A CAPRICIOUS BEAST 65 



Like the rest of the deer tribe the moose is afraid of 

 fire and smoke ; and yet I have known a bull, when 

 wild with passion, to charge into a camp where a log 

 fire was burning and a French Canadian cook was 

 busy washing his dishes in front of it. 



The sudden entrance of the bull created considerable 

 excitement and for awhile he made it warm enough in 

 that camp to dispense with any other sort of fire. 

 Without any ceremony, further than bending his head, 

 he went for the cook and chased him out to the water, 

 where the astonished dishwasher jumped into a canoe 

 and paddled hastily from the shore, shouting to the 

 irate moose : " Sacre, mon dieu ! It is a meestake — I 

 did not make ze call ! " 



During the mating season there is no denying the 

 heroism of the bull-moose, nor the courageous care 

 with which he watches over the welfare of his mistress. 

 But when his passion is on the wane, his courage, like 

 that of Bob Acres, oozes out and leaves him with the 

 heart of a chicken. At these times, if *he happens to be 

 out on a promenade with his lady, he politely asks her 

 to walk in front of him. Of course such a request 

 would be commendable were it not for the ugly sus- 

 picion that something else than politeness lurks behind 

 it. He is always brimming with caution, and who 

 can say that he is not aware of the hundred-dollar 

 fine and four-months' imprisonment that await the 

 slayer of his mistress ? If he is, then, as " self-preser- 



