128 Wilderness Ways. 



they had been scared into showing their temper; else 

 I had never seen them in the underbrush. Fortu- 

 nately for me, the fierce old mother was away. Had 

 she been there, I should undoubtedly have had more 

 serious business on hand than watching her kittens. 



They had not seen more of me than my shoes and 

 stockings ; so when I stole after them, to see what they 

 were like, they were waiting under a bush to see what 

 I was like. They jumped away again, spitting, without 

 seeing me, alarmed by the rustle which I could not 

 avoid making in the cover. So I followed them, just 

 a quiver of leaves here, a snarl there, and then a rush 

 away, until they doubled back towards the rocky place, 

 where, parting the underbrush cautiously, I saw a dark 

 hole among the rocks of a little opening. The roots 

 of an upturned tree arched over the hole, making a 

 broad doorway. In this doorway stood two half-grown 

 lucivees, fuzzy and gray and savage-looking, their 

 backs still up, their wild eyes turned in my direction 

 apprehensively. Seeing me they drew farther back 

 into the den, and I saw nothing more of them save 

 now and then their round heads, or the fire in their 

 yellow eyes. 



It was too late for further observation that day. 

 The fierce old mother lynx would presently be back ; 

 they would let her know of the intruder in some way ; 



