University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-27

ana weeks which MARKED tue winter
of nineteen hundred and ten as one
of the most terrible in all the history
of the Northland-a single month in
which wild life as well as human
hung in the balance, and when cold
starvation and plague wrote a chap
ter in the lives of the forest people
which will not be forgotten for gen.
erations to come.
In the swamp Kazan and Gray Wolf
found home under a windfall 1t
was small comfortable nest, shut In
entirely from the snow and wind.
Gray Wolf took possession of it imme-
diately. She fiattened herself out on
her belly, and painted to show Ka-
zan her cOntentment and satisfaction.
Nature again kept Kazan close at her
side. A vision came to him, unreal
and dream-like, of that wonderful
night under the stars-ages and ages
ago, it seemed-when he had fought
the leader of the wolf-pack, and Gray
Wolf had crept to his side after his
victory and had given herself to him
for mate. But this mating season
there was no running after the doe
or the caribou, or mingling with the
wild pack. They lived chiefly on rab-
bit and spruce partridge, because of
Gray VOLTS blindness. Kazan
could hunt those alone. The hair had
now grown over Gray VOLTS sightless
eyes. She had ceased to grieve, to
rub her eyes with her paws, to whine
for the sunlight, the golden moon and
the stars. Slowly she began to for
get that she had ever seen those
things. She could now run more
swiftly at KaZan's flank Scent and
hearing had become wonderfully keen.
She could wind caribou two miles
distant, and the presence of man she
could pick up at an even greater dis
'ohNC' OH q Stiii ulSHt ohc udu neal u
the splash of a trout half a mile
away. And as these two things
scent and hearing-became more and
more developed in her, those same
senses became less active in Kazan.
He began to depend upon Gray
Wolf. She would point out the hiding
place of partridge fifty yards from |
heir trail. In their hunt she became
he leader-until game was found. |
And as Kazan learned to trust to her
n the hunt, so he began just as in
to heed her warnings. If |
Tray Wolf reasoned. it was to the eff
ect that without Kazan she would die. |
She had tried hard now and then to
.atch a partridge, or a rabbit, but she |
lad always failed Kazan meant life
o her. And-if she reasoned-it was
o make herself indispensable to her
nate. Blindness had made her differ
mt than she would otherwise have
'een. Again nature promised mother
oOd to her. But she did not-as she
would have done in the open, and with
ight-hold more and more alOof from
iazan as the days passed. 1t was her
abit, spring, summer and winter, to
nuggle close to KaZan and lie with
er beautiful head resting on his
eek or back If Kazan snarled at
er she did not snap back, but skunk
own as though struck a blow. With
er warm tongue she would lick away
ne ice that froze to the long hair be-
ween Kazan's toes. For days after
e had run a silver in his paw she
ursed his foot. Blindness had made
.azan absolutely necessary to her ex-
'tence-and now, in different way,
he became more and more necessary
, Kazan. They were happy in their
wamp home. There was plenty of
mall game about them, and it was
arm under the windfall Rarely did
hey go beyond the limits of the
wamp to hunt. Out on the more dis
INT plains and the barren ridges they ,
OCCASIONALLY heard the cry of the
olf-pack on the trail of meat, but
no longer thrilled them with a de- ,
re to join in the chase
One day they struck farther than '
sual to the west They left the t
vamp, crossed a plain over which a
fire had swept the preceding year. I
imbing a ridge, and descended into 3
second plain. At the bottom Gray
'olf stopped and shifted the air. At T
lese times Kazan always watched s
sr, waiting eagerly and nervously if Il
e scent was too faint for him to v
Itch. But today he caught the edge
1t, and he knew why Gray VOLTS 7
lrs fiattened, and her hindquarters t
'ooped. The scent of game would f
i've made her rigid and alert. But it @
as not the game smell. 1t was hu- C
an, and Gray Wolf skunk behind Ka- v
m and Whinad For several rninufpS 1,