DEATH OF THE MOOSE COW 73 



him up again. Just for a moment his startled 

 eyes met those of his persecutors, and in their 

 depths he saw mirrored the same light that had 

 made the moose cow's eyes so beautiful ; the bear's 

 eyes had it too, the wolverine's, and the skunk's — 

 all the wilderness people. It spoke of freedom. 

 They were free as the birds, these wild red men of 

 the woods, and yet they baited him — a prisoner I 



" Quit I" said a curt, drawling voice from behind. 

 " And git, every man of yer I" 



The tormentors passed, as did the hours which 

 seemed days, all very cold, very bleak, very much 

 alike, until at last a make-beheve civiHzation was 

 reached — civilization — and Sadie I 



She came to greet him, rushing excitedly out of 

 her log shanty, with its two sleeping bunks ranged 

 against the walls, its small stove, and a bench 

 crammed with blankets and trade goods for barter 

 with the Indians, and stroked his coat, and told him 

 as he shrank away that he must not be frightened, 

 for she would make him happier than he had ever 

 been, that he had come to be her companion in the 

 loneliness. But this last she whispered in his big 

 ear, lest any other should catch the confidence. 



He was taken to a small corral, churned into 



10 



