THE WANDERER 101 



" Trudge, pack, and begone 1" counselled the 

 wardens of the wild. 



With a shuffle he backed off his log, and on all 

 fours went off plantigrade fashion into the dim 

 forest. 



The polish on the tree-stem and heads of fish in 

 varying stages of decomposition betrayed the fact 

 that this was a favourite backwater of Bruin's. 

 Moosewa would have liked to catch the furry 

 fisherman at work again, but he never returned. 

 He was wary and fished elsewhere, or the ripening 

 berries of the bounteous forest satisfied him. 



For a while the young deer lived in the wooded 

 ridges, high and wind-swept, because he had no 

 adviser to tell him of the regions best suited to the 

 variable conditions of the seasons. He had them 

 practically to himself. All the bulls were now in 

 the marshlands, where they sought, after the last 

 of the snows, the luxuriantly growing junipers and 

 dwarf willows. Between the high ridges and the 

 low - lying swamps, in sheltered timbered glades, 

 the cows and calves roamed sequestered. 



Persistent autumnal rains ruffled in time the 

 surface of his philosophy, such sweeping showers, 

 slanting on the keen breath of the ice-touched 



