60 HUNTING TRIPS 



a doe, going down to drink ; her great, sensi- 

 tive ears thrown forward as she peered 

 anxiously and timidly round. She was very 

 watchful, lifting her headland gazing about 

 between every few mouthfuls. When she 

 had drunk her fill she snatched a hasty 

 mouthful or two of the wet grass, and then 

 cantered back to the edge of the brush, when 

 a little spotted fawn came out and joined her. 

 The two stood together for a few moments, 

 and then walked off into the cover. The 

 little pond at which they had drunk was 

 within fifty yards of my night bed ; and it 

 had other tenants in the shape of a mallard 

 duck, with a brood of little ducklings, balls 

 of fuzzy yellow down, that bobbed off into 

 the reeds like little corks as I walked by. 



Breaking camp is a simple operation for 

 one man ; and but a few minutes after break- 

 fast Manitou and I were off; the embers of 

 the fire having been extinguished with the 

 care that comes to be almost second nature 

 with the cattle-man, one of whose chief 

 dreads is the prairie fire, that sometimes robs 



