The Boy and the Lynx 
was led to follow tracks that would have defied 
an expert in dryer times. One day he came on 
piglike footprints in the woods. He followed 
them with little difficulty, for they were new, 
and a heavy rain two hours before had washed 
out all other trails. After about half a mile 
they led him to an open ravine, and as he 
reached its brow he saw across it a flash of 
white; then his keen young eyes made out the 
forms of a Deer and a spotted Fawn gazing at 
him curiously. Though on their trail he was 
not a little startled. He gazed at them open- 
mouthed. ‘The mother turned and raised the 
danger flag, her white tail, and bounded lightly 
away, to be followed by the youngster, clear- 
ing low trunks with an effortless leap, or bend- 
ing down with catlike suppleness when they 
came to a log upraised so that they might pass 
below. 
He never again got a chance to shoot at 
them, though more than once he saw the same 
two tracks, or believed they were the same, as 
for some cause never yet explained, Deer were 
scarcer in that unbroken forest than they were 
in later years when clearings spread around. 
185 
