60 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



squarely in lier face, seemed to affect her 

 unpleasantly ; at all events she bhnked 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 grain 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 



