SANCTUARY 195 



which so boldly claimed a share of that hospitality 

 that has no equal anywhere, moved him strangely. 



It was very extraordinary, very curious. Had 

 anyone told him of the incident he would have 

 laughed at it for a trapper's yarn, one of many 

 similar yarns, " natural history incidents " the men 

 from the back of beyond reel off during the lurid 

 two months a year spent in what, for want of a 

 better name, they call " civilization." 



Ten months they spend in the woods and two 

 in a trading-post — trapping during the winter, 

 at the trading-post in late spring. Back they 

 go to the distant locality selected in summer, 

 and knock together the shacks, placed along the 

 miles of trap-linas in autumn. Always the same 

 for years. 



Yes, he had heard many such tall yarns as this ; 

 had told as good himself. Yet here he was face 

 to face with an extraordinary reality. It was no 

 dream. There lay the moose, probably the same 

 animal after whom he had sped on snow-shoes 

 throughout the day. 



And somehow he felt that his hand could never 

 be against the moose tribe any more — the Law of 

 the Bush would forbid. More than once he had 



