bO STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



and kill in times of plenty as if for the mere greed of 

 killing, snatching a bite here, a fragment there, then 

 wasting all the rest. They also have one virtue, which 

 is common enough among the birds, but rare in four- 

 foots, they love their mates; and a friend of mine 

 who knows Wolves as well as we know people, tells a 

 story of the fiercest, slyest Wolf of all the southwest, 

 who, in despair at having lost his mate, rushed headlong 

 into a trap. 



"The home life of the Wolf is very short. His house is 

 only a hole under some roots, or a sheltering cave, which 

 covers half a dozen little woolly puppies in the late 

 spring. Then the Wolves are happy, for it is the season 

 when the Deer are fattening on the young grass and 

 wear soft new horns. From this time follows six months 

 of good living, then half a year that is a war with 

 famine. Wolves do not sleep the lazy winter sleep like 

 Bears, but hunt in packs, plotting to make a living like 

 human thieves. If it had not been that long ago they 

 ate the meat of knowledge, they would be gone and no 

 one would understand the cry of Wolf ! As it is, there 

 are still many of them in the northwest grazing country, 

 and they increase here and there mysteriously from 

 Texas to North Dakota even if men continually hunt 

 and harry them and Deer are few ; for if bread fails 

 them, they relish cake, by which I mean to say that, it 

 they can't find venison, they are quite content with veal 

 and mutton. 



" All f ourfoots understand the speech of scent, more 

 or less, but Wolves certainly are wise with uncommon 

 wisdom and have a wonderful sign and scent language. 

 If one of the tribe dies of poison, the others will not eat 



