gales. An appalling silence rested on plains 

 and mountains. Not a chirp, not a rustle 

 broke the intense, unnatural stillness. One 

 might travel all day long without a sight or 

 sound cf life; and when the early twilight 

 came and life stirred shyly from its coverts 

 and snow caves, the Wood Folk stole out 

 into the bare white world on noiseless, hesi- 

 tating feet, as if in presence of the dead. 



When the Moon of Famine came, the 

 silence was rudely broken. Before daylight 

 one morning, when the air was so tense and 

 still that a whisper set it tinkling like sil- 

 ver bells, the rallying cry of the wolves rolled 

 down from a mountain top; and the three 

 cubs, that had waited long for the signal, 

 left their separate trails far away and hur- 

 ried to join the old leader. 



When the sun rose that morning one who 

 stood on the high ridge of the Top Gallants, 

 far to the eastward of Harbor Weal, would 

 have seen seven trails winding down among 

 the rocks and thickets. It needed only a 

 glance to show that the seven trails, each 

 one as clear-cut and delicate as that of a 





H3 



Tl&i/s ffiat Cross 

 fnflkjnow 



"-Y 



^ 



