164 THE MOOSE 



and the tragedy of the ill-natured tuft-eared lynx 

 kitten who fell into the river and was drowned. A 

 lynx kitten who lives on a high bluff overhanging 

 running water should be careful how he scraps and 

 fights. 



Then came the rushing movement of the moose 

 love-season, the furious thrashing of the trees, the 

 calling, the clashing of horns as bull met bull 

 in mortal combat, the groans and grunts of the 

 victorious and the beaten. A time of thrills which 

 heralded the first romance in Moosewa's life. 



No memory lives so long or so sweetly in the 

 heart as that of a first love. Other loves lesser 

 and greater may to some extent obliterate clear 

 recollection, but something of its song remains. 

 It was that way with the young moose. When 

 he was old, and the panorama of his life lay behind 

 him, and the procession of his long-dead loves 

 moved shadow-like down leafless forest aisles, he 

 remembered 1 



The mate Moosewa found for himself that 

 autumn was in no way worthy of him. Actuated 

 by the same motive — whatever it may be — which 

 moves so many young human males to fall in love 

 with women old enough to be their mothers, the 



