BIRTH AND INFANT DAYS 15 



the eerie long-drawn hunting call which any bush 

 creature is able to pick out, even a tenderfoot new 

 to the wild. Up and down his spine pricked 

 something the calf had never felt before. He 

 shook himself, and was startled to realize that his 

 young limbs were trembling violently. 



Hungry and indescribably forlorn, he sought his 

 bed of rotting leaves, his one home in all the vastness 

 round about him. He knew himself forsaken now, 

 and his end certain. No other of his kind lived on 

 the island, or perhaps he would have gone to them 

 for help. Had not his mother told him of the 

 infinite charity of many a cow moose, of the foster 

 children she herself had reared ? 



He thought himself too wretched to sleep, but 

 the necromancy of the night and the silence of 

 resting things lulled him to slumber. 



An exploring mink, dwelling softly on partly 

 webbed toes, took a look into the gloomy covert 

 with diamond bright eyes, before passing on to dig 

 for beetles and larvae in the soft soil below the trees. 

 He had no great admiration for moose, who could 

 swim certainly, indifferently well compared with the 

 mink, and climb trees not at all. But the small 

 beast lying alone in the brake looked pretty enough, 



