H FOLLOWING 
THE DEER 
48 
SummerTJoods 
learning their daily lessons in hiding; 
at the other end a noisy kingfisher, 
an honest blue heron, and a thieving 
mink shared the pools and watched 
each other as rival fishermen. Hares 
by night, and squirrels by day, and 
wood mice at all seasons played round 
my tent, or came shyly to taste my 
bounty. A pair of big owls lived 
and hunted nightly in a swamp hard 
by. They hooted dismal prophecies 
before the storms came; and some- 
times, for company's sake, they would 
glide out of the inky darkness into 
the circle of my camp-fire, sweeping in 
and out on noiseless wings amid the 
jumping shadows and hoo-hoo-hooing 
hysterically in their uncanny play. 
