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The Eye of the Wind – Sir Peter Scott

We had not long been walking along the road through a countryside of hedgeless and fenceless fields, sparsely snow covered, and broken here and there with belts of evergreen wood-land, when I saw a group of half a dozen Roe Deer.

They were some hundreds of yards away,looking small and black by the edge of the trees, and I pointed them out to the girl. "Oh, Ja," she said without enthusiasm.

Later there was a crackle in the undergrowth quite near, and across the road in front galloped a beautiful Roebuck. He ran up a steep bank and stood for a few seconds on the top, looking back at us, Pan-like. His coat was very dark against the shade-blue snow, his horns were sharply outlined like thorns.

It was the best view I had ever had of a Roe Deer, but when I looked at the girl, I could see that she was quite unmoved.

To me it was a piece of magic, she was evidently no Pantheist.

I felt sad for her as we returned towards the house. The light was beginning to fade by the time we were back and we went into the with-drawing-room for tea. There was an open wood fire which was unusual in Bavaria, for ornate stoves provided the heat in most houses there, even in the country. It was also a surprisingly English kind of tea-laid on a lace cloth with a silver kettle singing over a little spirit lamp.

They asked us about our walk and the girl began to describe the roe deer we had seen.  She told them about the little buck running across the road and how he had stood and looked back at us ... and her eyes brightened and then she went on to describe him in detail and finished after a pause with 'I wonder where he is now?'

I was suprised that she had noticed so much about him
to desiribe the Roe Deer we had seen. She told them about the