It was now fourteen years since I had first
noticed this phenomenon, as a member of the expedition to the sources of
the Mississippi. While at Green Bay I procured a young fawn, and carried
it to be a tenant of my garden and grounds. This animal grew to its
full size, and revealed many interesting traits. Its motions were most
graceful. It was perfectly tame. It would walk into the hall and
dining-room, when the door was open, and was once observed to step up,
gracefully, and take bread from the table. It perambulated the garden
walks. It would, when the back-gate was shut, jump over a six feet
picket fence, with the ease and lightness of a bird.
Some of its instincts were remarkable. At night it would choose its
place of lying down invariably to the leeward of an object which
sheltered it from the prevailing wind. One of its most remarkable
instincts was developed with respect to ladies. On one occasion, while
an unattended lady was walking up the avenue from my front gate to the
door, through the garden grounds, the animal approached from behind, in
the gentlest manner possible, and placed his fore feet on her shoulders.
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