130 Wilderness Ways. 



use powerfully when the time comes. The second 

 lucivee came out of the shadow a moment later and 

 leaped upon the fallen tree where he could better 

 watch the hillside below. For half an hour or more, 

 while I waited expectantly, both animals moved rest- 

 lessly about the den, or climbed over the roots and 

 trunk of the fallen tree. They were plainly cross; 

 they made no attempt at play, but kept well away 

 from each other with a wholesome respect for teeth 

 and claws and temper. Breakfast hour was long past, 

 evidently, and they were hungry. 



Suddenly one, who was at that moment watching 

 from the tree trunk, leaped down; the second joined 

 him, and both paced back and forth excitedly. They 

 had heard the sounds of a coming that were too fine 

 for my ears. A stir in the underbrush, and Mother 

 Lynx, a great savage creature, stalked out proudly. She 

 carried a dead hare gripped across the middle of the 

 back. The long ears on one side, the long legs on the 

 other, hung limply, showing a fresh kill. She walked 

 to the doorway of her den, crossed it back and forth 

 two or three times, still carrying the hare as if the lust 

 of blood were raging within her and she could not drop 

 her prey even to her own little ones, which followed 

 her hungrily, one on either side. Once, as she turned 

 toward me, one of the kittens seized a leg of the hare 



