THE TAMING OF OL’ BUCK 217 
scattered over an area of two or three acres, not 
three hundred yards away, just beginning to 
browse for breakfast on the ground hemlock 
which grew thickly at that spot. Ol Buck him- 
self and two of the does on the windward side got 
the scent, and were off with long, easy bounds 
through the dim woods, where the ground was 
not yet frozen and they made astonishingly little 
noise. Not a soul saw them go, and in ten min- 
utes they had crossed the road at the base of the 
mountain, and had begun to climb. 
But there is one real woodsman in our town, 
who knows in advance what the animals are going 
to do. An hour earlier than any other hunter, 
he was out, and up the mountain, where he sta- 
tioned himself down wind, not too close to a cer- 
tain trail so dim that only another woodsman 
like himself could have detected it even by day- 
light. It was the trail made by the deer the 
winter before, now practically closed in again. 
He knew that at the first sign of danger the deer 
would be coming up this way. Presently he 
heard the swish and soft crashing of bushes below 
him, and his finger crept around the trigger of his 
