132 Wilderness Ways. 



and trying to lick her face in return ; till all their 

 tongues were going at once and the family lay down 

 together.- 



It was time to kill them now. The rifle lay ready. 

 But a change had come over the watcher too. Hith- 

 erto he had seen Upweekis as a ferocious brute, whom 

 it was good to kill. This was altogether different. 

 Upweekis could be gentle also, it seemed, and give 

 herself for her little ones. And a bit of tenderness, 

 like that which lay so unconscious under my eyes, gets 

 hold of a man, and spikes his guns better than moral- 

 izing. So the watcher stole away, making as little 

 noise as he could, following his compass of twigs to 

 where the canoes lay ready and Simmo was waiting. 



Sometime, I hope, Simmo and I will camp there 

 again, in winter. And then I shall listen with a new 

 interest for a cry in the night which tells me that 

 Moktaques the rabbit is hiding close at hand in the 

 snow, where a young lynx of my acquaintance cannot 

 find him. 



