The boy was so restless that I had not had a chance to look at his face before. My first impression was right; he really was faun-like.* He hadn’t much head behind his ears, and his tawny fleece grew down thick to the back of his neck. His eyes were not frank and wide apart like those of the other boys, but were deep-set, gold-green in colour, and seemed sensitive to the light. His mother said he got hurt oftener than all the others put together. He was always trying to ride the colts before they were broken, teasing the turkey gobbler, seeing just how much red the bull would stand for, or how sharp the new axe was.
This description of Leo feels full of reference to nature. So not exactly an explicit description of the natural world itself, however Leo's characteristics feel as if they highlight qualities of nature. Leo is described as faun-like, is sensitive, playful/mischievous yet easily hurt. The description of his eyes as "green-gold" reminds me of the line of poetry in S.E. Hinton's nature's 'nature's first green is gold", although written a 50 years later or so, is part of what drew me to this passage as a description of nature.