nearly noon before
It was impossible to be anything but gay in that atmosphere ; even Fred , oppressed with anxiety as he was , felt its effect . The fresh snow was criss-crossed here and there with the tracks of small animals , -- rabbits , foxes , and squirrels , -- and now and again a spruce partridge rose with a roar . These birds were plentiful , and the boys might have made a full bag if they had ventured to shoot . It was nearly noon before they reached the deer trail . They followed it back for some twenty minutes , and came down into a low bottom , grown up with small birch and poplar . Fred had only the vaguest idea what a deer yard was like ; he half expected a dense huddle of deer in a small , beaten space , and he was consequently much startled when he suddenly heard a sound of crashing and running in the thickets . Macgregor 's rifle banged almost in his ear .