text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/409

 There follows a controversy. All are wrong, but:

“The doctrine of the Orthodox Church about the actuality of the presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the eucharist has imperturbable foundations in Holy Scripture, as well as in Holy Tradition.” (p. 386.)

Here is a sample of the proofs why this action is to be understood as the church understands it: “In establishing the eucharist, the Lord established the greatest sacrament of the New Testament, which he commanded to be performed at all times (Luke xxii. 19, 20). But the importance of the sacrament necessary for our salvation, and the nature of the promise, and the nature of the commandment demanded alike that the clearest and most definite language be used, so that it might not lead to any misunderstandings in so important a matter.”

216. The manner and consequences of the presence of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the eucharist. “(1) If this presence consists, as we have seen, in this, that after the sanctification of the holy gifts, there are present in the eucharist and are communicated to the believers not the bread and wine, but the real body and the real blood of the Lord,—that does not mean that he is present in the sacrament, that he, as it were, penetrates (according to the Lutheran heresy) the bread and wine, which remain intact, and only coexists with them (in, cum, sub pane) with his body and blood, but that the bread and wine are transformed, transubstantiated, transmuted into the very body and blood of the Lord. (2) Although the bread and wine in the sacrament of the eucharist are transformed properly into the body and blood of the Lord, he is present in this sacrament, not with his body and blood alone, but with his whole soul, which is inseparably connected with this body, and with his very divinity, which is hypostatically and inseparably connected with his humanity. (3) Although the Lord’s body and blood are broken in the sacrament of the communion and are


text:
Page:Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.pdf/49

Rh him in exercise of any power conferred on the Public Prosecutor or the officer under this Act, but any such revocation shall not be a bar to any fresh order being made or notice being given in the exercise of such power or any other powers conferred on the Public Prosecutor or the officer under this Act, at any time thereafter, against any person to whom the earlier order or notice applied or in respect of any matter affected by the earlier order or notice.

(2) A revocation or an amendment of an order or notice under subsection (1) may contain provision in respect of any matter which is consequential, ancillary or incidental to such revocation or amendment.

Advocates and solicitors may be required to disclose information

46. (1) Notwithstanding any other written law, a Judge of the High Court may, on application being made to him in relation to an investigation into any offence under this Act, order an advocate and solicitor to disclose information available to him in respect of any transaction or dealing relating to any property which is liable to seizure under this Act.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall require an advocate and solicitor to comply with any order under that subsection to the extent that such compliance would disclose any privileged information or communication which came to his knowledge for the purpose of any pending proceedings.

Legal obligation to give information

47. Subject to such limitation as is provided under this Act, every person required by an officer of the Commission or a police officer to give any information on any subject which it is such officer’s duty to inquire into under this Act and which is in that person’s power to give, shall be legally bound to give the information.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/419

 immediately adds: Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him (James v. 14, 15). From these words there are disclosed to us at once the divine origin and its efficacy, as a sacrament. (1) The divine origin: for on the one hand it is evident from the context that the apostle does not speak of unction with oil, as of something new, which the Christians did not know before, but points out to them this means of healing, as something which has existed before and which was universally known to them, and which he commands them to use in case of sickness. On the other hand, it is evident that the apostles never preached anything of themselves (Gal. i. 11, 12), but taught only what they had been commanded by our Lord Jesus (Matt. xxviii. 20), and what the Divine Spirit inspired them with (John xvi. 13); and it is known that they called themselves the servants of Christ, and stewards, and not establishers, of divine sacraments (1 Cor. iv. 1). Consequently unction with oil, which is commanded to the Christians by St. James, as a sacramental healing of diseases, both bodily and spiritual, was commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ himself and by the Divine Spirit. We do not find any statement in Scripture at what particular time our Lord established this sacrament, for many things which he taught and did on earth are not transmitted in writing (John xxi. 25). But it is most natural to think that this sacrament, like two others (baptism and repentance), through which remission of sins is granted, was established by our Lord after his resurrection, when all power was given unto him in heaven and in earth (Matt. xxviii. 18), and when he showed himself to the apostles for forty days and spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts i. 3), that


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/428

 in Cana of Galilee (John ii. 1-11), or when, in consequence of the well-known question of the Pharisees, he disclosed the true conception about marriage, and said, What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder (Matt. xix. 3-12), or after his resurrection, when for forty days he appeared to his disciples, and spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven, that is, of what had reference to the establishment of his church (Acts i. 3), the Gospel does not say anything: for there are many other things, which Jesus did, which are not written in these books (John xx. 30; xxi. 25).” (p. 479.)

But that is the very reason why it is considered proved.

235. The visible side of marriage, and invisible actions. The visible side of marriage is this, that groom and bride promise to be husband and wife, and the priest pronounces certain words. The invisible side: (1) grace sanctifies the union, as of Christ with the church; (2) strengthens, as Christ with the church; (3) coöperates in the performances of the obligations, as Christ with the church. Suddenly there is for some reason introduced the comparison of Christ and the church with husband and wife, and in that the invisible side of the sacrament is supposed to lie.

236. Who may perform the sacrament of marriage, and what is demanded of those who proceed to this sacrament. Popes may unite in marriage; the Orthodox (or at least one of the contracting parties an Orthodox) may marry. All others do not marry, but only cohabit.

237. The properties of Christian marriage, sanctified by the sacrament. One may marry only one woman, and divorce is granted only in the case of adultery. All that is regarded as a sacrament founded by God himself.

Of the sacrament of priesthood.

238. Connection with the preceding; the priesthood, as a special divinely established ministration in the church


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/433

 other similar sacraments and in various passages of their writings clearly speak separately of each of the seven sacraments.” (pp. 511 and 512.)

Any one who has read church history knows that there were seven sacraments, precisely seven, because there are seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven candelabra, seven seals, and so forth.

245. On the conditions for the performance and efficacy of the sacraments. For the performance of the sacraments, that is, for the communication of grace to the believers, are needed: “(1) A legally ordained presbyter or bishop; (2) a legal (that is, according to the divine ordainment) sacramental action of the sacraments.” (pp. 513 and 514.)

“But, on the other hand, many heretics have wrongly thought: (a) that for the performance and efficacy of the sacraments is needed not only a legally ordained minister of the church, but also a pious servant, so that the sacraments performed by tainted servants of the altar have no significance, or (b) that the actuality and efficacy of each sacrament depends on the faith of the persons receiving it, so that it is a sacrament and has its full power only during the time of its reception or use with faith, and that when not used, or in case of acceptance without faith, it is not a sacrament and remains sterile (Art. 200). (1) The first is wrong, for the power of grace of the sacraments depends really on the deserts and the will of Christ the Saviour, who himself performs them invisibly, and the pastors of the church are only his servants and visible instruments, through whom he imparts the sacraments to men. (2) Wrong is also the second opinion, which assumes that the power and actuality of the sacraments is in complete dependence on the faith and disposition of the persons who receive the sacraments.” (pp. 514-517.)

That is clear. The sacraments are purely external ac-


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/438

 cation, which he has given us on earth, and whether we are worthy, or not, to be freed from punishments for sins and to receive happiness; he appears thereupon as a just Retributer, who determines the due part for each man according to his deserts.” (p. 521.)

The means against it are the sacraments. Then follows the usual exposition. In the retribution all three persons of the Trinity take part.

248. The circumstance which prepares the private judgment. Man’s death. Death is spoken of as something new and unknown to anybody. The cause of death is the fall of the first man, and from the first man we took that habit. All that is proved.

249. The actuality of the private judgment. It is proved that after death there takes place a private judgment of man in distinction from the general judgment. The judgment, that is, a certain process of investigation and the retribution which follows from it, is ascribed to omniscient and all-good God.

250. Representation of the private judgment: teaching about the torments. “Holy Scripture does not tell us how a private judgment takes place. But an objective representation of this judgment, based mainly on Holy Tradition and in agreement with Holy Scripture, we find in the teaching about the torments (τελωνία), which has existed since antiquity in the Orthodox Church.” (p. 528.)

The torments are described and confirmed by Holy Scripture on ten pages. We are told that “at the parting of our soul from our body there will arise before us, on the one hand, a host of the heavenly powers, and on the other, the powers of darkness, the evil keepers of the world, the aerial chiefs of torments, the inquisitors and arraigners of our deeds. Upon seeing them, the soul will be excited, and will be convulsed and tremble, and in confusion and terror will seek for defence among the angels of God; but


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/447

 much malice, many executions, much blood. Only by an absolute departure from the questions of faith can we explain those controversies and those assertions and proofs, which are adduced in the book.

“III. The endless signs and miracles which the Lord has been pleased to perform through the images for the believers serve as a new incitement for the worship of the holy images. With accounts of these miracles are filled the chronicles, of the church in general, as also of our church in particular. Several images of Christ the Saviour, of his immaculate Mother, of St. Nicholas, and of other saints have, on account of the abundance of miracles wrought by them, since antiquity been known under the name of miracle-working images, and, being found in various places of the Orthodox Church, by the will of God our benefactor, have not yet ceased to be as it were channels or guides of his miraculous power, which gives us salvation.” (p. 580.)

