YOUTHFUL EXPERIENCES 59 



defiance. Again and again she returned to the 

 attack, pecking the coarse-haired fetlocks, screaming 

 in furious chuckles her commands to begone. Her 

 tactics, though so obvious and on so small a scale, 

 reminded the calf of his mother, from whom he 

 had roamed too far. Were all mothers like this, 

 he wondered, so courageous, so forgetful of self, 

 and faithful unto death ? 



He turned to go back, looking at the crushed 

 atom regretfully — his first hint of death. 



Cheep I Cheep ! Turning his head, he caught a 

 glimpse of a sanctuary of cover, something like his 

 own well - remembered sanctuary on the island, 

 and within his tiny enemy collected her chickens 

 beneath sheltering wings. 



Curiously, in all his few weeks of wandering, the 

 calf had not met another fully-grown specimen of 

 his kind. He heard the noise of their careless 

 passing often, the odd, unforgettable clacking of 

 their hoofs, their deep chest grunts, and the crash 

 of displaced bushes, as a great beast went off at a 

 tearing pace, but always a barring belt of trees or 

 thickly growing devil's-club stood between. 



In the soft hush of a perfect afternoon the looked- 

 for vision materialized. The moose had sought the 



