Noel and Mooka 
35 
for the little cubs that played with the feathers and 
grasshoppers and cloud shadows, all unconscious that 
any eyes but their mother’s saw or cared for their 
wild, free playing. 
Something bothered the old she-wolf in these days of 
watching. The den was still secure, for no human foot 
had crossed the deep ravine or ventured nearer than the 
opposite hilltop. Her nose told her that unmistakably; 
but still she was uneasy, and whenever the cubs were 
playing she felt, without knowing why, that she was 
being watched. When she trailed over all the ridges in 
the twilight, seeking to know if enemies had been near, 
she found always the scent of two human beings on a 
flat rock under the dwarf spruces; and there were 
always the two trails coming up and going down the 
brook. She followed once close behind the two children, 
seeing them plainly all the way, till they came in sight 
of the little cabin under the cliff, and from the door her 
enemy man came out to meet them. For these two 
little ones, whose trail she knew, the old she-wolf, like 
most mother animals in the presence of children, felt no 
fear nor enmity whatever. But they watched her den 
and her own little ones, that was sure enough; and why 
should any one watch a den except to enter some time 
and destroy ? That is a question which no mother wolf 
could ever answer; for the wild animals, unlike dogs 
and blue jays and men, mind strictly their own business 
