Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1907-09-11
THE eAMEkEEpER's Dsi- -
Did Ever a Little Girl Have a
pier Timer

In all the great, green, quiet park
there was no little girl or boy to play
with: but for all that, little Georgina,
the head gamekeeper's daughter, new
er knew what 1t was to feel lone.
some. She had such a playground
and such playfellows as most OF us
have at times dreamed Of, but none
of us have had In reality.
In the first place, she lived with
her good father and mother In just
such a thatch-roofsd, diamond-paned,
rose.embowered cottage nesting be-
side little mirror-like lake among
century-old trees, as one sees in pic
ture books. and reads Of in poems
and songs of Old England.
Almost as far as she could see, the
level green park stretched away,
broken here and there by cllmns OF
giant oaks, and beyond up agains:
the sky, was the blue line Of Kills that
formed the edge Of the world; aua
this lovely world was all her own,
for, of course, Georgina, the cnly
child, ruled in the pretty cottage as
completely as her father lorded It
over his many furred and featberei
subjects.
IN whatever direction she chose to
wander she saw her playmates, WHIT
fng, as she always supposed, for her
to come and rIay with them.
On the llttlS lake by the cottage.
fioated and quacked and honked ducks
of every color. white geese and gray
and black geese, and graceful long.
necked swans. At quite the other
side of the lake she might see at the
same time herd of failow deer. their,
brown bodies dappled with spots Oh
snowy white, their heavy horns con.
t,asting strangely with the slender
treelike horns Of the rel deer.
Innumerable little gray rabbits
hoped noiselessly about in all di.
rections, and English pheasants-the
hens in modest buff, the cocks in
gorgeous brown, blue and gold-dart;
ed swiftly about among the under
brush; but the queerest Of all her
friends were the gray kangaroos-
"Hoppity-hops" Georgina called them.
The grounds around the cottage were
fenced off from the surrounding park,
but Georgina had 80 frequently ac-
companied her father outside inshs-
search fer pheasants' nests, or to see
how the deer Jared, that she felt per-.
fectly at home there, even when alone.
Perhaps her greatest. Joy was in
coaxing acquaintance with the timid
baby deer. If she came suddenly upon,
one hiding in the grass, or behind
a stone, 1t frequently remained quite
motionless, curled ZIP into the small.
est possible space md pressed fat
to tho ground, only its watchful eye
proving that it was wide awake agd
very anxious. In the leafy forest this
would be It's safest course, for there
its protective coloring would render
1t almost invisible, but in the open
park, on the green grass, lts lnnerlteu
instinct for concealment failed it, and
It was all too visible to friend or foe.
Georgina would creep up ever so
quietly and sit down beside It. Some
times she even succeeded in stroNing
its soft coat. Then the mother deer
would circle anxiousiy around, COM
ing as near as she dared, her great
ears thrown forward, every nerve
tense and ready to spring away at
the least hostile move; but 1t always
ended by the fawn suddenly scramb-
ling to its long thin legs, and, with
little cries of alarm, dashing over the
green sward to join its mother and
find concealment in the deep shadows
of the cool forest-J. NJ. Gleeson, in
St Nicholas.