The San Francisco call., 1909-12-04


Wv the young red buck of the
north woods. he already gave
promise of great size and beauty. His
blue coat of the winter was gone
with its long warm hair. and in its
place there was a bright red, bay of
short hair. His young antiers, well
grown and still in the velvet, of course,
were of extraordinary size for 50
youthful member of his race
They grew straight out forward
above his ears and then branched back
almost on a line. Instead of the spikes
ornamented with an insignificant snag,
which were all his just due, the soft
thick horn was curving gracefully and
bore three, distinct branches.
Capers was bigger and stronger than
any of the other fawns of his year
and had matched strength during the
previous early winter playtime with
his elders by year. Honors were
usually even in such contests and
never had the younger buck been over
whelmed.
His life was now wholly devoted to
his antle-s and finding green food. The
marsh grasses renewing their verdure
could be found with patient hunting
and Capers was willing to do a. lot of
il. When he drifted apart from the
had shared the same snow yard during
the depths of winter he had found an.
agreeable companion in a young buck
of his own age whose dam had wan
dered far northward while he was q
fawn and who was little different
from the other deer. His coat was
darker in the winter and he was later
in losing the blue for the red in the
spring. Capers and the other YOUNG
bucks in e-fYard called hin, 20 do
because he and his mother were always
talking about food and lakes and for
ests there and telling how secure the
deer were from trouble by man.
The doe told other stories, too, that
made the herd of deer standing in the
snow yard under the moonlight shiver
and draw closer together The bucks
snorted and stamped and peered into
the surrounding woodland. wherever
they could see over the walls of snow
that inciosed them.
FOOD FOR THE OGRES
These were stories of the wolves. the
creatures with long teeth and red
tongues and cruel eyes, that crept up
through the hemlocks, crouching and
crawling and ever tightening their
circle about a deer that stood feeding
close upon him, the doe said, one would
dart right at his head and strive to
turn him into the forest. and in a mo-
ment the others would be upon him and
he would be dead and food for the
ogres.
From the days in which wore my
little red dress with the beautiful white
spots" said the fawn, my mother and
the other does told me nothing but to
beware of the wolves, and never turn
into the woods if they attack, but run
for the open and get to water as soon
as possible.
In water you are safe, for they can
not follow, and in open ground with a
fair start a deer can outrun them. So,
too, on ice. where deer can flee If
the snow be hard, but always take to
water if you can, because those de-
mons viii follow you one by one, re-
ieving one another in the chase if they
are very hungry, and even the strong
est buck can not run all day"
All through June and July Capers
and Canada grew and fiourished. At
dawn they went out of the forest
depths to it's edges or to some lake to
feed and escape the flies and mosqui-
toes, returning when the sun grew
hot. At noon they went again for
water, and then through the long sum
mer afternoons they loafed among the
trees and in the deep shades feeding
on the most delicious green shrubs and
grasses and sometimes moss when 1t
was tender.
Their horns gave them lots of occu-
patton. for in the soul of each, planted
there a million years before he was
born, was the instinct to polish those
emblems of sex and strength.
RUBBING THE VELVET
Bachelors are made of those who
keep the velvet" was a saying both
the young bucks had heard their elders
repeat time and again. They could
not understand exactly what it all
meant. but they knew from instinct
that 1T was their duty to rub the velvet
off their horns as soon as possible.
This was not a pleasant task for
the covering was really thick tough
skin. with nerves and blood vessels in