't no grizzly, er
fox, er other critter, you know."

"No; of course, it is a deer, as one can see by the tracks. But I'm
sorry we have to end in such an ordinary place as the barnyard," sighed
Julie.

"I see'd some queer tracks down by that log where Jake caught the
skunk," now hinted Hiram.

That was enough! In another moment every scout was bounding down the
trail in order to reach the spot first and win honor by knowing the
track correctly.

Hester found these tracks first, and shouted to her friends, "This has
small cloven feet, but there are only two legs, also! Now and then you
can see where one track looks as if a hind foot had broken in on another
one!"

"Oh, girls! That explains that other two-footed animal!" now exclaimed
Julie, quickly.

"What, what?" demanded every one eagerly.

"Most likely the deer stepped daintily with its hind feet directly in
the same track made by its forefeet. It said something about that in the
book, you know."

"Do you think that is it, Gilly?" now asked several anxious voices.

"Exactly! I was hoping you'd find that out," agreed he.

"Well, does this creature show any unusual tendencies, girls, by which
you can recognize it?" laughed Mrs. Vernon.

"Not a thing! It starts from the trail and goes right through the brush
where we broke a way that day the skunk was killed, and it stopped to
question nothing. It must have been in a hurry to get a drink,"
explained Joan.

The trail plainly led to the brook, and ended there. No sign of anything
going back again could be found, although the girls looked carefully
over the entire place. Then Julie thought she saw something in the soft
soil upon the opposite bank. To make sure, she waded through the shallow
but swiftly running water, and there, on the steep bank, she saw the
tracks again.

"Ha! I found 'em! plain as day. Come and follow!" called she. And off
she started.

Not more than a dozen yards along the top of the bank she found the
tracks go down again; and through the brook she went, up the other
side, and back to the brush-clearing on a new trail, following the
cloven-footed tracks. Out on the hard trail they were lost.

"Now, that makes two I've trailed and lost. It's a shame!" cried Julie,
stamping her foot.

"'Better to have trailed and lost than never to have found at all,'"
misquoted Mrs. Vernon, laughingly.

"If the first one was a deer, this second one must have been a little
fawn," said Judith.

"I