s, white fangs and
flaming eyes were distinctly visible from where he stood. Coolly raising
his rifle he aimed at the leader and pulled the trigger. There was a
quick flash, a sharp report, and the wolf leaped high in the air,
plunged headlong, tumbled into the snow, and lay writhing in the pangs
of death.

There was no time to load again, and there was no need, for the
terrified fawn, impelled by the instinct of self-preservation, chose the
lesser of two dangers and with a few wild bounds toward the cabin, flung
herself through the wide-open door.

David had detected her purpose and stepped aside; and instantly she had
entered closed and bolted the door upon the very muzzles of her
pursuers. They dashed themselves against it and whined with baffled
rage, while the half-frantic deer crawled trembling to the side of her
preserver, licked his hands and lay at his feet gasping for breath.

To some men an incident like this would have been an incident and
nothing more; but souls like Corson's perceive in every event and
experience of life, elements which lie beneath the surface.

Not only was he saved from the spiritual defeat of which he was on the
verge, by being summoned instantly from the subjective into the
objective world; but the rescue of the deer became a beautiful and holy
symbol of life itself, and so revealed and illustrated life's main end
"the help of the helpless,"--that he was at once elevated from a region
of struggle and despair into one of triumph and hope. He remained in it
until he fell asleep. He awoke in it on the morrow. From that high plane
he did not again descend so low as he had been. The courage that had
been kindled and the purposes which had been crystallized by the joy of
this rescue and the gratitude of the deer remained permanently in his
heart. He lived in dreams of other acts like this, in which the objects
saved by his strength were not the beasts of the field, but the hunted
and despairing children of a heavenly Father.

The fawn became to him a continual reminder of this spiritual struggle
and victory, for he kept it in his cabin, made it a companion, trained
it to follow him about his work, and finally presented it to Pepeeta.

There were many beautiful things to be seen in the winter woods; snow
hanging in plumes from the trees, the smoke of the cabin curling into
the still air, rabbits browsing on the low bushes, the woodsman standing
in triumph over a fallen tree; but when, o