It is for these channels of his miraculous power that controversies have existed and differences of opinions still exist: the question is whether they are channels or not. If the Lord has deigned to work miracles through those images, then not only a rude peasant, but even the greatest philosopher cannot help but pray to the image. If a case is decided through a secretary, the secretary has to be invoked, and there is no way out of it. We have long ago descended upon earth from the sphere of questions about religion. The discussion was about sacraments which mechanically impart grace, independently of the spiritual condition of the pastor and believer, only when there are no causes for cassation; and now the subject under discussion is the images, which are channels of miraculous power, which therefore have to be prayed to, though they are not gods.

About the history of these channels we learn from the Theology, that during the first three centuries “the pa-


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/452

 ing to its deserts. Then are defined the symptoms of the coming of that day:

“(1) On the one hand extraordinary successes of good upon earth,—the dissemination of Christ’s Gospel in the whole world: (2) on the other hand, extraordinary successes of evil and the appearance of the antichrist upon earth.”

This is who the antichrist is going to be:

“(a) It will be a definite person, by all means a man, but only a lawless man under the special operation of Satan; (b) he will in his character be distinguished by extraordinary pride and will give himself out as a God; (c) for the purpose of attaining his end he will preach a false doctrine, which is contrary to the saving faith of Christ, an enticing teaching, with which he will draw after him many weak and unworthy people; (d) in confirmation of his teaching and for the greater seduction of men, he will perform false signs and miracles; (e) finally he will perish from the actions of Jesus Christ the Saviour, when he comes to judge the living and the dead. We shall further remark: (a) he will come from the tribe of Dan; (b) he will be a powerful lord, who will usurp the power by force, and will extend his dominion over all the nations; (c) he will cause a terrible persecution of the Christians, will demand divine worship of himself, will draw many after him, and those who will not follow him he will put to death; (d) for the counteraction to the antichrist, God will send from heaven two witnesses, who, as is said in Revelation, shall prophesy the truth and work miracles, and when they shall have finished their testimony, they shall be killed by a dragon, and after three days and a half they shall rise from the dead and ascend to heaven; (e) the dominion of the antichrist will last only three years and a half.” (pp. 616-618.)

All that is proved by Holy Scripture.

“It will not be superfluous to remark that the predic-


text: User:SnowyCinema/P/Silversheene

title: User:SnowyCinema/P/Silversheene


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/461

 itself, and in the mightiness of his soul, as in a mirror, will see the pictures of what he has done.” (p. 637.)

The Theology says that the judgment is not to be understood as local and carnal, but how is it to be understood? for it says that the judgment will be:

“(1) General The King comes down from his place in order to judge over the earth; his hosts accompany him in great terror and trepidation. These mortal members come to be witnesses of the terrible judgment; and all men, no matter how many there have been and are upon earth, come into the presence of the King. No matter how many have been born or will be born will all come to this spectacle, to see the judgment.” (p. 637.)

“(2) Solemn and open And he will call heaven and earth to be with him at the judgment; and those who are above and far away will appear with terror and trepidation. And the celestial hosts and the legions of hell will tremble before the Judge who knows no favours, and who will come accompanied by terror and by death.”

That is the way Christ will come!

“(3) Stern and terrible: because it will be done according to the whole divine righteousness, and according to nothing but righteousness; it will be a day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. ii. 5.)

“(4) Decisive and the last: because it will unchangeably determine for eternity the fate of each of the defendants.”

That is, it will condemn the sinners to torments. Nothing can be added to that. The only feeling which I experienced in quoting these passages was that of terror and horror before that blasphemy which I was committing in copying and repeating them.

266. Concomitant circumstances of the general judgment: (a) the end of the world. “During that last day, in which the last judgment of God will take place over the whole world, there will also ensue the end of the


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/31

HE following are the contents of the first book of The Refutation of all Heresies.

We propose to furnish an account of the tenets of natural philosophers, and who these are, as well as the tenets of moral philosophers, and who these are; and thirdly, the tenets of logicians, and who these logicians are.

Among natural philosophers may be enumerated Thales, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Anaximander, Anaxi-


text:
Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/486

 the teaching consists in this, that to me, to my light, the power is given to go to the light, to me my life is given. Outside of it and beyond it there is nothing but the source of all life,—God.

The whole teaching of humility, the renunciation of wealth, the love of my neighbour, has only this meaning, that I can make this life infinite in itself. Every relation of mine to another life is only an exaltation of my own, a communion and oneness with it in peace and in God. Through myself only can I comprehend the truth, and my works are the consequences of the exaltation of my life.

I can express this truth in myself. What question can there be for me, who understand life thus (I cannot understand it otherwise), as to what others think, how they live? As I love them, I cannot help but wish to communicate my happiness to them, but the one tool which is given me is the consciousness of my life and its works. I cannot wish, think, believe for another. I exalt my life, and this alone can exalt the life of another; and is not another myself? So, if I exalt myself, I exalt all.

I am in them, and they in me.

The whole teaching of Jesus consists only in what the common people repeat with simple words:—to save one’s soul,—but only one’s own, because it is everything. Suffer, endure evil, do not judge,—all this tells the same. every contact with the affairs of the world Jesus teaches us by his example of complete indifference, if not contempt, how we must bear ourselves toward worldly matters,—toward raiment, toward tribute for the church and for Cæsar, toward litigations about inheritance, toward the punishment of the sinning woman, toward the spilling of the costly ointment. Everything which is not thy soul is not thy concern. Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness in your soul, and everything will be well. Indeed, my soul is given into my power, even as it is


text:
Talk:Men and Women (Browning)/Volume 1/Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

Deviates from common text
The text in Wikisource is faithful to the PDF which appears on the right hand side of the screen when editing, but deviates from most common versions of the text online. One of two examples is that the final two words of Verse 28 are usually rendered as "clearer case" although the PDF from which this text derives does say "plainer case" as does the Wikisource version. Perhaps Browning had two versions of the poem. The penultimate line of verse 30 is also different. Most versions begin this line "Dotard, a-dozing" although our version says "Fool, to be dozing"

How do we tell which is the "standard" most common version? WickerGuy (talk) 04:00, 18 November 2023 (UTC)


text:
Index:Claude McKay Constab Ballads.djvu/styles.css

.wst-heading { text-transform:uppercase; } .wst-main-heading { margin-top:2em; } .wst-subheading { letter-spacing:0.15em; }


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/32

26 menes, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Parmenides, Leucippus, Democritus, Xenophanes, Ecpliantus, Hippo.

Among moral philosophers are Socrates, pupil of Archelaus the physicist, [and] Plato the pupil of Socrates. This [speculator] combined three systems of philosophy.

Among logicians is Aristotle, pupil of Plato. He systematized the art of dialectics. Among the Stoic [logicians] were Chrysippus [and] Zeno. Epicurus, however, advanced an opinion almost contrary to all philosophers. Pyrrho was an Academic; this [speculator] taught the incomprehensibility of everything. The Brahmins among the Indians, and the Druids among the Celts, and Hesiod [devoted themselves to philosophic pursuits].

We must not overlook any figment devised by those denominated philosophers among the Greeks. For even their incoherent tenets must be received as reliable, on account of the excessive madness of the heretics; who, from the observance of silence, and from concealing their own ineffable mysteries, have by many been supposed worshippers of God. We have likewise, on a former occasion, ex-


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/33

Rh pounded the doctrines of these briefly, not illustrating them with any degree of minuteness, but refuting them in coarse digest; not having considered it requisite to brino- to light their secret doctrines, in order that, when we have explained their tenets by enigmas, they, becoming ashamed, lest also, by our divulging their mysteries, we should convict them of atheism, might be induced to desist in some degree from their unreasonable opinion and their profane attempt. But since I perceive that they have not been abashed by our forbearance, and have made no account of how God is long-suffering, though blasphemed by them, in order that either from shame they may repent, or should they persevere, be justly condemned, I am forced to proceed in my intention of exposing those secret mysteries of theirs, which, to the initiated, with a vast amount of plausibility they deliver who are not accustomed first to disclose [to any one], till, by keeping such in suspense during a period [of necessary preparation], and by rendering him blasphemous towards the true God, they have acquired complete ascendancy over him, and perceive him eagerly panting after the promised disclosure. And then, when they have tested him to be enslaved by sin, they initiate him, putting him in possession of the perfection of wicked things. Previously, however, they bind him with an oath neither to divulge [the mysteries], nor to hold communication with any person whatsoever, unless he first undergo similar subjection, though, when the doctrine has been simply delivered [to any one], there was no longer any need of an oath. For he who was content to submit to the necessary purgation, and so receive the perfect mysteries of these men, by the very act itself, as well as in reference to his own conscience, will feel himself sufficiently under an obligation not to divulge to others; for if he once disclose


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/34

28 wickedness of this description to any man, he would neither be reckoned among men, nor be deemed worthy to behold the light, since not even irrational animals would attempt such an enormity, as we shall explain when we come to treat of such topics.

Since, however, reason compels us to plunge into the very depth of narrative, we conceive we should not be silent, but, expounding the tenets of the several schools with minuteness, we shall evince reserve in nothing. Now it seems expedient, even at the expense of a more protracted investigation, not to shrink from labour; for we shall leave behind us no trifling auxiliary to human life against the recurrence of error, when all are made to behold, in an obvious light, the clandestine rites of these men, and the secret orgies which, retaining under their management, they deliver to the initiated only. But none will refute these, save the Holy Spirit bequeathed unto the Church, which the Apostles having in the first instance received, have transmitted to those who have rightly believed. But we, as being their successors, and as participators in this grace, high-priesthood, and office of teaching, as well as being reputed guardians of the Church, must not be found deficient in vigilance, or disposed to suppress correct doctrine. Not even, however, labouring with every energy of body and soul, do we tire in our attempt adequately to render our Divine Benefactor a fitting return; and yet withal we do not so requite Him in a becoming manner, except we are not remiss in discharging the trust committed


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/35

Rh to us, but careful to complete the measure of our particular opportunity, and to impart to all without grudging whatever the Holy Ghost supplies, not only bringing to light, by means of our refutation, matters foreign [to our subject], but also whatsoever things the truth has received by the grace of the Father, and ministered to men. These also, illustrating by argument and creating testimony by letters, we shall unabashed proclaim.

