NEIGHBOURS OF THE WINTER NIGHT 131 



Once a farmer up the road saw him limping at early 

 morning through a pasture. But the blood stains dis- 

 appeared after a short time, and gradually the leg 

 trailed less. He was evidently getting well. 



We soon came to take a personal interest in the for- 

 tunes of that buck. Every few days we would go 

 where we thought the herd might have fed and look for 

 his trail. Fortunately the snow stayed on the ground 

 without melting, with several new falls, for more than two 

 months, and the herd, too, remained in the neighbour- 

 hood. We were able to convince ourselves that the old 

 buck was finally almost as good as new, though he still 

 trailed that right hoof a trifle more than the left, and did 

 not tread up so close to the fore leg with it as with the 

 other. About the first of March a party of trampers 

 startled the herd in the woods. The deer, six of them, 

 in full view, made a break for a swamp, and from that 

 day we saw no more fresh deer tracks. It is curious 

 how close they had come to our houses, even feeding by 

 night in our very orchards, and yet how easily they were 

 frightened away. I never got a glimpse of them myself, 

 though I saw their tracks almost daily. Yet by this 

 sport of tracking alone I was able to follow them through 

 the woods and to live a little their wild life. The record 

 of their night prowlings gave a new charm and wildness 

 to our fields and forests. 



There is one more track I shall look for in the timber 

 on Rattlesnake Hill before the snow is quite gone. It is 



