into themselves, understanding the gladness 



44 . 



, of the wild rough-and-tumble when one of 



the cubs lay in wait for another and leaped 

 ^|b jt ^ upon him from ambush ; understanding also 

 4/fj J0H -#p something of the feeling of the gaunt old she- 

 wolf as she looked down gravely from her 

 gray rock watching her growing youngsters. 

 Once they brought an old spy-glass which 

 they had borrowed from a fisherman, and 

 through its sea-dimmed lenses they made 

 out that one of the cubs was larger than the 

 other two, with a droop at the tip of his right 

 ear, like a pointed leaf that has been creased 

 sharply between the fingers. Mooka claimed 

 that wolf instantly for her own, as if they 

 were watching the husky puppies, and by his 

 broken ear said she should know him again 

 when he grew to be a big wolf, if he should 

 ever follow her, as his father perhaps had 

 followed Old Tomah ; but Noel, thinking of 

 his bow and his long arrow with the sharp 

 point, thought of the winter night long ago 

 and hoped that his two wolves would know 

 enough to keep away when the pack came 

 again, for he did not see any way to recognize 



