Foam—A Razor-Backed Hog 
He cannot see the forest floor, for the leafy roof 
is over. But there are gaps in the roof, and they 
often give a peep of things going on below. So the 
Turkey-buzzard one day watched a scene that no 
man could have seen. 
A gray-brown furry creature with a short and 
restless tail came gliding down a little forest trail 
that was the daily path of many creatures seeking 
to drink at the river, but Gray-coat ran each log 
that lay near his line of travel, then stopping at an 
upright limb that sprang from the’ great pine trunk 
which made his present highway, he halted in his 
slinking pose, rose to the full height of his four long 
legs, raised high his striped head, spread his soft 
velvety throat, white with telling spots of black, 
rubbed his whiskers on the high branch, rubbed his 
back, and gazed up into the blue sky, displaying the 
cruel, splendid face of a mountain Wildcat. 
In three great airy wheels the Vulture swung 
down, down, watching still the picture through the 
peephole of the roof. 
The Wildcat scratched his chin, then his left cheek, 
then his right, and was beginning all over again 
when a medley of sounds of voices and of many feet 
was heard afar, and Gray-coat’s eager, alert, listen- 
ing poise was a thing of power, restraint, and of 
wondrous grace. 
58 
