CHAPTER VII 
THE CLOWN OF THE PRAIRIES 
Nie healthy coyote puppies were play- 
ing in the sunshine with all their 
might. After days of searching I had 
at last discovered their den. The puppies had 
not noticed me and I enjoyed watching their 
training for the game of life. They wrestled, 
played at fighting, rolled over and over, bit at 
one another’s feet and tails, and occasionally 
all mixed in one merry heap. 
Their mother came along the hillside above 
the den. She walked back and forth on the 
skyline where I could not miss seeing her. 
Then she came nearer and passed within thirty 
or forty feet of me. I kept my eyes upon the 
puppies and pretended not to see their mother. 
She turned and passed still closer to me. This 
time she was limping badly on one forefoot and 
holding up one hind foot. She was making 
every effort to have me follow her—to lure me 
away from her home and her puppies. 
A moving object down the slope caught the 
attention of the puppies. As soon as they made 
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