Winter in Taos by Mabel Dodge Luhan

Author:Mabel Dodge Luhan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sunstone Press

When the grass is green and the iris are moving purple and quiet, like women gossiping with their heads together, it is hard to remember the deep, woolly snow and how hard it is to walk through it in the winter.

Tony and I used to go out hunting together sometimes when there was a new snowfall. Then the fresh tracks showed up where the animals had passed and the way they went. Tony would go on ahead through the woods, breaking a trail, and I would try to follow in his steps.

A still wood, with the new white covering, can be wonderful and as though the earth were remade that day; and the trees, standing bowed a little by the weight they have to bear until a wind comes that will shake it off, seem patient and trustful.

On the ground we saw many little writings, left delicately by the animals, lovely patterns in a rhythm of movement and ease, soft as the imprint of waves upon the sand, sensitive as the record of the heartbeat, written by the electrocardiograph.

One day in particular that I remember, Tony was tracking a deer. The hard, cleft marks of the hooves sprang up ward in pairs, showing how he had run through the trees. Tony moved more rapidly and ever more silently, holding his gun in both hands, and I thought we would never come to the end of it, it was such hard going in the snow; but all of a sudden there was a flurry and a flapping ahead of us, high up in a pine tree. An eagle rose, head low, and heavily climbed into the sky between the thick branches; and the minute Tony saw it, he raised his gun with an involuntary movement and fired. He missed, and another sound followed the report of the gun. Ahead of us somewhere, we heard the quick crackle of broken twigs and the hasty departure of an animal running.

Tony gave an exclamation of impatience. “I so stupid!” he said in a low voice.

“Why? What was it?” I asked him, not understanding what had taken place.

“That eagle saw us coming first, and got up to warn the deer!” he said. “See? Here is where the deer was lying down, and the eagle, she was up on the tree.”

“Do you mean to say that that eagle made you fire your gun so the deer would know we were close?”

“Yes, she made us tell, some way, we comin’. The eagle always take care of the deer. …” And he told me of other friendships between the wild animals and how they help each other. When he tells me things, it seems to me there is as much of coöperation as there is of cruelty in that world, and we usually think only of the cruel side of their habits, and how they prey upon each other and live in perpetual fear. We know very little.

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