The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-24
TRAGEDY IN a DEER's LIFE.

HSFC any one OUTSIDE the region
live in ever heard of a decoy deer.
Zone fall a neighbor of mine,
George Daniels, went out deer hunt
Ing on Bear Creek. A large doe
with fawn at her side was driven to
his runway. He shot and killed the
doe. The fawn bounded few PAGES
onward, and, as is usual with its
kind, stopped and looked back, as if
to discover what had become of its
mother.
Daniels first thought was to kill
the fawn, but took it alive instead.
It became a pet on his farm. 1t was
50 apparently content with its situa-
tion that when it was missed one day
sa the following fall. the general be-
lief was that some one had stolen it.
Zone day in November of that fall
Daniels went out for a days hunt.
On of his fields is on the edge of
thick wood which extends back to
Oak Ridge, famous deer cover at
that time of year. Daniels had got
but fairly into this wood, and had
stepped for moment behind tree,
when he heard a noise in the brush,
and, pesring round the tree, saw a
big doe bounding along in that direc-
ton, closely followed by a splendid
buck.
"He could have killed them both,
but by peculiar white patch of hair
on the right foreshoulder of the doe
he recognized his lost deer, and he
did not shoot the doe; but as the
buck went sweeping by behind her he
gave him his rife barrel, and the buck
dropped within three bounds, dead.
''The doe went on out of the wood
and into the field, and when Daniels
returned home she was among the
cattle at the barnyard, acting as if
she hadn't been absent for two weeks
or more. Daniels knew enough about
deer not to expect the doe to remain
there at that time of year, but he
made no effort to retain her; and,
sure enough, next day the doe was
missing again.
"Two days afterward Daniels dis
covered her tearing along from the
woods across the field toward her old
quarters, followed by another buck.
1t did not take Daniels a minute to
get his gun, and when the two deer
were within three rods of the barn.
yard he was behind straw rick and
downed the second buck as he had
the first.
""The doe did not go away again
that fall. She took up her old life
with the cattle where she had left off,
and one day in the spring Daniels
found fawn by her side. The fawn
thrived. One morning, toward the
end of October, both the fawn and
its mother were missing.
The fawn never came back, but
during November the doe brought
three fine bucks home in her wake
and Daniels bagged every one of
them. After that she remained on
the Daniels place as before.
"About the time trout fishing open
ed in the spring she gave birth to two
fawns. Both Of these disappeared
with their mother in the fall and did
not return. Two bucks were reck-
less enough to follow the doe back to
Daniels within week after she went
away, and the doe returned to the
woods again. Now came the tragedy
in her life.
whether she was a victim of deer
vengeance or jealousy is question.
I have always held that it was jeal-
ousy, because could not bring my
self to believe that the doe deliberate
ly and with deadly intent decoyed
the bucks to their undoing. Daniels,
however, declared that there was no
doubt of her having done so, and con-
sequently it was vengeance that led
to her taking off.
cat any rate, day or so after the
doe went away for the third time
that fall Daniels and his son were
going out to swamp a mile or so
away to set bear trap, when out of
a thicket bounded the doe, closely
followed by bnck. She was head
ed straight for home.
"She had gone but a few jumps
when an enormous buck leaped from
a thicket just ahead of and to one
side of her, and with one thrust of
his great antlers caught her in the
breast. She went down before the
unexpected charge, and the buck be-
hind her stopped in his tracks and
with head high in the air gazed at
the strange sight.
''The big buck that had attacked
the doe gored and tralnpled her to
death, and bounded away into the
woods and disappeared before Daniels
or his companion could recover from
their surprise. They killed the re-
naming buck, however, be having
remained motionless where he had
stopped, as much surprised, appar-
emily as the woodsmen were.
"'If it had been jealousy that led
that big buck to lie in wait for the
doe and kill her. Daniels says, he
would have at once attacked the
other buck and there would have
been a fight to the death between
them. But that buck was there sim
ply to avenge the death of his fellows
that the doe had lured to destruction
from time to time, and he did it.
"That may be, but it doesn't seem
so to me. But that was the only de-
coy deer 1 ever heard of, anyhow,
whether she decoyed the bucks pre-
meditately and with malice afore-
thought, or whether she didn't"
SHE-"Stop! You shan't kiss me
tonight-at least, not before I have
had an explanation. I heard today
that you had been engaged to sixteer
different girls" He-"But that was
before 1 had seen your angel face