University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-08-16

Here it was very quiet The swamp
lay in hollow between two ridge
mountains, and the spruce and cedar
grew low and thick-so thick tina,
there was almost no snow under them
and day was like twilight. Two things
he began to miss more than all 9TH
ers-food and company Both the wolf
and the dog that was in him demand
ed the first, and that part of him that
was dog longed for the latter. To
both desires the Welt blood that was
strong in him rose responsively. Ii
told him that somewhere in this silent
world between the two ridges there
was companiOnship, and that all he
had to do to find it was to sit back
on his launches, and cry out his lone
illness. More than once something
trembled in his deep chest, rose in his
throat, and ended there in a whine. 1t
was the wolf howl, not yet quite born.
Food came more easily than voice.
Toward midday he cornered a big
white rabbit under a log, and killed it.
The warm flesh and blood was better
than frozen fish, or tallow and bran,
and the feast he had gave him conf
dence That afternoon he chased many
rabbits. and killed two more. Until
now, he had never known the delight
of pursuing and killing at will, even
though he did not eat all he killed.
But there was no fight in the rab-
bits. They died too easily. They were
very sweet and tender to eat, when he
was hungry, but the first thrill of kill
ing them passed away after a time. He
wanted something bigger. He no
longer skunk along as If he were
afraid. or as if he wanted to remain
hidden. He held his head up. His
back bristled. His tail swung free
and bushy, like a VOLTS. Every hair in
his body quivered with the electric
energy of life and action. He travelled
north and west. 1t was the call of
early days-the days away up on the
Mackenzie. The Mackenzie was
thousand miles away.
He came upon many trails in the
snow that day, and shifted the scents
left by the hoofs of moose and caribou
and the fur-padded feet of a lynx. He
followed fox, and the trail led him
to a place shut in by tall spruce,
where the snow was beaten down and
reddened with blood. There was an
owls head, feathers, wings and en-
trails lying here, and he knew that
there We're other hunters abroad be-
sides himself.
Toward evening he came upon
tracks in the snow that were very
much like his own. They were quite
fresh, and there was a warm scent
about them that made hip whine, and
filled him again with that desire to
fall back upon his launches and send
forth the wolf-cry. This desire grew
stronger in him as the shadows of
night deepened in the forest. He had
travelled all day, but he was not tired.
There was something about night, now
that there were no men near, that ex-
hilarated him strangely The wolf
blood in him ran swifter and swifter.
Tonight it was clear. The sky was
filed with stars. The moon rose. And
at last he settled back in the snow and
turned his head straight up to the
spruce-tops. and the wolf came out of
him in a long mournful cry which
luivered through the still night for
miles.
For long time he sat and listened
after that howl. He had found voice
"a voice with strange new note in
t, and it gave him still greater con-
idence. He had expected an answer, |
ooe hohC SoAhC- ne hdu tidNciCu III ehC /
face of the wind, and as he howled, |
1 bull moose crashed through the |
scrub timber ahead of him, his horns
'attling against the trees like the tat
90 of clear birch club as he put |
distance between himself and that cry
Twice Kazan howled before he went |
IN, and he found joy in the practise of
hat new note. He came then to the
Oot of rough ridge. and turned up
'ut Of the swamp to the top of it. The
stars and the moon were nearer to
him there, and on the other side of the
'idge he looked down upon a great
sweeping plain, with a frozen lake
in the moonlight, and
white river leading from it off into
imber that was neither so thick nor
10 black as that in the swamp.
And then every muscle in his body
rev tense, and his blood leaped.
from far off in the plain there came
,ry. 1t was his cry-the wolf-cry.
His jaws snapped. His white