could go no farther; but somewhere ahead in 

 the vast silent barren the cubs were trailing, 

 and somewhere beyond them the old mother 

 wolf was laying her ambush. — Hark! from 

 a spur of the valley, far below on their left, 

 rang out the food cry, singing its way in the 

 frosty air over woods and plains, and hur- 

 rying back over the trail to tell those who 

 had fallen by the way that they were not 

 forgotten. And when they leaped up, as at 

 an electric shock, and raced for the cry, 

 there were the cubs and the mother wolf, 

 their hunger already satisfied, and there in 

 the snow a young bull caribou to save them. 

 So the long, hard winter passed away, 

 and spring came again with its abundance. 

 Grouse drummed a welcome in the woods ; 

 the honk of wild geese filled the air with a 

 joyous clangor, and in every open pool the 

 ducks were quacking. No need now to cling * 

 like shadows to the herds of caribou, and no 

 further need for the pack to hold together. 

 The ties that held them melted like snows 

 in the sunny hollows. First the old wolves, 

 then the cubs, one by one drifted away 



135 



TfieMffeWofifs 

 Huntings^ 



