THE ODYSSEY OF OLD BILL 15 
ing and beating of the bush and woods, while 
frightened animals of all sorts, deer, elk, moose, 
and all the rest, were driven in toward the central 
enclosure. None of them knew why, though the 
reason was that the rich man. had died, as even 
very rich men have to do, and now all the captive 
animals were going to be rounded up and carried 
away to another rich man’s reservation. The 
moose, because by nature they are the wariest and 
craftiest of all big animals, perhaps, though you 
might suppose they would find it hardest to con- 
ceal themselves, were the most difficult to round 
up. Old Bill’s mother, especially, with the care 
of her child on her mind, was tremendously 
alarmed, and kept dashing into low, dense spruce 
thickets with a warning bellow to Bill to follow 
her, which he always did, with more speed than 
grace. As they dashed over the mountain and 
through the swamps and forest, always seeking to 
avoid the scent of danger, they encountered Bill’s 
father and another cow, employing successfully 
the same tactics. The four of them kept together 
after that, and presently they were roused sud- 
denly from the bushes on the bank of a swampy 
