aE 
Badlands Billy 
denly there arose from the grass a big She- 
wolf, like his mother, yet different, a stranger, 
and instinctively the stray Cub sank to the 
earth, as the old Wolf bounded on him. No 
doubt the Cub had been taken for some law- 
ful prey, but a whiff set that right. She stood 
over him for an instant. He grovelled at her 
feet. The impulse to kill him or at least give 
him a shake died away. He had the smell of 
a young Cub. Her own were about his age, 
her heart was touched, and when he found 
courage enough to put his nose up and smell 
her nose, she made no angry demonstration 
except a short half-hearted growl. Now, 
however, he had smelled something that he 
sorely needed. He had not fed since the 
day before, and when the old Wolf turned to 
leave him, he tumbled after her on clumsy 
puppy legs. Had the Mother-wolf been far 
from home he must soon have been left be- 
hind, but the nearest hollow was the chosen 
place, and the Cub arrived at the den’s mouth 
soon after the Mother-wolf. 
A stranger is an enemy, and the old one 
rushing forth to the defense, met the Cub again, 
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