GUN IN HAND. 
33 
her to study them with artist eyes. She had 
never been satisfied with anything less than a 
personal acquaintance with each creature she 
saw; so now, when they became the subjects for 
the exercise of her skill, her memory of their 
peculiar attitudes and graces served her in select- 
ing the most desirable ones — as does an intimate 
acquaintance with the tastes and disposition of 
his subject serve the artist who is painting the 
face of a friend. 
Her acquaintance with those which she had 
had no previous opportunity to study was ob- 
tained by stealing, gun in hand, through under- 
brush, among rocks or bogs, over mountains and 
by brook-sides, pausing sometimes an hour or 
more, almost as motionless as the earth beneath 
her, to watch the “family jars,” conjugal or pa- 
rental expressions of tenderness of birds, prairie- 
dogs, or shy creatures like the otter and beaver, 
or others equally timid. 
“ Why ! wasn’t she afraid ? ” I hear some one 
inquire. 
No, indeed ! What should she be afraid of? 
Really, human beings are about the only danger- 
ous animals left on our continent to fear ! 
But the opportunities for living studies of speci- 
mens were not always to be obtained ; but when 
she killed them herself she had a chance, which 
she considered almost invaluable, of seeing 
3 
