How Animals Talk 



test the effect of the human scent in another way, 

 the first time being when I had the good luck to see 

 a natural child and a natural animal together. 

 The child, a baby girl just beginning to toddle, was 

 making a journey by means of a comfortable Ind- 

 ian paukee on my back, and I had left her in an 

 opening beside a portage trail while I went back 

 to my canoe for a thing I had forgotten. While 

 I was gone, three deer sauntered into the opening. 

 They saw the baby, and were instantly as curious 

 about her as so many gossips, a little spotted fawn 

 especially. The baby saw them, and began creep- 

 ing eagerly forward, calling or "crowing" as she 

 went. The deer saw and heard and smelled her 

 every moment; yet they walked around her with 

 springy steps, now on this side, now on that, show- 

 ing a world of curiosity in their bright eyes, but 

 never a sign of fear. 



From a distance I watched the lovely scene, 

 kindling at the beauty of it, or feeling a bit anxious 

 when I saw the sharp feet of the old doe a little too 

 near the sunny head or the outstretched hands. 

 Then an eddy of wind from the mountain got be- 

 hind me and whirled over the deer. They caught 

 the scent and were away with a wild alarm-call, 

 their white flags flying, and the baby waving by-by 

 as they vanished in the woods. 



Quite naturally, therefore, when a sensitive 

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