Poor little dog! he was, indeed, a sorry sight. He looked sadly
out of his bulging eyes, feebly moved swollen jaws, but did not
touch the food he once would have pounced on. He did not eat
because he could not open his mouth.
At camp the trappers made a log trap and continued the line with
blazes and deadfalls, until, after a mile, they came to a broad
tamarack swamp, and, skirting its edge, found a small, outflowing
stream that brought them to an eastward-facing hollow.
Everywhere there were signs game, but they were not prepared for
the scene that opened as they cautiously pushed through the
thickets into a high, hardwood bush. A deer rose out of the
grass and stared curiously at them; then another and another
until nearly a dozen were in sight; still farther many others
appeared; to the left were more, and movements told of yet others
to the right. Then their white flags went up and all loped gently
away on the slope that rose to the north. There may have been
twenty or thirty deer in sight, but the general effect of all
their white tails, bobbing away, was that the woods were full of
deer. They seemed to be there by the hundreds and the joy of
seeing so many beautiful live things was helped in the hunters by
the feeling that this was their own hunting-ground.
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