the roar of the storm and the rush of rain on innumerable leaves.
I had gone out on the old wood road, to lose myself for a little
while in the intense darkness and uproar, and to feel again the
wild thrill of the elements. But the night was too dark, the
storm too fierce. Every few moments I would blunder against a
tree, which told me I was off the road; and to lose the road
meant to wander all night in the storm-swept woods. So I went
back for my lantern, with which I again started down the old cart
path, a little circle of wavering, jumping shadows about me, the
one gray spot in the midst of universal darkness.

I had gone but a few hundred yards when there was a rush--it was
not the wind or the rain--in a thicket on my right. Something
jumped into the circle of light. Two bright spots burned out of
the darkness, then two more; and with strange bleats a deer came
close to me with her fawn. I stood stockstill, with a thrill in
my spine that was not altogether of the elements, while the deer
moved uneasily back and forth. The doe wavered between fear and
fascination; but the fawn knew no fear, or perhaps he knew only
the great fear of the uproar around him; for he came close beside
me, rested his nose an instant against the light, then thrust his
head between my arm and body, so as to shield his eyes, and
pressed close against my side, shivering with cold and fear,
pleading dumbly for my protection against the pitiless storm.

I refrained from touching the little thing, for no wild creature
likes to be handled, while his mother called in vain from the
leafy darkness. When I turned to go he followed me close, still
trying to thrust his face under my arm; and I had to close the
light with a sharp click before he bounded away down the road,