ld seem to be
threefold. The first, and most important, source is doubtless inherited
instinct, which supplies the constant quantity, so to speak, or the
knowledge common to all the individuals of a species. The second appears
to be experience, which teaches varying lore, according to variation in
circumstance and surrounding. In the amount of such knowledge which they
possess the individuals of a species will be found to differ widely.
But, after instinct and experience have accounted for everything that
can reasonably be credited to them, there remains a considerable and
well authenticated residuum of instances where wild creatures have
displayed a knowledge which neither instinct nor experience could well
furnish them with. In such cases observation and inference seem to agree
in ascribing the knowledge to parental teaching.

Among the lessons learned that summer by the little red buck one of the
most vital was how to keep out of the way of the bears. All the forests
about Ringwaak Hill abounded in bears; for the slopes of Ringwaak were
rich in blueberries, and bears and blueberries go together when the
wishes of the bears are at all considered. But the season of blueberries
is short, and before the blueberries are ready there are few things more
delicious to a bear's taste than a fawn or a moose calf. The bear,
however, is not a very pertinacious trailer, nor does he excel in
running long distances at top speed. When it is young moose or deer he
is wanting, his way is to lie hidden behind some brush-screened stump or
boulder till the victim comes by, then dart out a huge paw and settle
the matter at one stroke. Such might well have been the fate of the
little red buck that summer but that he learned to look with wary eye on
every ambush that might hide a bear. To all these perilous places he
gave wide berth, sometimes avoiding them altogether and sometimes
circling about at safe distances till he could get the wind of them and
find out whether they held a menace or not.

Another important truth borne in upon him that first summer was that
man, the most to be dreaded of all creatures, was, notwithstanding,
capable of being most useful to the deer people. To the west of Ringwaak
lay a line of scattered settlements and lonely upland farms. Along the
edge of the forest were open fields, where the men had roots and grains
which the deer found very good to eat. Often the little red buck and his
mother would break into on