Two Velvet Babies

1900

An almost forgotten book, save among scholars, is "Lays of the Deer Forest," by two brothers, John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart. It was written by men who lived all the year round among the wild animals of the Highlands, and learned to love them as only the familiar can. One of the most beautiful descriptions of these abundant nature-notes is that of a doe, which was seen for several mornings, "restless and anxious, listening and searching the wind, trotting up and down, picking a leaf here and a leaf there." After her short and unsettled meal, she would take a frisk round, leap into the air, dart into her secret bower, and appear no more until the twilight.

One day I stole down the brae among the birches. In the middle of the thicket there was a group of young trees growing out of a carpet of moss which yielded like a down pillow. The prints of the doe's slender, forked feet were thickly traced about the hollow, and in the centre there was a velvety bed, which seemed a little higher than the rest, but so natural that it would not have been noticed by any unaccustomed eye.

I carefully lifted the green cushion, and under its veil, rolled close together, the head of each resting on the flank of the other, nestled two beautiful little kids, their large velvet ears laid smooth on their dappled necks, their spotted sides sleek and shining as satin, and their little delicate legs, as slender as hazel wands, shod with tiny shoes as smooth and as black as ebony, while their large dark eyes looked at me with a full, mild, quiet gaze, which had not yet learned to fear the hand of man.

Still they had a nameless doubt which followed every motion of mine. Their little limbs shrank from my touch, and their velvet fur rose and fell quickly; but as I was about to replace the moss, one turned its head, lifted its sleek ears toward me, and licked my hand as I laid their soft mantle over them.

I often saw them afterward, when they grew strong and came abroad upon the brae, and frequently I called off old Dreadnaught when he crossed their warm track. — Youth's Companion.

This From The Post Office: Female Mail Carriers

1916

FEMALE "R. F. D." CARRIERS

It Is Estimated That We Now Have One Hundred and Fifty

The post office department itself is not aware of the actual number of woman carriers in the rural delivery service, but it estimates that there are about 150. This is a very trifling percentage of the total number of carriers, 43,652 in 1914; but it seems safe to say that a high percentage of the romance which the rural delivery service is supposed to contain will be found along these 150 routes.

Possibly, just possibly, these faithful messengers of the government are not much concerned about the romantic side of their calling, the Christian Herald remarks. To them it is doubtless a very business-like proceeding, and they are willing to leave the flowery notions about the work to us who think of the R. F. D. service as symbolized by a placid white horse, a comfortable looking, enclosed and easy-going conveyance and a daily jaunt through leafy lanes and over purling brooks, with occasional stops at cheery farmhouses.

We who are strong in imagination, however, do not trouble to visualize these leafy lanes when the trees are bare, the fences hidden by snow, the brook a winding streak of ice and the farmhouses maddening suggestions of warmth and cheer that rural mail carriers cannot stop to share.