Upweekis the Shadow. 109 



Seksagadagee the grouse, though I walk over him 

 asleep in the snow. And my feet make a noise in 

 the leaves, so that Moktaques the rabbit hears me, 

 and hides, and laughs behind me when I go to catch 

 him. And I am always hungry. Make me now like 

 the shadows that play, in order that nothing may 

 notice me when I go hunting." 



So Clote Scarpe, the great chief who was kind to 

 all animals, gave Upweekis a soft gray coat that is 

 almost invisible in the woods, summer or winter, and 

 made his feet large, and padded them- with soft fur ; 

 so that indeed he is like the shadows that play, for 

 you can neither see nor hear him. But Clote Scarpe 

 remembered Moktaques the rabbit also, and gave him 

 two coats, a brown one for summer and a white one 

 for winter. Consequently he is harder than ever to see 

 when he is quiet; and Upweekis must still depend 

 upon his wits to catch him. As Upweekis has few 

 wits to spare, Moktaques often sees him close at hand, 

 and chuckles in his form under the brown ferns, or 

 sits up straight under the snow-covered hemlock tips, 

 and watches the big lynx at his hunting. 



Sometimes, on a winter night, when you camp in 

 the wilderness, and the snow is sifting down into your 



