The Legend of the White Reindeer 
one found a grazing-spot, stood there till it was 
cleared off, then trotted on crackling hoofs to 
the front in search of another. So the band was 
ever changing in rank and form. But one 
there was that was always at or near the van—a 
large and well-favored Simlé, or Hind. However 
much the band might change and spread, she 
was in the forefront, and the observant would 
soon have seen signs that she had an influence 
over the general movement—that she, indeed, 
was the leader. Even the big Bucks, in their 
huge velvet-clad antlers, admitted this untitular 
control; and if one, in a spirit of independence, 
evinced a disposition to lead elsewhere, he soon 
found himself uncomfortably alone. 
The Varsimlé, or leading Hind, had kept the 
band hovering, for the last week or two, along 
the timber-line, going higher each day to the 
baring uplands, where the snow was clearing 
and the deer-flies were blown away. As the 
pasture zone had climbed she had followed in 
her daily foraging, returning to the sheltered 
woods at sundown, for the wild things fear the 
cold night wind even as man does. But now 
the deer-flies were rife in the woods, and the 
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