The Boy and the Lynx 
The three had little appetite, but even that 
they restrained since now they were down to 
part of a Chicken, and Corney, evidently he 
supposed they had been to Ellerton’s and got 
all the food they needed. 
Again that night, when the fever left him 
weak and dozing, Thor was awakened by a 
noise in the room, a sound of crunching bones. 
He looked around to see dimly outlined against 
the little window, the form of a large animal on 
the table. Thor shouted; he tried to hurl his 
boot at the intruder. It leaped lightly to the 
ground and passed out of the hole, again wide 
open. 
It was no dream this time, he knew, and the 
women knew it, too; not only had they heard 
the creature, but the Chicken, the last of their 
food, was wholly gone. 
Poor Thor barely left his couch that day. 
It needed all the querulous complaints of the 
sick women to drive him forth. Down by the 
spring he found a few berries and divided them 
with the others. He made his usual prepara- 
tions for the chills and the thirst, but he added 
this—by the side of his couch he put an old fish- 
eT) 