In order, then, as we have already stated, that we may prove them atheists, both in opinion and their mode [of treating a question] and in fact, and [in order to show] whence it is that their attempted theories have accrued unto them, and that they have endeavoured to establish their tenets, taking nothing from the Holy Scriptures (nor is it from preserving the succession of any saint that they have hurried headlong into these opinions); but that their doctrines have derived their origin from the wisdom of the Greeks, from the conclusions of those who have formed systems of philosophy, and from would-be mysteries, and the vagaries of astrologers,—it seems, then, advisable, in the first instance, by explaining the opinions advanced by the philosophers of the Greeks, to satisfy our readers that such are of greater antiquity than these [heresies], and more deserving of reverence in reference to their views respecting the divinity; in the next place, to compare each heresy with the system of each speculator, so as to show that the earliest champion of the heresy availing himself of these attempted theories, has turned them to advantage b}appropriating their principles, and, impelled from these into worse, has constructed his own doctrine. The undertaking admittedly is full of labour, and [is one] requiring extended research. We shall not, however, be wanting in exertion;


text:
Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 6.djvu/36

30 for afterwards it will be a source of joy, just like an athlete obtaining with much toil the crown, or a merchant after a huge swell of sea compassing gain, or a husbandman after sweat of brow enjoying the fruits, or a prophet after reproaches and insults seeing his predictions turning out true. In the commencement, therefore, we shall declare who first, among the Greeks, pointed out [the principles of] natural philosophy. For from these especially have they furtively taken their views who have first propounded these heresies, as we shall subsequently prove when we come to compare them one wath another. Assigning to each of those who- take the lead among philosophers their own peculiar tenets, we shall publicly exhibit these heresiarchs as naked and unseemly.

It is said that Thales of Miletus, one of the seven wise men, first attempted to frame a system of natural philosophy. This person said that some such thing as water is the generative principle of the universe, and its end;—for that out of this, solidified and again dissolved, all things consist, and that all things are supported on it; from wdiich also arise both earthquakes and changes of the wands and atmospheric movements, and that all things are both produced and are in a state of flux corresponding wath the nature of the primary author of generation;—and that the Deity


title: Index:Origins-of-COVID-19-20230623.pdf


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/1

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/1


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/208

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/208


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/209

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/209


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/210

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/210


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/211

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/211


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/212

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/212


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/213

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/213


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/214

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/214


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/215

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/215


text: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/216

title: Page:Liliom (1921).djvu/216


text: Index:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf


text:
Index:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/styles.css

.chapter { text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 120%; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }

.half { text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 120%; }

.poem { font-size: 92%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; }

.section { text-align: center; }

.title-header { text-align: center; font-size: 144%; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }

.wst-toc-table { font-variant: small-caps; max-width: 25em; font-size: 92%; }


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/1


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/2


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/3


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/4


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/5


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/6


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/7


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/8


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/9


text: Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/10


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/11

trail was not only steep and rough, but at the same time slippery with the damp of spring; and the traveller, in that uncertain greyness of earliest dawn, had to pick his way with care. He was nearing the "timberline" after a sharp climb of half a mile from the high but sheltered valley wherein he had made camp the night before. The woods, a monstrous jumble of rocks and trunks, matted shrubs and gnarled, sinister roots which clutched like tentacles for a grip to hold them against the tearing mountain wilds, began to open out before him, and he caught glimpses of the naked mountain face, scarred with tremendous ravines and scrawled across with crooked, dizzy ledges. Far and high, the eternal snows had caught the full flood of the sunrise, and every soaring crag and pinnacle stood bathed in a glory of ineffable pink and saffron.

Merivale stopped, and stood watching, with an impulse to uncover his head, while the transfiguring splendour spread slowly down the steeps.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/12

 In his frequent trips from the East he had seen many such miracles of sunrise among the Western mountains, but familiarity had not dulled his senses to them, and he was never able to take the wonder lightly. But as he gazed, the downward wash of that enchanted light suddenly brought into view a shape which set Merivale's pulses leaping and made him straightway forget the sunrise. On the giddy tip of a crag which jutted out from the steep, stood perched a stately mountain ram, his noble head, with its massive, curled horns sweeping backwards over his shoulders, high uplifted as he searched the waste for any sign of danger to his ewes. This was the splendid springtime game in quest of which Merivale had come up from the foothills with his camera. He crept forward again, stealthily and swiftly, keeping well beneath the cover of the branches.

Suddenly there burst upon his ears a sound which brought him to an instant stop. It was not loud, but as it came muffled through the gloom, there was something monstrous and terrifying about it. The sound came from somewhere above Merivale's head and around to the left of where he crouched. It told him of a desperate struggle, of one of those tremendous battles to the death in which the great beasts of the wild so rarely allow themselves to become involved. There was a heavy crashing and trampling of underbrush, a


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/13

 clattering of stones displaced by mighty feet, mingled with great, straining grunts and woofs of raging effort.

"Grizzlies, fighting," muttered Merivale with amazement, and stole noiselessly towards the sound, rifle in readiness, eager to catch a glimpse of so titanic a duel. Then the noise was varied by a single harsh and terrible scream, after which the sounds of struggle went on as before. But now Merivale understood. "No, not grizzlies," he said to himself. "A grizzly and a puma." He had heard from the Indians of such tremendous duels, but he had never expected to witness one. His eyes shining with excitement, he hurried forward as quickly as he could without betraying himself. He quite forgot that in such a battle the great antagonists would be much too occupied to give heed to his approach. But it was slow work forcing his way through the rocky tangle, and the scene of the struggle proved to be farther away than he had guessed. Before he could reach the spot, the noise of the battle came abruptly to an end—and there was no sound but a laboured, slobbery panting mixed with a hoarse whining, which gave him an impression of mortal anguish.

The next moment there came into view, lurching and staggering down the slope and blundering into the tree-trunks, a big grizzly, bleeding from head to haunch with ghastly wounds. His


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/14

 face was literally clawed to ribbons, and he was completely blinded. Mixed by an impulse of mercy, Merivale lifted his rifle and sent a soft-nosed bullet through the sufferer's spine. Then, very cautiously, he followed on up the grizzly's trail to see how it had fared with his antagonist.

Some thirty or forty yards farther on Merivale came upon the puma, lying dead and mangled in the trail, its ribs crushed in and one great wrenched from its socket. It was a female—clearly a mother in full milk. Merivale's sympathies were all with her, and as he stood looking down upon her and thought of the great fight she had put up against her huge adversary, he understood the whole situation. Obviously the wild mother had had her lair, and her helpless young, in some cleft of the rocks near by. She had seen the giant bear coming up the trail to the den. She had sprung down to meet him and join battle before he should get too near, and had given up her life for the sake of her little ones.

By this time Merivale had lost interest in the mountain sheep. What he wanted was to find the puma kittens, which he had heard were easily tamed. But first, after studying the dimensions of the dead mother, he went back and carefully considered the proportions of the grizzly, pondering till he had reconstructed the whole terrific combat which he had been so unfortunate as to


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/15

 miss the sight of. Then he set forth to seek the orphaned little ones.

The search was difficult in that precipitous jumble of rocks and undergrowth; but presently the trail of the dead mother, which he had lost on a patch of naked rock lately swept by a landslide, revealed itself to him again. Just then, from almost over his head came an outburst of small but angry spittings, followed by a catlike cry of agony. Furious at the thought that some prowler had reached the defenceless nest ahead of him, Merivale sprang forwards and swung himself recklessly up on the ledge where the noises came from.

There, straight before him, in a shallow, sheltered cave with the sunrise just flooding full into it, was the puma's lair. The picture stamped itself in minutest detail on Merivale's memory. One puma kitten, about the size of a common tabby, lay outstretched dead. A big red fox was just worrying a second to death, having seized it too near the shoulders and so failing to break its neck at the first snap. The third and last kitten was spitting and growling, and clawing manfully but futilely at the thick rich fur of the slaughterer. It was evident that the battle between the grizzly and the mother puma had been watched by the fox, who, as soon as he saw the result, had realized that it would now be quite safe for him to visit the undefended den and capture an easy prey.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/16

 Filled with wrath, but afraid to shoot lest he should kill the remaining kitten, Merivale bounded forward with a yell and aimed a vindictive kick at the assassin. Needless to say, he missed his mark. He just saved himself from falling, and staggered heavily against the wall of the den, while the fox, not stopping to argue the matter and present his own point of view, slipped over the ledge and vanished, an indignant red streak, through the bushes.

Merivale eased his feelings with a few vigorous curses, then turned his attention to the valiant little survivor, which had backed away against the rock wall and was spitting and snarling bravely at the new foe. In colour differing greatly from its unmarked grey-tawny mother, it was of a bright yellowish fawn, variegated with dark brown, almost black, spots; and its long tail—just now curled round in front of it and twitching defiantly—was ringed like a raccoon's with the same dark shade. Merivale, full of benevolence, reached out his hand to it gently, with soothing words such as he might have used to an angry but favoured cat. He got a vicious scratch from the furry baby paw.

