A DAY IN THE BIG WOODS 171 



down over the road, and its leaves, at the angle she 

 was carrying her head, prevented her from seeing me. 

 My first thought was that she might be followed by 

 the bull, and I therefore made one step to the right. 

 At the sound of that one step she stopped. She 

 couldn't see me, because of the sapling, and I couldn't 

 see her now, because the trunk of a tree intervened. 

 And there we stood, listening to each other, but 

 neither of us moved. Minute after minute passed and 

 in the meantime I did a heap of thinking, standing 

 there with nearly my whole weight on one foot until 

 the strain became unbearable. Yet I dare not put 

 the other down for fear it might crack the dead 

 branches which lay there and the noise of it be fatal. 



I calculated that in all probability the bull had come 

 along the road with her, and had stopped a little way 

 behind. If this were so, I would soon have the pleas- 

 ure of seeing two moose instead of one. But my 

 calculations were all out of joint. The minutes 

 passed away and still the old cow stood there, but no 

 bull made his appearance to console me. At last she 

 saw me, and when she did, she turned a little to the 

 left and entered the woods, slowly and quietly, and 

 without showing the slightest sign of alarm. 



Her tracks proved her to be a moose which had 

 been prowling around the dam for several nights past. 

 After this episode I reached the Caribou Bog, stayed 

 there during the forenoon and thence went back to 



