THE MOOSE 



CHAPTER I 



BIKTH AND INFANT DAYS 



" Nature hath made a fair creature." 



As Yo7i Like It. 



" In this covert will we make our stand, 

 Culling the principal of all the deer." 



Henry VI. 



He was born towards the middle of June, on an 

 islet in a sheltered backwater of an Alaskan river, 

 a stUl reach so extensive that to the moose calf it 

 seemed a lake. 



Not even his mother could call him beautiful. 

 The little engineers and contractors working on 

 the beaver dam, which would presently span the 

 narrowest end of the lagoon, thought him down- 

 right ugly ; but the beaver beauty standard is of 

 their own making, and something we should not 

 altogether understand. 



There was a quaint and taking charm about the 



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