The Deer's Eyes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 6, 1901

The Deer's Eyes.

A CANADIAN hunter tells this incident of how he once came face to face with his quarry and hadn't the heart to fire: “It wasn't a case of ‘buck fever,’ such as a novice might experience, for I had been a hunter for many years, and had killed a good many deer. This was a particularly fine buck that I had followed for three days. A strong man can run any deer to earth in time, and at last I had my prey tired out. From the top of a hill I sighted him a few miles away. He had given up the fight, and had stretched himself out on the snow. As I stalked him, he changed his position and took shelter behind a boulder, and, using the same boulder for a shelter, I came suddenly face to face with him. He didn't attempt to run away, but stood there, looking at me with the most piteous pair of eyes I ever saw.

“Shoot? I could have no more shot him than I could have shot a child. Had the chance come from a distance of one hundred yards, I would have shot him down, and carried his antlers home in triumph, but once having looked into those eyes, it would have been nothing less than murder.”—Washington Post.