Old Ephraim 337 



sun may be outside. We made no sound ourselves, 

 and every little sudden noise sent a thrill through 

 me as I peered about with each sense on the alert. 

 Two or three of the ravens that we had scared from 

 the carcass flew overhead, croaking hoarsely; and 

 the pine tops moaned and sighed in the slight breeze 

 for pine trees seem to be ever in motion, no mat 

 ter how light the wind. 



After going a few hundred yards the tracks turned 

 off on a well-beaten path made by the elk ; the woods 

 were in many places cut up by these game trails, 

 which had often become as distinct as ordinary 

 foot-paths. The beast s footprints were perfectly 

 plain in the dust, and he had lumbered along up the 

 path until near the middle of the hillside, where the 

 ground broke away and there were hollows and 

 bowlders. Here there had been a windfall, and the 

 dead trees lay among the living, piled across one 

 another in all directions ; while between and around 

 them sprouted up a thick growth of young spruces 

 and other evergreens. The trail turned off into the 

 tangled thicket, within which it was almost certain 

 we would find our quarry. We could still follow 

 the tracks, by the slight scrapes of the claws on the 

 bark, or by the bent and broken twigs; and we ad 

 vanced with noiseless caution, slowly climbing over 

 the dead tree trunks and upturned stumps, and not 

 letting a branch rustle or catch on our clothes. When 

 in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was 

 almost a breastwork of fallen logs, and Merrifield, 

 who was leading, passed by the upright stem of a 



O VOL. IV. 



