Williams news., 1921-08-19

shoes At first there were pa1ned ankles and endless f1ounderfng in the drifts But between the fall of fresh snow and the thaws that softened the a crust, he slowly mastered. the art Snowbird-and Dan never realized the fuI1 significance of her name until he saw her flying with incredible grace over the snow-laughed at him at nrSt and ran him races that would usually end in his falling headhrSt into ten foot snowbank She taught him how to ski and more than once she would stop in the middle of an earnest bit of pedagogy to find that he wasn't lis tening at all. He would seem to be fairly devouring her with his eyes, de lighting in the play of soft pinks and reds in her cheeks, and drinking, as man drinks wine, the amazing change of light and shadow in her eyes.
 She seemed to blossom under his gaze. Not one of those short winter days went by without the discovery of some new trait or little vanity to astonish or delight him-sometfmes an unlooked-for tenderness toward the weak, often a sweet untafned phflos- ophy of life, or perhaps just lower ing of her eyelids in which her eyes would show lustrous through the laSn0S, or some sweeping, cAuOCA dhl gesture startlfngly graceful
 Lennox wakened one morning with the realization that this was one of the hardest winters of his experience. He began to be very glad of the abun- dant stores of provisions that over crowded his pantry-savory hams and bacons, dried venison, sacks of pota- toes and evaporated vegetables, and, of course, canned goods past count ing. With the high fire roaring in the grate, the season held nc ills for them. But sometimes. when the bitter cold came down at twilight, and the moon looked like thing of ice itself over the snow, he began to wonder how the wild creatures who wintered on the Divide were faring. Of course most of them were gone. WOof, long since, had grunted and mumbled his way into a winter lair. But the wolves re- mained. strange gray shadows on the snow, and possibly a few of the hardier smaller creatures.
 More than once in those long win ter nights their talk was chopped off short by the song of the pack on some distant ridge. Sometime, when the world is old. possibly man will be born that can continue to talk and keep his mind on his words while the wolf pack sings. But he is certainly an unknown quantity today. The cry sets in vibration curious memory chords, and for a moment the listener sees in his minds eye his ancient home in an ancient world-Darkness and Fear and Eyes shining about the cave. It carries him back. and he knows the wilderness as it really is; and to have such knowledge dries up a inclination talk dries water. Of course the picture | isn't entirely plain. It is more a thing guessed at. photograph in some dark part of an under-consciousness that has constantly groySi> more dim the centuries have passed. Possibly some time it will fade out altogether; and then man may continue to discuss the weather while the Song from the ridge Shudders in at the windows. But the world will be quite cold by then, and no longer particularly interesting. And possibly even the wolves them selves will then be tanned to play dead and speak pieces-which means the wilderness itself will be tanned. For as long as the wild lasts. the p:.c'- z.ii run through 1t in the winter. They were here in the beginning. and in
 
 hatred on the part of men. they will be here in the end. The reason is just that they are the symbol of the will derness itself. and the idea of it con- tinuing to exist without them is stranger than that of a nation without a flag.
 It wasn't quite the same song that Dan had listened to in the first days of fall. It had been triumphant then, and proud with the wilderness pride. Of course it had been sad then. too, but it was more sad now. And it was stranger too, and crept farther into the souls of it's listeners. It was the song of strength that couldn't avail against the snow, possibly of cold and the despair and courage of starvation. These three that heard 1t were inured to the wilderness: but moment was always needed after it's last note had died to regain their gayety.
 They're getting lean and they're l getting savage" Lennox said one night. stretched on his divan before the fireplace. He was still unable to walk but the fractures were knitting slowly and the doctor had promised that the summer would find him well. tTf we had a dog. wouldn't offer ,rnuch .fSr his life. One of these tayss we'll find 'em in a big circle*sarounds