Noel and Mooka 
27 
with round eyes, eager but unafraid, the antics of three 
brown wolf cubs that were chasing the flies and tum¬ 
bling over some invisible plaything before the door of 
the den. 
Hardly had they made the discovery when the old 
wolf slipped down from the rock and stood for an 
instant over her little ones. Why the play should stop 
now, while the breeze was still their comrade and the 
sunshine was brighter than ever, or why they should 
steal away into the dark den more silently than they 
had come, none of the cubs could tell. They felt the 
order and they obeyed instantly—and that is always 
the wonder of watching little wild things at play. The 
old mother wolf vanished among the rocks and appeared 
again higher on the ridge, turning her head uneasily to 
try every breeze and rustle and moving shadow. Then 
she went questing into the spruce woods, feeling but not 
understanding some subtle excitement in the air that 
was not there before, and only the two Indian children 
were left keeping watch over the great wild hillside. 
For over an hour they lay there expectantly, but 
nothing stirred near the den; then they too slipped 
away, silently as the little wild things, and made their 
slow way down the brook, hand in hand in the deepen¬ 
ing shadows. Scarcely had they gone when the bushes 
stirred and the old she-wolf, that had been ranging every 
ridge and valley since she disappeared at the unknown 
