DEATH OF THE MOOSE COW 69 



hair at all save for a long black pigtail twisted 

 about his shiny head like a cap. A cunning, leer- 

 ing, pock-marked creature, carrying a knife between 

 his teeth. Prodding the calf in the ribs with 

 sharply-pointed clawy nails, he spoke in a high, 

 thin treble, quite unlike any sound the moose had 

 ever heard in the forest before. It was so thin, so 

 ugly, harsh, and rasping. 



" What for you catchee him alive ? You savvy 

 me wan tee meat. You no wantee him die all same 

 cow i 



" Nope I" said the red-haired man. '* I'll take 

 him to the trading post for Sadie. Will she be 

 glad to have him ? Wal, I should smile !" 



The calf lay huddled as he fell, and in no way 

 realized it was his mother they were dismember- 

 ing. Somehow he only thought of her in one way, 

 as the most vital and stirring of spirits, so pecu- 

 liarly ahve that it would be impossible to snufF her 

 out. Therefore he watched the hauling away of 

 gruesome odds and ends of moose meat dispas- 

 sionately. 



It came to his turn to be lifted on to the im- 

 provised sledge of logs, and hauled over stones and 

 between trees to an untidy clearing, littered with 



