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Show Two Little Friends. In his book, "The School of the Woods." William J. Long says that he found one day in the forest a lovely neek by a fallen tree. He put pis hand into the hollow to find out what was there and touched the dappled side of two little fawns, lying very still where their mother had hidden them when she went away. They were timid at first, lying close, without motion of any kind. Even after the hemlock curtain had been brushed aside and my eyes saw and my hand touched them, they kept their heads flat to the ground and pretended they were only parts of the brown forest floor, and that the spots on their bright coats were flecks of sunshine. But the hand that touched the little wild things brought no sense of danger with it. It searched out the spots behind be-hind their velvet ears where they love to be rubbed; it wandered down their backs with a wavy caress; it curled its palm up softly under their moist muzzles muz-zles and brought their tongues out Instantly In-stantly at that faint suggestion of salt. "When I rose at last, after petting them to their hearts' content, they staggered stag-gered to their feet and came up out of their house. Their mother had told them to stay, but here, evidently was another big, kind animal who they might safely trust. They followed me. "Suddenly a twig snapped sharply; there was a rustle in the underbrush, and a doe sprang out. At sight of me she stopped short, her ears pointing forward for-ward like two accusing fingers, an awful aw-ful fear in her soft eyes. As I waited quietly, tryh.-g to make my eyes say all sorts of friendly things, the harsh, throaty 'K-a-a-a-h! K-a-a-a-h!' the danger cry of a deer, burst like a trumpet trum-pet blast through the woods, and she fled back to cover. "The little ones leaped aslde.w'fllled with a nameless dread. But in 'a moment mo-ment they were back again, nestling close to me. I pushed them gently under un-der the hemlock curtain and then dodged out of sight. I watched from a covert and saw the doe come out, call them forth and run her keen nose over them from head to tail, to be sure they were unharmed. "Suddenly as the smell of man came to her from the tainted underbrush, she felt the necessity of teaching them their neglected lesson before a second danger should befall. Her hoarse 'K-a-a-a-h!' crashed through the woods again. Her tail straight up, she leaped away, and the fawns bravely wabbled after." |