THE FOREST KING 173 



was burnt out from the browsing point of view, and 

 useless for a year or two, he took himself far away — 

 to deeper forests, fire-proof and rain-soaked. 

 4c 4: * ♦ « 



The seasons passed — springs, summers, autumns, 

 winters — all very much the same, distinguished 

 only from each other by extra cold spells or un- 

 expected rises in a never very high temperature. 



Moosewa was nine years old, at the zenith of his 

 career, lord of the forest, and he knew it. Pride 

 in himself was just as natural a thing to him as a 

 centre is to a circle. With him pride did not go 

 before destruction, nor a haughty spirit before a fall. 

 He knew himself to be invincible. It was a grand 

 sensation, the realization that he was a bull of the 

 rarest bulk, more wonderfully horned, coated, and 

 belled, fleeter and stronger than any other he had 

 ever come across in all his wanderings — a bull, too, 

 with a specialized knowledge of his world which 

 should keep him alive for years. 



Warlike bulls in the mating season, when as a 

 rule reason abdicates, looked narrowly at the 

 belligerent monster before engaging him in battle. 



" Conquest is not given by chance. 

 But, bound by fatal and resistless merit, 

 Waits on his arms,"" 



