suspiciously among the spruce branches ; a 

 startled bird chirped and whirred away out 

 of their path ; the brook roared among the 

 rocks; a big salmon jumped and tumbled 

 back with resounding splash, and jumped 

 again as if the otter were after him. There 

 was a sudden sharp cry, the first and last 

 voice of a hare when the weasel rises up 

 in front of him; then silence, and the fitful 

 rustle of his mother's pads moving steadily, 

 swiftly over dry leaves. And all these sounds 

 of the wilderness night spoke to the little cub 

 of some new thing, of swift feet that follow 

 and of something unknown and terrible that 

 waits for all unwary wild things. So fear 

 was born. 



The long journey ended at last before a 

 dark hole in the hillside ; and the smell of his 

 mother, the only familiar thing 

 in his first strange pilgrimage, 

 greeted the cub from the rocks 

 on either side as he passed in out 

 of the starlight. He was dropped 

 without a sound in a larger den, 

 some fresh -gathered leaves 



