YOUTHFUL EXPERIENCES 49 



He seemed in no hurry, and paused sometimes to 

 listen, lifting his massive head as he sniffed the 

 breeze for a hint of danger. 



The calf stood transfixed. There before them 

 stood an animal who must surely be the most 

 gigantic in the world I Beside this mammoth the 

 moose cow, who had hitherto appeared so enormous, 

 was but a mosquito ! Ought they not to rush away, 

 to put the bush between them ? 



But the cow was intent on sampling the grasses 

 growing higher than the tangled bracken. What 

 was a brown bear to her at the moment ? 



Rising up suddenly, active as a kitten, the bear 

 supported himself against a birch-tree, leaning his 

 broad back against it nonchalantly. Ever and again 

 he stretched his neck and snapped a bit out of the 

 silver bark by turning his head sideways adroitly. 



It was a game, perhaps, a game bears played. 



Up the tree to an almost incredible height were 

 recent scars, but none trenched on the new marks 

 in process of making, lofty intimations that unless 

 a larger bear came along — a colossus who could 

 inscribe his autograph at a still greater altitude — 

 it would be well for such a one to move on to 

 another corner of the wilderness. 



7 



