JLi FOLLOWING 
'^THE DEER 
old people call a duck-frost. In the 
meadows and along the fringes of 
the woods the white rime lay thick 
and powdery on grass and dead 
leaves; every foot that touched it 
left a black mark, as if seared with 
a hot iron, when the sun came up 
and shone upon it. Across the field 
three black trails meandered away 
from the brook; but alas for my 
hunting 1 under the fringe of ever- 
green was another trail, that of a 
man, which crept and halted and hid, 
yet drew nearer and nearer the point 
where the three deer trails vanished 
into the wood. Then 1 found powder 
marks, and some brush that was torn 
by buckshot, and three trails th?t 
