Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



jewels, with a long, dark, misty depth in each, 

 through which the whole bright world was born 

 and mirrored on his brain. 



There is no greater joy to the truly living 

 thing than the joy of being alive, of feeling 

 alive in every part and power. It was a joy to 

 Krag now to stretch his pe r fect limbs in a shock 

 of playful battle with his friends. It was a joy 

 to press his toes on some thin ledge, then sail 

 an impossible distance across some fearful 

 chasm to another ledge, whose size and dis- 

 tance he gauged with absolute precision. It 

 was a joy to him to set the Mountain Lions at 

 naught by a supple ricochet from rock to rock, 

 or to turn and drive the bounding Blacktail band 

 down pell-mell backward to their own, the 

 lower, levels. There was a subtle pleasure in 

 every move, and a glorying in his glorious 

 strength, which, after all, is beauty. And when 

 to such a being the early winter brought also 

 the fire of love and set him all aglow, he was 

 indeed a noble thing to see. In very wanton- 

 ness of strength and power, he bounded, ball- 

 like, up or down long, rugged slopes, leaping 

 six feet high where one would have fully an- 



61 



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