21 



Where ffieTra/I 



he brought the game he had caught, a fox 

 or a young goose ; and sometimes when she 

 had hunted in vain he met her, as if he had 

 understood her need from a distance, and led £3^%^- 

 her to where he had buried two or three 

 of the rabbits that swarmed in the thickets. 

 But spite of the attention and the indifferent 

 watch which he kept, he never ventured near 

 the den, which he could have found easily 

 enough by following the mother's track. 

 The old she-wolf would have flown at his 

 throat like a fury had he showed his head 

 over the top of the ridge. 



The reason for this was simple enough to 

 the savage old mother, though there are ^^L^ 

 some things about it that men do not yet 

 understand. Wolves, like cats and foxes, and ?• 

 indeed like most wild male animals, have an 

 atrocious way of killing their own young jj 

 when they find them unprotected ; so the 

 mother animal searches out a den by herself 

 and rarely allows the male to come near it. 

 Spite of this beastly habit it must be said 

 honestly of the old he-wolf that he „ 

 shows a marvelous gentleness towards >- jfi 



