Noel and Mooka 
29 
shot two, and the others, seizing the fish he had just 
caught through the ice for his own supper, vanished 
over the bank; and he could not say even now whether 
they meant him harm or no. Again, as he talked and 
the grim old face lighted up at the memory, they saw 
him crouched with his sledge-dogs by a blazing fire all 
the long winter night, and around him in the darkness 
blazing points of light, the eyes of wolves flashing back 
the firelight, and gaunt white forms flitting about like 
shadows, drawing nearer and nearer with ever-growing 
boldness till they seized his largest dog — though the 
brute lay so near the fire that his hair singed — and 
whisked it away with an appalling outcry. And still 
again, when Tomah was lost three days in the interior, 
they saw him wandering with his pack over endless 
barrens and through gloomy spruce woods, and near 
him all the time a young wolf that followed his steps 
quietly, with half-friendly interest, and came no nearer 
day or night. 
All these things and many more the children heard 
from Old Tomah, and among all his hunting experi¬ 
ences and the stories and legends which he told them 
there was not one to make them afraid. For the horrible 
story of Red Riding Hood is not known among the 
Indians, who know well how untrue the tale is to wolf 
nature, and how foolish it is to frighten children with 
false stories of wolves and bears, misrepresenting them 
