Satisfied at last with her silent investiga- 

 tion she turned her head towards the den. 

 There was no sound, only one of those silent, 

 unknown communications that pass between 

 animals. Instantly there was a scratching, 

 scurrying, whining, and three cubs tumbled 

 out of the dark hole in the rocks, with fuzzy 

 yellow fur and bright eyes and sharp ears 

 and noses, like collies, all blinking and won- 

 dering and suddenly silent at the big bright 

 world which they had never seen before, so 

 different from the dark den under the rocks. 



Indeed it was a marvelous world that the 

 little cubs looked upon when they came out 

 to blink and wonder in the June sunshine. 

 Contrasts everywhere, that made the world 

 seem too big for one little glance to com- 

 prehend it all. Here the sunlight streamed 

 and danced and quivered on the warm rocks ; 

 there deep purple cloud shadows rested for 

 hours, as if asleep, or swept over the moun- 

 tain side in an endless game of fox-and-geese 

 with the sunbeams. Here the birds trilled, 

 the bees hummed in the bluebells, the brook 

 roared and sang on its way to the sea ; while 



■11m v 



mil A. 



23 



Where ff?e Trail 

 "Begins 



~wz 



