48 THE MOOSE 



of going off with the resounding, betraying snaps 

 which followed on his passing. Her long and 

 sharply - pointed hoofs were just like his, their 

 laterals just as loosely attached, if they had any- 

 thing to do with it. Why could he not walk so 

 silently, with the same speed and swing and easy 

 grace ? He tried to imitate the mechanical measure 

 of her tread for a while, but his young limbs refused 

 to answer the fretting strain, and, with a bound 

 and a sideway spring, he took the next obstacle — a 

 thickly-growing salmon-berry bush — in his stride. 

 What matter how he walked, so that he walked ? 

 It was a beautiful world, and he was alive, he was 

 alive I 



A confused sense of tainted air struck on the 

 calfs sniffing nostrils, a strong, evil aroma which 

 hung round the bushes and drifted on the breeze ; 

 but the cow held on calmly, passing over a human- 

 looking track, some eight inches or so across, the 

 trail of a large-footed bear, quite recent, damp, and 

 oozy. 



A lurking, ponderous form skulked ahead, now 

 curving off into the alders, which, owing to his 

 weight, the huge beast pressed aside as though 

 they were rushes, now keeping to the bush path. 



