Poems (May)/A true story of a fawn
A TRUE STORY OF A FAWN.
Down from a mountain's craggy brow His homeward way a hunter took, By a path that wound to the vales below At the side of a leaping brook. Long and sore had his journey been, By the dust that clung to his forest green,By the stains on his broidered moccasin; And over his shoulder his rifle hung, And pouch and horn at his girdle swung.
The eve crept westward; soft and pale The sunset poured its rosy flood Slanting over the wooded vale; And the weary hunter stood Looking down on his cot below, Watching his children there at play, Watching the swing on the chestnut bough Flit to and fro through the twilight gray, Till the dove's nest rocked on its quivering spray.
Faint and far through the forest wide Came a hunter's voice, and a hound's deep cry; Silence, that slept in the rocky dell, Scarcely waked as her sentinel Challenged the sound from the mountain side. Over the valleys the echo died, And a doe sprang lightly by And cleared the path, and panting stood With her trembling fawn by the leaping flood.
She spanned the torrent at a bound, And swiftly onward, winged by fear,Fled as the cry of the deep-mouthed hound Fell louder on her ear; And pausing by the waters deep, Too slight to stem their rapid flow, Too weak to dare the perilous leap, The fawn sprang wildly to and fro. Watching the flight of her lithe-limbed doe.
Now she hung o'er the torrent's edge And sobbed and wept as the waves shot by, Now she paused on the rocky ledge With head erect, and steadfast eye, Listening to the stag-hound's cry.Close from the forest the deep bay rang, Close in the forest the echoes died,And over the pathway the brown fawn sprang And crouched at the hunter's side.
Deep in the thickets the boughs unclasped Leapt apart with a crashing sound,Under the lithe vines, sure and fast, Came on the exulting hound; Yet baffled, stopped to bay and glare Far from the torrent's bound; For the weeping fawn still crouching there Shrank not nor fled, but closer pressed And laid her head on the hunter's breast.