Larch-trees and Deer 



prising volume of clear, coffee-colored water, bub- 

 bling over joyously as it leaped from the dark 

 earth into the light, and then stealing quietly 

 away under bending grasses to keep my pond 

 brim full. Around the spring the earth was 

 pitted by the feet of deer, and everywhere about 

 its edges were holes lapped in the peat by eager 

 tongues. Here, beyond a doubt, was what called 

 so many animals to my pond, a mineral spring 

 or salt-lick, such as we read about in stories of 

 pioneer days, when game was everywhere abun- 

 dant, but such as one now rarely finds. 



After that happy discovery I shifted my blind 

 to another larch with low-drooping branches, be- 

 neath which one might rest comfortably and look 

 out through a screen of lace upon a gathering of 

 the deer. They are creatures of habit as well as 

 of freedom; and one of their habits is to rest at 

 regular intervals, the hours being hard to forecast, 

 since they vary not only with the season of 

 lengthening or shortening days, but also each 

 month with the changes of the moon. Thus, when 

 the moon fulls and weather is clear, deer are 

 abroad most of the night. At dawn they seek 

 their day-beds, instinctively removing far from 

 where they have left their scent in feeding; and 

 during the day they are apt to remain hidden save 

 for one brief hour, when they take a comforting 

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