THE SHADOW OF THE DESERT 87 



too old. Speed had already come to their winged 

 legs, and speed was the very breath of their young 

 lives. Yet they must hide. She would stop and 

 nurse them — all three of them — and lie down 

 with them until they would separate and get out 

 of sight under the sage, or more generally on a 

 floe of rock similar in color to themselves ; then, 

 teetering, peeking, spying behind her, she would 

 edge quietly away, and steal offjust like a poorly 

 trained human mother tiptoeing out of a room 

 from her sleeping child. She would not get far 

 before up would come their little ears, then their 

 noses, then up they would jump and make after 

 her. 



Again she would lead them on until she found 

 a good hiding-place, then down they would go, the 

 whole sleeping-child performance gone through 

 with again, to be spoiled again by the restless 

 little kids hopping out of their beds and calling 

 " Mamma ! " Over and over mamma tried to hide 

 them, moving off the flat in her efforts, and down 

 a narrow valley, the watcher on the rim rock fol- 

 lowing her quite unobserved. 



The repeated attempts had taken the antelope 

 several miles down the valley to where it opened 



