reassure herself that her eyes are not deceived 



I QQ 



and that Tookhees is really there under the 

 mossy stone where she saw the scurry of his 

 little legs and heard his frightened squeak as 

 he disappeared. Cunn 



But why should a cat watch at a trout 

 pool, out of which nothing ever comes to 

 reward his patience ? That was a puzzling 

 question for many years. I had seen Pekompf 

 many times stretched on a log, or lying close 

 to a great rock over the water, so intent on 

 his watching that he heard not my cautious 

 approach. Twice from my canoe I had seen 

 Upweekis the lynx on the shore of a wilder- 

 ness lake, crouched among the weather-worn 

 roots of a stranded pine, his great paws 

 almost touching the water, his eyes fixed 

 with unblinking stare on the deep pool below. 

 And once, when trout fishing on a wild river 

 just opposite a great jam of logs and drift- 

 wood, I had stopped casting suddenly with 

 an uncanny feeling of being watched by 

 unseen eyes at my solitary sport. 



It is always well to heed such a warning 

 in the woods. I looked up and down quickly ; 