"Plucky little hellion," he muttered approvingly as he sucked the blood, with scrupulous care, from the wounds, realizing that those baby claws might be far from innocent hygienically. Then, taking off his thick jacket, he dexterously caught


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/17

 the battling infant in its folds, rolling it over and over and swaddling down those rebellious claws securely, and leaving only the tiny black and pink muzzle free to spit its owner's indomitable protests. With a bit of twine from his pocket he lashed the squirming bundle safely, but with tender consideration for the comfort of its occupant, tucked it under his arm, and turned to retrace his steps down to his camp in the valley. Then it suddenly occurred to him that by and by the fox would return to the den for his prey. Being absurdly angry with that fox, he took the trouble to carry off—the two dead kittens, tying them together and slinging them to his belt. His purpose was to throw them into the torrent which brawled down the valley, in order to make quite sure the fox should not profit by his kill.

For about a day the spotted youngster was irreconcilable; but hunger and Merivale's tactful handling soon brought it to terms. It took kindly to a diet of condensed milk, well diluted with warm water, and varied by a little raw rabbit or venison. It throve amazingly, and by the time Merivale was ready to break camp and move back to his ranch on the skirt of the foothills, it was as tame as a house-cat and as devoted to its master as a terrier.

Merivale maintained his ranch in the Western foothills—which was run the year round by a


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/18

 highly competent foreman—chiefly as an excuse for a long summer's holiday and hunting. It was not till near the end of September that he started back for his home in Nova Scotia, taking his puma cub with him. The cub, now nearly six months old, was approaching his full stature, and was a peculiarly fine specimen of his race. Having by this time lost the dark markings which adorn all puma cubs at their birth, he was of a beautiful golden fawn all over the upper parts, and creamy white beneath, with a line of darker hue along his backbone, and a brown tip to his long and powerful tail. His ears and nose were black, which gave a finish to his distinguished colouring. In length he was close upon seven feet, counting his two-foot-six tail. His height at the shoulder was a little under two feet. In his play, which was always gentle, thanks to Merivale's wise training, he was the embodiment of lithe, swift strength. His savage inherited instincts having been lulled to sleep or else never awakened, he was on the best of terms with all the dwellers upon the ranch, whether human or otherwise, the cattle alone excepted. These latter could never endure the sight or the smell of him. Very early in his career he had learned to regard them as his implacable enemies, and to keep carefully out of their way.

With the children on the ranch—there were


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/19

 four of them, belonging to the foreman—he was particularly popular; and to one, a long-legged little girl of about eleven, he was almost as devoted as to Merivale himself. She was alternately his playmate and his tyrant.

The name which Merivale had bestowed upon his pet was "Mishi-Pishoe," the word by which the puma or panther is known among the Ojibway Indians. But he was always called "Mishi" for short, and would answer to this name as promptly as a well-trained dog. He would also come to heel for his master, like a dog. In fact, under Merivale's training he acted much more like a dog than a cat, except that he could purr like an exaggerated cat when pleased, and wag his great tail in nervous jerks when annoyed.

The railway was a good half-day's journey from Merivale's ranch, and Mishi, who had never before seen a train, was terrified beyond measure by the windy snortings of the great transcontinental locomotive. He came near upsetting his master in his efforts to get between his legs for protection.

Merivale would have liked to take his favourite into the Pullman with him, but against any such proposal the conductor, out of consideration for the feelings of nervous passengers, was obliged to set his face. The young puma was therefore locked in an empty box-car, with a bed of clean straw, a


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/20

 supply of food and water, and his favourite plaything, a football, to console him.

But in spite of all this comfort the long, long journey across the continent was a horror to the unwilling traveller. The ceaseless jarring, swaying and roaring of the train set all his nerves on edge. He could only sleep when exhausted by hours of prowling up and down his narrow quarters. He would only eat—and then but a few hasty mouthfuls—when Merivale, at long intervals, came to pay him a hurried visit. For the first time since his outburst of baby fury against the fox in his mountain den, he began to show signs of the savage temper inherited from his sires. He was homesick; he was desperately frightened; and he was unspeakably lonely away his master. In revenge at last he fell upon the unoffending football, his old plaything, and with great pains and deliberation tore it to shreds.

But as luck would have it, Mishi's journey was brought to an abrupt and unforeseen end. It was late in the night, and Merivale was sleeping soundly in his berth, when the "mixed" train stopped at a lonely backwoods station in the wild country that lies between the St. Lawrence and the northern boundary of New Brunswick. A ragged tramp, seeking to steal a ride, crept noiselessly along the train beyond the station lights, and found


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/21

 the box-car. He was an old hand and knew how to open it.

But as the door slid smoothly back, the tramp got the shock of his life. Something huge and furry struck him with a force that sent him sprawling clean across the farther rails and over into the ditch. At the same insantinstant [sic] the engine snorted fiercely (she was on an up-grade) and the wheels began to turn with a groaning growl. Mishi went leaping off at top speed through the woods, doubly driven by the desire to find his master, and by his terror of the panting, glaring locomotive. Deep in the spruce-woods he crouched down at last, with pounding pulses—while the train with Merivale asleep in his berth, thundered on steadily through the wilderness night.

As Mishi lay there in the chill darkness, his nostrils drinking in the earthy scents of the wet moss and the balsamy fragrances of the spruce and pine, faint ancestral memories began to stir in the young puma's brain, and his pupils dilated as he peered with a kind of savage expectancy through the shadows. He had long, long forgotten utterly the den upon the mountainside, the caresses of his savage mother, and that last desperate battle with the marauding fox. But now dim, fleeting pictures of these things, quite uncomprehended, began to haunt and trouble him, and his long claws sheathed and unsheathed themselves in


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/22

 the damp moss. Suddenly realizing that he was ravenously hungry, he glanced around on every side, confidently expecting to see his accustomed rations ready to hand. It took him several minutes to convince himself that his expectation was a vain one. Truly, life had changed indeed. He would have to find his food for himself. He rose slowly, stretched himself, opened his jaws in a terrific yawn, and set forth on the novel quest.

And now it was that Mishi's inherited woodlore fully woke up and came effectively to his aid. Instead of crashing his way through the bushes, careless as to who should hear his coming, he crept forwards noiselessly, crouching low and snifing the night air for a scent which should promise good hunting.

Suddenly he stiffened in his tracks and stood rigid, one paw uplifted. A little animal, clearly visible to his eyes in spite of the darkness, was approaching. Resembling one of those big jackrabbits which Mishi had often chased (but never succeeded in catching) on the ranch, only much smaller, it came hopping along its runway, unconscious of danger. With an effort Mishi restrained himself from springing prematurely. Quivering with eagerness, for this was his first experience of real hunting, he waited till the rabbit was passing almost under his nose. Then out shot his great paw through the screening leafage, and the prize


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/23

 was his without a struggle, without so much as a squeak. Filled with elation at this easy success, he made the sweetest meal of his life.

As soon as his hunger was satisfied, a great homesickness and longing for his master came over him. But this, of course, could not be allowed to interfere with his toilet. He licked his jaws and his paws scrupulously, washed his face and scratched his ears like a domestic cat, then crept into the heart of the nearest thicket, curled himself up on the dry, aromatic spruce-needles and went to sleep. It was the first real, refreshing sleep he had enjoyed since leaving the ranch.

The sun was high when Mishi awoke, opening puzzled eyes upon a world entirely novel to him. Interspersed among the dark green fir trees stood a few scattered maples glowing crimson and scarlet in their autumn bravery. These patches of radiant color held Mishi's wandering attention for some moments till his thoughts turned to the more important question of breakfast. Instantly his whole manner and expression changed. He crouched with tense muscles; his eyes flamed and narrowed; his long white teeth showed themselves; and he began to creep noiselessly through the undergrowth, fully expecting another rabbit to come hopping into his path without delay. When this did not happen, he grew angry. He had never


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/24

 been kept waiting for his breakfast before. There was something very wrong with this new world into which he had been thrust. Lifting up his voice, he gave vent to a harsh and piercing scream, hoping that his master would hear and come to him.

At the sound, with a sudden bewildering whir-r-r of wings, a covey of partridges sprang into the air almost from under his nose, and went rocketing off through the trees. Mishi was so startled that he nearly turned a back somersault. Not lingering to investigate the alarming phenomenon, he went racing off in the opposite direction like a frightened house-cat, till his wind began to fail him. Then he huddled himself down behind a rock, craning his neck to peer around it nervously while he brooded over his wrongs.

These, however, were presently forgotten under the promptings of his appetite, and he set forth again on his hungry prowl. Either by chance, or moved by a deep homing instinct, he turned his steps westward. But suddenly from that direction came the long, strident whistle of a train, wailing strangely over the tree-tops. At the sound, to him so fearful and so hateful, Mishi wheeled in his tracks and made off with more haste than dignity in the opposite direction. That dismal note stood to him for the cause of all his misfortunes.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/25

 At the bottom of his heart, however, the young puma, as he had shown in babyhood, was valiant and high-mettled. It was only the unknown, the uncomprehended, that held terrors for him. And he was not one to dwell upon his fears. In a few moments he had forgotten them all in the excitement of sniffing at an absolutely fresh rabbit-track. The warm scent reminded him of his last meal. He proceeded to follow up the trail with all stealth, little guessing that the rabbit, its eyes bulging with terror, was already hundreds of yards away and still fleeing. It had never dreamed that its familiar woodlands could harbour such an apparition of doom as this great, tawny, leaping monster with the eyes of pale flame.

