342 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



and very gay and canty. For various mornings afterward 

 I saw her on the bank, but she was always restless and 

 anxious, listening and searching the wind, trotting up and 

 down, picking a leaf here and a leaf there ; and, after her 

 short and unsettled meal, she would take a frisk, round 

 leap into the air, and dart down into her secret bower and 

 appear no more until the twilight. In a few days, how- 

 ever, her excursions became a little more extended, gener- 

 ally to the terrace above the bank, but never out of sight 

 of the thicket below. 



8. At length she ventured to a greater distance, and 

 one day I stole down the brae among the birches. In the 

 middle of the thicket there was a group of young trees 

 growing out of a carpet of deep moss which yielded like a 

 down pillow. The prints of the doe's slender, forked feet 

 were thickly tracked about the hollow, and in the center 

 there was a bed of the velvet " fog," which seemed a little 

 higher than the rest, but so natural that it would not have 

 been noticed by any unaccustomed eye. I carefully lifted 

 the green cushion, and under its veil, rolled close together, 

 the head of each resting upon the flank of the other, nestled 

 two beautiful little fawns, their large velvet cars laid 

 smooth on their dappled necks, their spotted sides sleek 

 and shining as satin, and their little, delicate legs as slender 

 as hazel wands, shod with tiny, glossy shoes, as smooth and 

 black as ebony, while their large, dark eyes looked at me 

 out of the corners with a full, mild, quiet gaze, which had 

 not yet learned to fear the hand of man ; still, they had a 

 nameless doubt which followed every motion of mine, their 

 little limbs shrank from my touch, and their velvet fur rose 

 and fell quickly ; but as I was about to replace the moss, 

 one turned its head, lifted its sleek ears toward me, and 

 licked my hand as I laid their soft mantle over them. 



9. I often saw them afterward when they grew strong, 

 and came abroad upon the brae, and frequently called off 



