hat follows on their trail.

I sat still where I was for a good hour, watching the chickadees and
red squirrels that found me speedily, and refusing to move for all the
peekings and whistlings of a jay that would fain satisfy his curiosity
as to whether I meant harm to the deer, or were just benumbed by the
cold and incapable of further mischief. When I went on I left some
scattered bits of meat from my lunch to keep him busy in case the deer
were near; but there was no need of the precaution. The two had learned
the leader's lesson of caution well, and ran for a mile, with many
haltings and circlings, before they began to feed again. Even then they
moved along at a good pace as they fed, till a mile farther on, when,
as I had forelayed, the buck came down from a hill to join them, and all
three moved off toward the big ridge, feeding as they went.

Then began a long chase, a chase which for the deer meant a straightaway
game, and for me a series of wide circles--never following the trail
directly, but approaching it at intervals from leeward, hoping to circle
ahead of the deer and stalk them at last from an unexpected quarter.

Once, when I looked down from a bare hilltop into a valley where the
trail ran, I had a most interesting glimpse of the big buck doing the
same thing from a hill farther on too far away for a shot, but near
enough to see plainly through my field glass. The deer were farther
ahead than I supposed. They had made a run for it, intending to rest
after first putting a good space between them and anything that might
follow. Now they were undoubtedly lying down in some far-away thicket,
their minds at rest, but their four feet doubled under them for a jump
at short notice. Trust your nose, but keep your feet under you--that is
deer wisdom on going to sleep. Meanwhile, to take no chances, the wary
old leader had circled back, to wind the trail and watch it awhile from
a distance before joining them in their rest.

He stood stock-still in his hiding, so still that one might have
passed close by without noticing him. But his head was above the low
evergreens; eyes, ears, and nose were busy giving him perfect report of
everything that passed in the woods.

I started to stalk him promptly, creeping up the hill behind him,
chuckling to myself at the rare sport of catching a wild thing at his
own game. But before I sighted him again he grew uneasy (the snow tells
everything), trotted down hill to the trai