WAPISTAN THE MARTEN 255 



steel jaws, little wapistan must wait wait for what? 

 For the same thing that comes to the poor &quot; fool-hen &quot; 

 when wapistan goes crashing through the brush after 

 her; for the same thing that comes to the baby squir 

 rels when wapistan climbs a tree to rob the squirrel s 

 nest, eat the young, and live in the rifled house; for the 

 same thing that comes to the hoary marmot whistling 

 his spring tune just outside his rocky den when wapis 

 tan, who has climbed up, pounces down from above. 

 Little death-dealer he has been all his life; and now 

 death comes to him for a nobler cause than the stuffing 

 of a greedy maw for the clothing of a creature nobler 

 than himself man. 



The otter can protect himself by diving, even div 

 ing under snow. The mink has craft to hide himself 

 under leaves so that the sharpest eyes cannot detect 

 him. Both mink and otter furs have very little of that 

 animal smell which enables the foragers to follow their 

 trail. What gift has wapistan, the marten, to protect 

 himself against all the powers that prey? His strength 

 and his wisdom lie in the little stubby feet. These can 

 climb. 



A trapper s dog had stumbled on a marten in a 

 stump hole. A snap of the marten s teeth sent the dog 

 back with a jump. Wapistan will hang on to the nose 

 of a dog to the death; and trappers dogs grow cautious. 

 Before the dog gathered courage to make another rush, 

 the marten escaped by a rear knot-hole, getting the 

 start of his enemy by fifty yards. Off they raced, the 

 dog spending himself in fury, the marten keeping 

 under the thorny brush where his enemy could not 

 follow, then across open snow where the dog gained, 

 then into the pine woods where the trail ended on the 