It was not in Mishi's instinct to follow a trail long by the scent alone. Speedily growing discouraged, he hid himself beside the runway, hoping that another rabbit would come along. When he had lain there motionless for perhaps ten minutes, his tawny colour blending perfectly with his surroundings, a couple of brown wood mice emerged from their burrows and began to scurry playfully hither and thither among the fir-needles. Mishi never so much as twitched a whisker while he watched them from the corner of his narrowed eyes. At last they came within reach. Out flashed his swift paw, and crushed them both together. They made hardly a mouthful, but it was a tasty


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/26

 one, and Mishi settled down again to wach hopefully for more.

A few minutes later a red squirrel, one of the most quick-witted and inquisitive of all the creatures of the wild, peering down through the branches, thought that he detected something strange in the shadowy, motionless figure far below. Nearer and nearer he crept, circling noiselessly down the trunk, his big bright eyes ablaze with curiosity, till he was within a couple of yards of Mishi's tail. Then, and not till then, did he catch the glint of Mishi's narrowed eyes fixed upon him, and realize that the shadowy shape was something alive, a new and terrible monster. With a chattering shriek of wrath and fear, he raced up the trunk again, and dancing as if on wires in his excitement, began to shrill out his warning to all the forest dwellers.

In two seconds Mishi was up the tree, gaining the lower branches in one tremendous spring, and scrambling onward like a cat, with a loud rattling of claws. But already the squirrel was several trees away, leaping from bough to bough and shrieking the alarm as he fled. It was taken up by every other squirrel within hearing, and by a couple of impudent blue jays who came fluttering over Mishi's head with screams of insult and defiance. Promptly realizing that there could be no more secrecy for him in this neighbourhood, Mishi


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/27

 dropped to the ground, and made off at a leisurely lope, pretending to ignore his tormentors. The latter followed him for nearly half a mile, till at last, satisfied with their triumph, they returned to their autumn business of gathering beechnuts for the winter store.

The wanderer was by this time much too ravenous to brood over his discomfiture. He must find something to eat. Resuming his stealthy prowl, he presently came to the edge of a little river, its golden-brown current gleaming and flashing in the sun. He was just about to creep down to it and quench his thirst when he saw a small blackish-brown creature, about the length of a rabbit but shorter in the legs and very slim, emerge from the water and crawl forth upon the bank, dragging after it a glistening trout almost as big as itself.

Mishi had never seen a mink before, but he felt sure the little black animal would serve very well for his breakfast. In this, however, he was mistaken. He little knew the mink's elusiveness. The mighty spring with which he launched himself through the screen of leafage was lightning-swift, but when he landed, the mink had vanished as completely as a burst bubble. The fish, however, was there; and wasting no time in vain surmise, Mishi bolted it, head and tail. It was hardly a full meal for a beast of his inches, but it was


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/28

 enough to put him in a better humour with his fate. He followed on up the shore for perhaps a quarter of a mile, half expecting to find another fish. Then, coming to a spot where the stream threaded, with musical clamour, through a line of boulders which afforded him a bridge, he crossed and crept again into the woods.

Almost immediately he came upon a well-beaten trail—a path which, as his nose promptly informed him, had been made by the feet of man. Mishi's heart rose at the sight. Men, to him, meant friends and food and caresses and, above all, Merivale. With high hopes he trotted on up the path till he emerged from the woods upon the edge of a wide, sunny clearing.

Near the centre of the clearing stood a log cabin flanked by a barn and a long, low shed. At one end of the cabin a clump of tall sunflowers flamed golden in the radiant air. From the cabin chimney smoke was rising, and a most hospitable smell of pork and beans greeted Mishi's nostrils. He bounded forward joyously, thinking all his troubles at an end.

But at this very instant a big red rooster, scratching beside the barn, caught sight of the strange, tawny shape emerging from the woods. "Krree-ee-ee!" he shrilled at the top of his piercing voice, and "Kwit-kwit-kwit-eree-ee-ee!" his signal of most urgent warning and alarm. With


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/29

 squawks of fright, all his hens scurried to cover—though the rooster himself, consumed with curiosity, valiantly stood his ground. A black-and-white cur popped round the corner of the barn, stared for a couple of seconds as if unable to believe his eyes, then raced, "kiyi-ing" with horror, towards the cabin door, his tail between his legs.

This was by no means the kind of welcome which Mishi had been expecting, and he paused for a moment, bewildered and rebuffed.

Fortunately for him, he was still at some distance from the cabin when the small window beside the door was thrown open and the stout woman appeared at it with her husband's shotgun. She lifted the butt of the gun to her shoulder as she had seen her husband do, and pulled the trigger.

By some miracle—for the stout woman had made little attempt to aim—a couple of flying pellets grazed one of Mishi's forepaws as it waved conciliatorily in the air. At the crashing report, the clatter, the shriek, and the burning sting of the wound in his paw, Mishi bounced to his feet and went bounding away into the kindly shelter of the forest, his heart bursting with injury.

The sting in Mishi's wounded foot, as well as in his wounded feelings, now kept him going, not fast but steadily, till he had put many miles between himself and the scene of his rebuff. He


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/30

 crossed several rippling amber streams overhung with golden birches and the waxy vermilion clusters of rowan berries. Not till just before sunset did he think about hunting again, and settle down to a stealthy prowl; and in the meantime sharp eyes, wary and hostile or shy and horrified, all unknown to him had marked his progress. Fox and weasel, mink and woodchuck and tuft-eared lynx, all had seen him, and recognized a new and terrible master in the wilderness; and even the indifferent porcupine, secure in his armor of deadly quills, had paused in his gnawing at the hemlock bark and quivered with apprehension as the tawny shape went by. Some ancient instinct warned him that there was a foe who might be clever enough to undo him.

Suddenly Mishi's attention was caught by a noise which curiously excited him, though he knew not why. It was a confused sound of tramplings and stampings and snortings, with now and then a flat clatter as of sticks beaten against each other. With a strange thrill in his nerves he crept forwards, and presently found himself staring out, through fringing bushes, upon a duel between two red bucks in the centre of a little forest glade.

For perhaps a minute Mishi watched the fight with a wondering interest. Then his hunger overcame all other emotions. With a mighty leap he


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/31

 landed upon the shoulder of the nearest buck, bearing him to the ground. At the same time, taught by generations of deer-killing ancestors, he clutched the victim's head with one great paw and twisted it back so violently as to dislocate the neck. With eyes bulging from their heads in horror, the remaining buck and the does crashed off through the woods, leaving the dreadful stranger to his meal.

For several days Mishi remained near his kill, which he had instinctively dragged into a hiding-place behind a fallen tree. He feasted his fill, slept a good deal, explored the neighbourhood of his lair, and began to feel more or less at ease in his new surroundings. Natural instincts rapidly sprang to life in him as he sniffed at strange trails, and he came to realize that the apparently empty forest was full of good hunting if only he should go about the right way to find it. At last, growing tired of the remains of the buck, and the homesickness for his master being again strong upon him, he set forth once more on his quest, working steadily southwards and westwards, and hunting, with daily increasing skill as he went.

It was not until one night well on in October that Mishi made the acquaintance of the real monarch of the northern wilds, the great bull moose. The moon was at the full, a great, honey-coloured globe hanging low over the black, jagged line of


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/32

 the farther shore and flooding the unruffled surface of the lake with a long wash of glassy radiance. About a hundred yards ahead a tall beast, looking to Mishi's eyes like an enormous deer with overgrown head and shoulders, came suddenly forth from the woods, strode slowly down the wide beach, and stood close to the water's edge, black against the moon. Stretching out her heavy muzzle over the water, she gave utterance to a strange call—long, hoarse, sonorous—which went echoing uncouthly over the solitude. She repeated the call several times, and then stood motionless, as if waiting for an answer.

The tall beast did not look to Mishi like easy game, by any means; but being both hungry and self-confident, he crept forwards, seeking a closer inspection before making up his mind whether or not to risk the attack. Suddenly a dry twig snapped close behind him. He wheeled like a flash, saw a monstrous black wide-antlered form towering above him—and leaped aside like a loosed spring, just as a huge knife-edged hoof came smashing down upon the spot where he had stood. That stroke would have shattered his backbone like an eggshell.

The blow was followed by an instant, crashing charge, resistless as an avalanche. But Mishi had not waited for it. He was up a tree in one desperate bound. Badly shaken, he crouched upon


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/33

 a branch at a safe height, spitting and growling harshly, the hair on his long, lashing tail standing out like a bottle-brush. For perhaps five minutes the giant bull raged below; then again from the edge of the shining water came that long call, hoarse but desirous. The furious bull forgot his rage; the stiff mane standing up along his neck relaxed; and he went crashing off through the undergrowth, ardent to respond to that alluring summons.

About a week later—and Mishi had travelled far since his interview with the moose—on a golden afternoon of Indian summer, he came out upon a rough country road, rutted with wheel-marks and pitted with the prints of horses' hoofs. He ached for companionship. He wanted to be made much of. He lay down at full length in the middle of the road, and sniffed at the tracks, and dreamed.

