was always the same thing 

 over again, and by and by, when she passed 

 for a little out of sight behind a tuft of 

 bushes, we followed, careless of the result, 

 and, as it seemed, got into her wind. She 

 started on the instant, ran gracefully up a 

 little incline, still in the grass land, turned 

 for the first time to look at us, and disap- 

 peared in the forest. A pretty creature she 



