he
night air.

On thus being deserted, and complying with an inborn instinct of
fear, he made his first attempt to rise and follow, and although
unsuccessful it caused his mother to return and by her gentle nosings
and lickings to calm him. Then in an effort to rise he struggled to
his knees, only to collapse like a limp rag. But after several such
attempts he finally stood on his feet, unsteady on his legs, and
tottering like one drunken. Then his mother nursed him, and as the new
milk warmed his stomach he gained sufficient assurance of his footing
to wiggle his tail and to butt the feverish caked udder with his
velvety muzzle. After satisfying his appetite he was loath to lie down
and rest, but must try his legs in toddling around to investigate this
strange world into which he had been ushered. He smelled of the rich
green leaves of the mesquite, which hung in festoons about his birth
chamber, and trampled underfoot the grass which carpeted the bower.

After several hours' sleep he was awakened by a strange twittering
above him. The moon and stars, which were shining so brightly at the
moment of his birth, had grown pale. His mother was the first to
rise, but heedless of her entreaties he lay still, bewildered by the
increasing light. Animals, however, have their own ways of teaching
their little ones, and on the dam's first pretense of deserting him he
found his voice, and uttering a plaintive cry, struggled to his feet,
which caused his mother to return and comfort him.

Later she enticed him out of the thicket to enjoy his first sun bath.
The warmth seemed to relieve the stiffness in his joints, and after
each nursing during the day he attempted several awkward capers in
his fright at a shadow or the rustle of a leaf. Near the middle of the
afternoon, his mother being feverish, it was necessary that she should
go to the river and slake her thirst. So she enticed him to a place
where the grass in former years had grown rank, and as soon as he lay
down she cautioned him to be quiet during her enforced absence, and
though he was a very young calf he remembered and trusted in her. It
was several miles to the river, and she was gone two whole hours, but
not once did he disobey. A passing ranchero reined in and rode within
three feet of him, but he did not open an eye or even twitch an ear to
scare away a fly.

The horseman halted only long enough to notice the flesh-marks. The
calf was a dark red except for a whi