hrough his whole body; and he
became very passionate and excitable, and spent much time in rushing
about the woods in search of other deer, fighting those of his own sex,
and making love to the does. The year was at its high-water mark, and
the Buck was nearing his prime. Food was plenty; everywhere the
beechnuts were dropping on the dry leaves; the autumn sunshine was warm
and mellow; the woods were gay with scarlet and gold and brown, and the
very taste of the air was enough to make one happy. Was it any wonder if
he sometimes felt as if he would like to fight every other buck in
Michigan, and all of them at once?

One afternoon in October he fought a battle with another buck who was
very nearly his match in size and strength--a battle that came near
being the end of both of them. There was a doe just vanishing among the
bushes when the fuss began, and the question at issue was which should
follow her and which shouldn't. It would be easy enough to find her,
for, metaphorically speaking, "her feet had touched the meadows, and
left the daisies rosy." Wherever she went, a faint, faint fragrance
clung to the dead leaves, far too delicate for a human nose to detect,
yet quite strong enough for a buck to follow. But the trail wasn't broad
enough for two, and the first thing to be done was to have a scrap and
see which was the better and more deserving deer. And, as it turned out,
the scent grew cold again, and the doe never heard that eager patter of
hoofs hurrying down the runway behind her.

The bucks came together like two battering-rams, with a great clatter
and clash of antlers, but after the first shock the fight seemed little
more than a pushing-match. Each one was constantly trying to catch the
other off his guard and thrust a point into his flesh, but they never
succeeded. A pair of widely branching antlers is as useful in warding
off blows as in delivering them. Such a perfect shield does it make,
when properly handled, that at the end of half an hour neither of the
bucks was suffering from anything but fatigue, and the issue was as far
as ever from being settled. There was foam on their lips, and sweat on
their sides; their mouths were open, and their breath came in gasps;
every muscle was working its hardest, pushing and shoving and guarding;
and they drove each other backward and forward through the bushes, and
ploughed up the ground, and scattered the dry leaves in their struggles;
and yet there was not a sc