H /FOLLOWING 
THE DEER 
124 
WINTER 1TRAILS 
across a pond to an old wood road 
that led for a mile or two towards the 
ridge 1 was seeking. 
Early as 1 was, the Wood Folk were 
ahead of me. Mice, squirrels, mar- 
tens, crows, grouse, foxes; here the 
round pugs of a lynx, there the long 
slide of an otter going after open 
water; yonder a print as of a baby's 
feet, showing where the coon had been 
stormbound in a poor place and was 
hurrying home to his hollow tree 
for a long sleep, — their tracks were 
everywhere, eager, hungry tracks, that 
poked their noses into every possi- 
ble hiding place of food or game, 
showing how the two-days' fast had 
whetted their appetites and set them 
