220 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



food scraps in that place. Does a Wolf of some other 

 tribe run by, driven by fear; he may not be even seen, 

 but he writes in his track and stopping-places the 

 message that he wishes other Wolves to know. Every 

 hair that bristles on a Wolf's back has its own mean- 

 ing. 



''Now listen to the story of this Wolf, wiiose skin 

 is on the floor. He and his mate hunted together, 

 often dashing at a horse or Deer, tearing its running 

 sinews from behind, with tlieir sliarp teeth, or some- 

 times picking up a calf that ran beside its mother, 

 always having good eating. Often tliey would find 

 a Deer's trail, running from its day cover to a spring, 

 or to its dainty wood pasturage. The Wolves did not 

 wisli to run together openly, for Deer are very swift, 

 and would lead them a weary race, so they would sniff 

 the night wind and get before it so that it might not tell 

 their doings to the Deer. The wind is fickle, an enemy 

 to all hunters, alwa3^s carrying along the latest gossip. 

 Then one wolf would lie hidden by the runway, while 

 his mate would show herself openly, and drive the 

 Deer, at first gentl}^ then tiercel}', until it would run 

 blindly in a circle (a habit of the family) to its first 

 cover, past the A^er}^ spot where the other Wolf lay like 

 a living trap; one spring brought down the Deer and 

 then the pair feasted at leisure.'' 



" Oh, then that is what 'A Trap ' means on this 

 picture. The Wolf was a trap for the Deer," said 

 Dodo. '' But how did the Wolf come to die and be 

 made into this rug?" 



'' Bad days came soon after to the pair. The she- 

 wolf vanished, House People cleared the timber from 