A sound of light footfalls, accompanied by a tiny rattling noise, aroused him. Two children—a long-legged, sandy-haired little girl in a short red frock, white apron and pink sunbonnet, and a stumpy little boy in blue-grey homespun and an old yellow straw hat—came loitering down the road, swinging a tin dinner-pail between them. Mishi was overjoyed. His dreaming had come true. That little girl looked very like his chief playmate on the ranch. He bounced to his feet


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/34

 and ran to meet them, prancing like a gigantic kitten in his delight.

At this appalling apparition the two children dropped the dinner-pail with a loud clatter, stood for one second with eyes starting from their heads, then turned and fled for their lives.

To Mishi the children's flight was all in the game. On the ranch he had been accustomed to chase the children, till they grew tired of running away, when they would turn and chase him, after which he would throw himself down on his back and they would all fall over him. He had been severely taught by Merivale never to be rough in his play. Now he overtook the children, brushed past them, and careered on ahead. The little boy stumbled and fell down, his knees giving way beneath him in his terror, as in a nightmare. The little girl stopped short with a dry sob of anguish, and stood over him, confronting, as she thought, instant death. She shook her apron at Mishi and cried tremulously: "Go way! Scat!"

To her amazement the great tawny beast, instead of pouncing upon her, at the sound of her voice immediately sat up like a pussy-cat and began to purr—a mighty sound, but even to her horrified ears, an unmistakable purr. She stared with all her eyes. Again she cried "Scat"—but with a little more confidence. It was an unfamiliar word to Mishi, and he could not make out what


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/35

 was expected of him. In his uncertainty he played his trump card. He lay down in the road and began to roll, with all four great furry paws waving childishly in the air.

The long-legged little girl was not only heroic at heart; she was also clear-headed and of a quick understanding. She dragged her brother to his feet.

"Why, Freddy, see!" she exclaimed, steadying her voice. "He ain't goin' to hurt us. He likes us. He wants us to play with him." She suddenly recalled the story of Androcles and the lion, which she had read in one of her schoolbooks. "Don't you remember that man in the story, that the big lion loved so?"

Terror slipped away from her.

"Puss! Puss!" she cried. "Nice Pussy!" And she stretched out her free hand, while with the other she thrust Freddy a little behind her. Even to Freddy the great beast began to look less formidable. He stopped crying, to stare with wondering interest. As soon as Mishi got near enough, the little girl, with inward trepidation but outward firmness, patted him on the head, and as if by a flash of insight, pulled his ears, gently but authoritatively.

In an ecstasy, Mishi rubbed his head against her scratched and sunburned legs, purring louder than ever. He felt that all his woes were at an


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/36

 end and that without doubt the children would lead him home to Merivale. The little boy, in violent revulsion from his terrors, began to laugh wildly, and flung his arms round Mishi's neck, rubbing his face into the warm, tawny fur.

"P'haps we kin coax him home with us, an' keep him," suggested Freddy.

The little girl pursed up her mouth doubtfully. "Wish to goodness we could," she answered, embracing the happy Mishi with ardour. "But you know we dassent. Mother would raise an awful row!"

But on this point she had no choice. Mishi absolutely refused to leave them. He stuck to them like a burr, rubbing himself lovingly against them and from time to time eying them with anxious appeal. He was desperately afraid they might vanish and leave him again to his hateful solitude.

The little grey backwoods farmhouse, with its wide farm-yard inclosed by two big barns and a long woodshed, looked very comforting to Mishi as it lay basking in the afternoon sunshine. He felt that he had come home. The kitchen door was flung open, and a woman appeared—a gaunt, lean-featured woman, soured by household cares. At the sight of Mishi her sallow face went white, and her mouth opened for a shriek. But seeing that the children were evidently on the best of


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/37

 terms with the formidable-looking beast, her terror gave way to shrill wrath. She hated household pets of every kind, though the children, like their father, were somewhat recklessly addicted to them.

"What d'you mean," she demanded, "bringing a great big dirty brute like that home with you, to mess up the house and jest make more work for me? Jest like yer father! No more consideration!"

But Mishi already had his head inside the kitchen door, sniffing at the savory smells.

"Git out, you brute!" screamed Mrs. Atkinson, retreating behind the door and making a pass at the purring intruder with her broom.

The children dragged the happy and unresisting animal away from the door. "All right, Mother. We'll tie him up in the cow-shed till Daddy comes home. Don't be frightened."

They got a piece of clothesline, of which there is apt to be plenty on a backwoods farm, and they tied up the puzzled Mishi—as they thought securely—in a corner of the warm, shadowy barn, with plenty of sweet-smelling hay to lie on. Then, having fondled him, and tried to assure him that they would be back "right away" with food, they ran off, leaving the barn door open lest he should feel lonely.

For a minute or two Mishi lay quite still, lis-


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/38

 tening to the rustle of mice in the hay, and watching the long bright streak of dusty sunlight that came through the cracks in the warped board of the barn. Presently he heard the sound of wheels, of trotting hoofs. He pricked up his ears eagerly. How often, on the ranch, had such sounds meant the return of Merivale from a trip to the station! He heard the wagon stop—his ears told him exactly where—outside the other barn. He heard a man jump out. He heard the hollow noises of horse and wagon being led in onto the barn floor. A few moments later a man came into view, striding towards the kitchen door—a tall man, like Merivale, wearing an old brown slouch hat much like Merivale's, and carrying a gun and a brace of partridges. Mishi wrenched his head from its too-loose collar of rope, and went bounding hopefully forth to greet the new arrival.

At sight of the huge tawny beast leaping towards him so swiftly, an anguish of hideous question flashed through the man's mind in the fraction of a second, and turned his blood to ice. Where were the children? Where was his wife? Why was the house so deathly quiet? He whipped the gun to his shoulder. The great beast was within a dozen feet of him. But even as his finger pressed the trigger, the little girl, with a wild scream of, "Don't, Daddy, it's our good lion," sprang upon his arm from behind—and the


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/39

 charge, flying wild, buried itself harmlessly in the side of the barn.

In the next instant, even as he clubbed his gun to meet the expected assault, he was astounded to see his supposed adversary rolling coaxingly at his feet, uttering sounds which were an unmistakable purr. His tense grip on the gun relaxed; and his amazement hitched itself up a few more holes as he saw the children fling themselves joyously upon the monster, pulling its ears and fondling its formidable jaws—while the monster, obviously delighted with their attentions, purred louder and louder.

Jim Atkinson stepped back and scratched his chin thoughtfully as understanding dawned upon him. That very day, at the post office in Bird's Corners, he had read a placard signed by one Merivale, offering a reward of three hundred dollars for the capture, alive and unharmed, of his escaped puma. The placard went on to say that the animal was harmless and affectionate, and answered to the name of Mishi.

"I'll be damned if 'tain't the very one," he muttered. "An' if it hadn't been for Sadie bein' that quick, I'd have shot him!" This was an unpleasant thought, and he dismissed it.

"Mishi," said he authoritatively, "come here!" And the monster, gently disengaging himself from the children, came fawning to his knees, overjoyed


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/40

 to be called by the familiar name again. Taking him lightly by the scruff of the neck, Atkinson led him towards the kitchen door, where his wife stood noncommittally eying the scene.

"Mother," said he, "this here's a tame mountain lion, what the man that owns him sets great store by. I've just seen a notice at the post office, offering three hundred dollars' reward fer gettin' him back."

"Yes, Jim A'kinson, an' you come nigh shootin' the poor beast, if it hadn't 'a' been for Sadie." And Mrs. Atkinson sniffed as if to imply that men had no sense at all. Before her husband could think of any suitable retort, Sadie headed off the argument by crying joyously: "Then we can keep him here, can't we, Daddy?"

"Sure an' sartain," answered Atkinson, "till this here Mr. Merivale comes fer him. An' we'll take right good keer o' him, too. Gosh, Mother, but that three hundred dollars is goin' to come in handy, with the mortgage money due nex' month, and you wantin' a new coat."

Her objection to having animals in her spotless kitchen quite forgotten, Mrs. Atkinson led the way indoors, and herself offered Mishi a tin plateful of buttered pancakes. Mishi devoured them politely, though he would have preferred a chicken. Then, seating himself on his haunches before the kitchen fire, he began to wash his face


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/41

 with his paw like a gigantic tabby. At last he had escaped from the great loneliness. He had come home. And he felt certain that Merivale himself would presently come in by the kitchen door, and stroke his neck and pull his ears with loving roughness as of old.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/42

been a wet spring, cold and belated, and the turbulent Wassis was still in flood, raging between its scarred banks. A couple of hundred yards lower down, it plunged over the forty-foot drop of Great Falls and went crashing, torn to flying snow, through the black and narrow deeps of the gorge. The steady, trampling thunder of its plunge throbbed on the air.

Near the edge of the high bank, but not too near, stood a lanky, long-legged, long-headed moose calf, sniffing at the green and brown leaf-buds of a poplar sapling. Its preposterously long nose was pleased with the scent of the bursting leaf-buds; but the awkward youngster had not yet learned to browse, even upon such delicate fare as poplar-buds. He was still dependent on the abundant milk of his great, dark-coated mother.

