THE ODYSSEY OF OLD BILL %3 
swamp plunged the old bulls and several cows 
which comprised the captive herd. The elk, or 
wapiti deer, were tamer, and used to hang around 
the gamekeeper’s house, like cows. Not so the 
moose. ‘They made for the deep swamp, and 
finding plenty to eat and plenty of room to roam, 
they escaped the fatal indigestion, and presently 
‘into the world came a gawky, stiff-legged thing, 
with a hump on his back and a tassel under his 
chin, who was destined to be our hero. 
It must be admitted that his father paid very 
little attention to him, but his mother was ex- 
tremely proud, and gave him the best of care, 
teaching him, as soon as he was old enough, how 
to spring into thickets that concealed at the ap- 
proach of danger, how to nibble a bit of fresh 
moosewood twig and then trot on maybe a mile 
before reaching up and with pendulant upper lip 
drawing down and into the mouth a cluster of 
succulent hemlock, never eating too much in one 
place lest one get lazy, with flabby muscles and 
poor digestion. She taught him too, by example, 
to sniff the wind before lying down to rest or even 
before feeding, to sniff strange tracks in the earth 
