THE DEER^ 
Every morning a raccoon stopped at 
a little pool in the brook above my 
tent to wash his food carefully ere 
taking it home. So there was plenty 
to watch and plenty to learn, and the 
days passed all too swiftly. 
I had been told by the village hunters 
that there were no deer in the vicin- 
ity ; that they had vanished long since, 
hounded and crusted and chevied out 
of season till life was not worth the 
living. So it was with a start of 
surprise and a thrill of new interest 
that I came one morning upon the 
tracks of three deer on the shore. 
One track was larger than the others 
and sank deeper in the mud, and the 
points of the hoofs were well rounded. 
49 
SUMNER Woods 