The cow moose was at the other side of the glade, forty or fifty paces back from the bank, browsing comfortably on the tender, sappy twigs of a young silver birch. She was a splendid specimen of her race, full five feet high at the tip of her massive, humped shoulders; her brown, furred hide was almost black except along the belly,


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/43

 where it faded to a ruddy fawn, and on the lower parts of the legs, where it was of a pepper-and-salt grey. For all her strength and her imposing appearance, however, she could lay small claim to beauty or grace; her were much too small and meagre to balance her grand shoulders, and her huge head, with its long, overhanging muzzle and immense, donkey-like ears, would have been grotesque had it not looked so formidable.

Presently, turning her head to glance at her offspring, she decided that he was rather closer to the edge of the bluff than prudence would dictate. "M'wha!" she grunted, softly but emphatically. The calf wheeled in answer to the summons. But he did not instantly obey—for, indeed, the call had not been urgent. It had not been the usual danger signal. That cry would have brought him to her side at once. Now, however, he was inclined to be playful, and to tease his anxious mother. He shook his head, and executed an ungainly gambol on his absurdly babyish stilts of legs.

In that same instant, the slight extra impulse of his kick being just what was needed to precipitate the catastrophe, the whole brow of the bluff crumbled beneath him, undermined by the torrent. With an agonized bleat of terror, amid a sinking chaos of turf and stones and bushes, he vanished.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/44

 In a few gigantic strides the black mother reached the spot, with such a rush that she could barely check herself at the brink of the raw red steep. The bank at this point was fully thirty feet high, and practically perpendicular. Bawling piteously, her eyes almost starting from her head, she searched the flood. At first she could see nothing but the bushes and saplings as they swept along in the torrent. Then she caught glimpses of a small, dark form appearing and disappearing among them, feebly kicking, rolled over and over by the conflict of the tortured surges. A few moments more, and calf and wreckage together, with a sickening lunge, went over the abyss.

Crashing through the bushes, and bleating harshly as she went, the frantic mother raced along the bank till she reached a spot just over the falls. Here she paused, and stood staring down into the thunder and the tumult.

For a Jong time the moose cow stood there motionless and silent, her dark, uncouth form sharply outlined against the pallid sky. At last she roused herself, and moved off slowly among the pointed ranks of the fir-trees. In addition to the pain of her loss, she was tormented by the ache of her udder yearning insistently for the warm mouth which it had nursed.

Too restless to feed, she pushed her way far


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/45

 back from the gorge, far back from the hated thunder of the falls, and then wandered aimlessly down the wide valley, moving without a sound through the balsam-scented silence. For all her bulk and the spread of her great, cleft, knife-edged hoofs, she could go through the woods and the undergrowth, when she chose, as noiselessly as a weasel or a fox.

Ordinarily it was the habit of the big cow moose to keep strictly to her own range, a section of the valley about four miles in length and stretching back to the hardwood ridge, some three miles from the river. This was her home, and she knew every inch of it. Now, however, it had grown distasteful to her. Continuing on downstream, a mile below the gorge, she found herself in fresh territory. Crossing a sparsely wooded rise, from which the lumbermen had cleaned out all the heavier timber, she saw below her a valley more spacious than her own, with a stretch of pale green water-meadow, or "intervale," where the wild Wassis joined its current to the broader flood of the Ottanoonsis. In the angle of their junction stood a log cabin and a barn, surrounded by several patches of roughly fenced clearing.

The scene as a whole had no interest for the unhappy mother moose, except for one item in it. In a little grassy inclosure behind the barn, hidden from the cabin windows, was a red calf, stand-


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/46

 ing with its long legs rather wide apart in a posture of insecure and sprawling babyhood.

The loneliness, the helplessness, in the youngling's attitude went straight to the heart of the sorrowful mother. Involuntarily she gave a low, soft call, a call for which there is no name as yet in the vocabulary of either the naturalist or the woodsman. It was neither the mooing of a cow nor the bleating of a ewe, but it held something of both; and it was unmistakably a mother's cry. Faint and far off though it was, the lonely calf heard it, and lifted up his head hopefully.

The great black moose surveyed all the surroundings of that little inclosure with wary eyes, though the longing in her heart and the ache of her burdened udder strove to dull her caution. There was not a man-creature in sight. Satisfied on this point, she moved swiftly, but always noiselessly, down the slope, through the aisles of the fir woods, and halted behind a screen of bushes close to the fence. The red calf was gazing all about him, hoping to hear again that mother call. His colour, his form, his moist, blunt, naked muzzle were all very strange to the silent watcher; but her heart went out to him. Suddenly growing impatient—for he was hungry as well as lonely—he stretched his neck and uttered an appealing, babyish bawl.

To the moose this cry was irresistible. She


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/47

 emerged at once from her hiding, breasted down the rail fence with a crash, and over its ruins strode into the inclosure.

The calf was too young and unsophisticated to be afraid. He was startled, to be sure, by the great black form approaching him so swiftly, but there was no misunderstanding the sounds—hoarse but tender—proceeding from its shaggy throat. It was the same voice, which, heard from far off, had so aroused his hopes. Somewhat doubtfully he allowed himself to be muzzled by the tall, velvet-nosed stranger; but when, with a gesture quite unmistakable, she turned her flank to him coaxingly, his hesitation vanished on the instant, and he greedily began to nurse.

Comforted, but ever vigilant, the moose stood for some minutes, alternately eying her new baby and scanning the barn and the clearing. Then, uneasy in that perilous neighbourhood, she firmly withdrew herself from the calf's eager attentions and moved off towards the gap in the fence, muttering a gentle summons for the youngster to follow. And follow he did, at once, ambling close at her side, desperately afraid lest he should lose her. Presently the curiously assorted pair vanished into the dark green mazes of the fir woods.

It chanced that the owner of the little farm at the mouth of the Wassis was a newcomer to the backwoods. Not an experienced woodsman, not


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/48

 an adept in the wisdom of the wilderness, he was quite at a loss when he found that the calf had disappeared. His efforts to trail the fugitive were a failure, and he came to the conclusion that a hungry bear had broken in and carried off the tender prize. Thereafter he hunted bears with inplacable hostility, though with very scant success, and those wary beasts soon came to know far more about him than he was ever able to learn about them. They sensed his enmity, and kept him under unsuspected observation.

The cow moose, travelling slowly to allow for the weakness of her adopted young, worked her way far past her old range and took up a new one at a safer distance from the clearing. Suspecting that the man-creature might come searching for the calf, she forsook the valley of the Wassis altogether, crossed the ridge, and established herself in a region of small, shallow lakes and wooded knolls drained by one of its wildest tributaries, Burnt Brook. It was a region undisturbed by the lumbermen, because the timber was small and hard to get out, and it lay somewhat aside from the trails of hunter and fisherman.

In this invigorating environment, with abundant food, and exercise exactly fitted to his needs, the red calf throve amazingly. At first it seemed to him that he and his tall new mother were the only dwellers in the wilderness; for his strange


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/49

 colour and stranger scent caused all the shy, furtive creatures to avoid him. But soon they realized that he was as harmless as any ordinary moose calf. Then he saw, all at once, that the solitude was in reality full of life. The tawny deer-mice, intent on their foraging or their play, scurried freely all about him, only taking care to avoid his clumsy hoofs. The weasels glided up and snarled at him insolently with their narrow, bloodthirsty muzzles in the air. The big, bulging-eyed rabbits gamboled about him, glad of the protection afforded them by the presence of his mighty foster mother. And once in a while a crafty red fox, prowling past in search of a quarry, would halt and sit up on his ruddy brush of a tail to stare at him in wonder and interrogation, amazed that a moose cow should give birth to so curious a calf. The calf, full of childish pugnacity, would invariably run and butt at the bushytailed stranger. And that superior and self-assured animal, recognizing his childishness, would slip away with an indulgent sniff.

After the cold, late spring, summer came upon the wilderness world with a rush, and all the browns and rosy greys and ochre yellows and dusk purples were submerged in floods of ardent green. As the heat grew and the flies became troublesome, the calf learned from his foster mother the trick of wading out into the lake till only his head


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/50

 was above water. Then, plunging his head under to secure a mouthful of water-lily root, which the mother taught him to relish, he would drown his winged tormentors by the myriad.

To join them in this cool retreat one day came two big black moose bulls. At this season their new antlers—the old ones having been shed early in the preceding winter—had not yet begun to sprout, and so they looked very much like the cow, except for their greater bulk and height. At this time of year they had no thought of mating, and so there was no jealous rivalry between them; their attitude towards the comely cow was one ofgood-natured indifference. But the red calf, which seemed to belong to her, excited their keenest curiosity. They stood and eyed him intently for some moments, while he returned the formidable stare quite unabashed. Presently they strode up close to him, one on each side, and sniffed him over, with loud snortings, and harsh mumblings in their throats. Not quite liking these attentions, the red calf drew back a step or two. Apparently there was some disapproval in their mumblings; for suddenly the cow, with an angry grunt, ran at them, and shouldered the nearest bull aside without ceremony.

The two bulls, respecting the sacred rights of a mother, promptly gave way, and wandered off lazily down to the water to pull lily-roots. If a cow


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/51

 of their species was unfortunate enough to give birth to such a ridiculous and unmooselike offspring, well, it was her own affair and they were not disposed to worry about it. Thereafter, when any of the bulls of her kind were about, the cow always made haste to show that the red calf was hers, in order to avoid any possible unpleasantness. She was, indeed, as often happens, more devoted to this strange foster-child of hers than she had ever been to her own offspring. She never quite understood his moods or his manners, and this kept her interest keen.

It was not till late autumn, indeed, that the red calf realized it was possible for his dark mother to have any interest in life except himself. When his green world had turned to a riot of purple and russet and pale gold and flaming scarlet, and the wax-vermilion of the mountain-ash berries hung in lavish clusters over the white granite rocks, and thin frosts laced and powdered the glades at sunrise with sparkling silver and opal, he found his mother growing restless and sometimes forgetful of his presence. By this time the moose bulls, whom he occasionally caught sight of as they strode through the underbrush, had grown their mighty palmated antlers, and become so magnificent as to impress even his audacious and irreverent young spirit. He experienced his first sense of awe when he heard them bellowing their hoarse


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/52

 challenges across the night and thrashing the bushes fiercely with their antlers.

One still, crisp night in October, when the lakes lay glassy silver and steel beneath a low primrose-coloured moon, the tall cow wandered down the beach, stretched her head out over the water and gave voice to a long, sonorous call which was unlike anything the calf had ever before heard her utter. It was answered almost at once by a harshly eager voice from the black woods around the outlet. Puzzled and anxious, the calf trotted down and nosed at his mother to attract her attention. To his surprise she brushed him aside with a sweep of her great head, impatiently. Much offended, he drew away. There was something in the air which he did not understand, and so he too stood waiting, like his mother.

Some minutes later the thick bushes on the bank above parted noiselessly, and a trim young bull, with slender antlers only in the third year, stepped down the beach. The cow turned her head to greet him with a guttural murmur of welcome. Before responding, however, the newcomer, with a threatening squeal, lowered his antlers, and chased the indignant calf away some fifty yards up the beach. Then he strode back proudly to the waiting cow, and the two began to make friends, sniffing at and caressing each other with their long, sensitive muzzles.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/53

 These pleasant preliminaries of courtship, however, were rudely interrupted. From back in the thickets came a mighty challenging roar, followed by a heavy crashing. The young bull wheeled about and roared furiously in reply, prepared to fight for his new mate. But when, a moment later, a gigantic black head, with antlers as wide again as his own, appeared above the bushes, the young bull's heart misgave him. The new arrival came smashing down upon the beach, roaring and snorting, magnificent in his prime. Whereupon the unfortunate youngster, knowing himself hopelessly overmatched, turned tail and made off at his best speed, to hide his discomfiture in the fir woods, while the faithless cow welcomed the newcomer with enthusiasm.

A few hours later, when the pair withdrew among the trees to lie down and sleep, the lonely calf, venturing to approach his mother again, was received with quite the old affection. The great bull, perceiving this, and being too experienced to be jealous of such an infant, showed no objection to his company. In the chill grey of dawn they all rose to their feet and fell to browsing together till the sunrise broke in gold and fiery rose over the misty lake.

After two or three rebuffs the calf learned to keep his distance at times, but for the greater part of the time he had no reason to resent the


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/54

 stranger's presence. A day or two later, moreover, he found that the great bull, though so scornfully indifferent to him, was not indifferent to his duties as temporary father-by-adoption. It was towards midnight, and the cow and bull were down by the water in the flooding moonlight, while the calf, driven away and for the time forgotten, stood dejected behind a clump of osiers some fifty or sixty yards along the beach. A hungry bear, seizing the opportunity, launched himself down the bank and rushed upon the desolate figure, expecting an easy prey. Just in time to evade that fatal rush the calf saw the danger. Bawling shrilly with terror he dashed down the beach, the bear in hot pursuit and swiftly overhauling him.

But the calf's wild appeal did not fall on deaf ears. The stiff black manes lifting along their necks with wrath, both the bull and the cow came charging up the beach to his rescue. The bear, rounding the osier thicket, was just gathering himself for the final spring, when he caught sight of the rescuers. He was a big bear, old and of ugly temper, and the cow alone he would not have hesitated to tackle. But when he saw the stature of the great bull he was seized with sudden discretion. He stopped short, hesitated for a second, and then withdrew, grumbling but dignified, behind the osiers. The cow halted beside the


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/55

 calf, to nuzzle him and inquire if he was hurt. But the bull, beside himself with rage, charged on and came crashing straight through the osiers. Whereupon the bear, appalled at his fury, threw dignity to the winds and fled at full gallop, like a frightened cat, leaving the triumphant bull to thrash the bushes and roar his defiance.

The great bull stayed with the red calf and his mother for five or six days, and then wandered off in search of other mates. But these, as it appeared, failed to hold his fancy; for towards the end of November, after the first heavy snowfall, he returned, and took charge of the family for the winter. Moving back from the lake to a sheltered and thick-wooded valley where such forage as moose love—especially birch and poplar and maple—was abundant, he established their winter quarters. There they trampled down deep paths in the ever-increasing snow, and lay snugly housed from storm beneath the dense branches of an overhanging hemlock. The calf, fortunately for him-! self, had learned from his mother to browse on twigs and not to depend on grass for his nourishment, and so he got through the winter without starving.

The intense cold was a searching trial to the calf, but by sleeping huddled between his mother and the bull—who had lost his antlers soon after Christmas—he managed to keep from freezing,


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/56

 while his red coat grew so long and shaggy that his late owner, back at the clearing on the Ottanoonsis, would never have recognized him. The return of spring found him emaciated but vigorous, and with a fierce appetite for the long, brown, withered grass of open swales and for the succulent roots of the sweet-flag and bulrush along the edges of the lake. He was heartily sick of birch-twigs. When the trees began to film with green beneath the sun and showers of May, the big bull wandered off; and the Red Calf and his mother (she had failed through some mischance, to produce a new calf that season) found themselves once more alone together beside their lonely lake.

The summer passed rather uneventfully, and by autumn Red Calf was a sturdy and agile young bull, armed with a pair of horns which were short but exceedingly sharp. Pugnacious of disposition, but with no foe to vent his pugnacity upon, he was forever butting at dead stumps and testing those new horns of his by goring and tossing the tangled bush. His mother, still devoted as ever, would watch with mild amazement these exuberant antics, so unlike what those of her own calf would have been.

When the mating moon of October began again to stir new fire in the cow's veins, Red Calf got his first chance to put his untried prowess to the test. One evening just after moonrise, before the


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/57

 restless cow had begun to call, a young moose bull came striding down the beach to her side. He was very young, and the cow regarded him dubiously. Glancing past her, he caught sight of Red Calf, a stocky figure, much shorter but much heavier than himself. Aflame with jealousy, but at the same time rather contemptuous of such an unantlered rival, he lowered his own slim antlers, and charged. Red Calf, with a wrathful grunt, flung up his tail stiffly and lunged forwards to meet this unprovoked attack. With a heavy thud the two armed heads crashed together. The result was disastrous to the challenger; for instead of receiving the shock, as he expected, upon his tough, elastic antlers, he got it full upon his forehead, his brow-spikes being too wide-set to engage his opponent's stumpy horns. Half stunned, he was borne backwards, almost to his haunches. Pressing the advantage, Red Calf flung him aside, staggering, and prodded him sayagely in the flank before he could recover his balance. Utterly daunted by this method of fighting—which was not according to his rules—the young bull tore himself free and fled in panic, with an ugly scarlet gash in his sleek hide. The victor chased him as far as the bushes, and then, swelling with triumph, returned to his mother for applause. To his amazement, however, she seemed very far from pleased at his achievement.


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/58

 Her mane on end, she ran at him with a vicious squeal. Much offended, he retired up the bank, and lay down sulkily among the willows.

Some hours later, in response to the cow's repeated calls, another wooer appeared. But this time it was the same gigantic bull who had spent the winter with them. He was more lordly and more superbly antlered than ever; and his authority Red Calf never dreamed of questioning. The great bull, for his part, did not regard the youngster as a rival, and showed him no hostility. The mother, delighted to have her old magnificent mate back, forgot her fit of ill-temper. And the reunited group, harmonious and contented, hung together through the ensuing winter.

In April, as soon as the snow was gone from the open spaces, the great bull went away. For several weeks more the cow and her foster son roamed and pastured together as of old, in affectionate intimacy. And then, when the woods once more were greening in the May sunshine, the cow's mood changed. She grew impatient of her sturdy young companion's presence, and was continually trying to slip away from him. Much puzzled, he so far humoured her as to keep his distance, but he took care never to let her actually out of his sight.

Red Calf was now no longer a calf in any sense. He was a particularly fine and powerful


text:
Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/59

 two-year-old bull. Expert in forest lore as any moose, he was nevertheless an alien to the wilderness, driven by needs and instincts which he could not understand. The wilderness had no companionship to offer him save that of his foster mother, and this seemed now to be failing him. He was unhappy. Vague, ancestral half-memories haunted and eluded him. The life of the wilds, the only life he could conceive of, grew distasteful to him. Though he could not be aware of it, the wilderness was, indeed, his foe, hostile at heart to him because his race for ten thousand generations had belonged to Man and been stamped with Man's impress. It was even now beginning to show its enmity. In the end it would have crushed him, but only, perhaps, after years of bitter, unmated solitude, and savage hates and the torment of vain cravings. But the Unseen Powers relented, and offered him a noble exit from the ill-suited stage.

And this was the manner of it. There came a day when the moose cow, about to become a mother again, took refuge determinedly in the heart of a dense and dark clump of young fir trees. Red Bull knew exactly where she was, and having got it into his head at last that she wanted to be alone, he reluctantly endured her absence from his sight. There in her hiding-place she gave birth to two dark brown