The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-04-02
BY JAMES OLIVER CuRwooD
20. Doubleday. Page a Coz
WNU Service

| The rain fell steadily. The hole in
which he had taken shelter was soppy.
He was drenched; his teeth chartered
| as he waited for the next thing to
| happen.
I 1t was long wait. When the rain
stopped, and the sky cleared, it was
night. Through the tops Of the trees
Baree could have seen the stars if he
had poked out his head and looked
upward. But he chung to his hole.
Hour after hour passed. Exhausted,
half drowned, foOtsore, and hungry, he
did not move. At last he fell into a
| troubled sleep, sleep in which every
now and then he cried softly and for
lOrnly for his mother. When he ven
| tured out from under the root ii was
morning, and the sun was shining.
At first BARGE could hardly stand.
His legs were cramped; every bone in
his body seemed out of joint; his ear
was stiff where the blood had oozed
out of it and hardened, and when he
| tried to wrinkle his wounded nose, he
gave sharp zap of pain. If such a
thing were possible. he looked even
worse than he felt. His hair had
| dried in muddy patches; he was dirt
| stained from end to end; and where
yesterday he had been plump and
| shiny. he was now as thin and
| wretched as misfortune could possibly
make him. And he was hungry. He
had never before known what it meant
| to be really hungry
| When he went on, continuing in the
| direction he had been following yester-
| day, he skunk along in a disheartened
| sort OF way. His head and ears were
no LONGER alert, and his curiosity was
! gone. He was not only stomach-hun-
| CRY: nother-hunger rose above his
! physical yearning for something to
eat. lie wanted his mother as he had
i never wanted her before in his life.
He wanted to snuggle his shivering
little body close up to her and feel the
warm caressing of her tongue and
listen to the mothering whine of her
voice. And he wanted Kazan. and the
old windfall, and that big blue spot
that was in the sky right over it.
While he followed again along the
edge Of the creek, he whimpered for
them as child might grieve.
| The forest grew more open after
time. and this cheered him up a little.
| Also the warmth of the sun was TAX
ing the ache out of his body. He grew
hungrier and hungrier. He had de-
| pended entirely on Kazan and Gray
| Wolf for food His parents had. in
some ways, made great baby of him.
Gray VOLTS blindness accounted for
| this, for since his birth she had not
taken up her hunting with KaZan, and
| 1t was quite natural that Baree should
stick close to her, though more than
once he had been filled with great
yearning TO follow his father Ma
| ture was hard at work trying to over
come it's handicap now. 1t was strug-
| Cling to impress on Baree that the
time had now come when he must
seek his own food. The fact i'm
pinged itself upon him slowly but
steadily, and he began to think of the
three or four shellfish he had caught
and devoured on the stony creek-bar
near the windfall. He also remem-
bered the open clam shell he had
found, and the lusciousness Of the ten
der morsel inside it. A new excite
ment began to possess him. He be-
came, all at once, hunter.
With the thinning out of the forest
the creek grew more shallow. 1t ran
over bars of sand and stones, and
Baree began to nose along the edge
of these. For long time he had no
success. The few crayfish that he saw
were exceedingly lively and elusive,
and all the clam-shells were shut so
tight that even Kazan's powerful jaws
would have had difficulty in smashing
them. 1t was almost noon when he
caught his first crayfish. about as big
as mans forefinger He devoured it
ravenously. The taste of food gave
him fresh. courage He caught two
more crayfish during, the afternoon.
1t was almost dusk when he stirred a
young rabbit out from under a cover
of grass. If he had been a month
older, he could have caught 1t. He
was still very hungry, for three cray
fish-scattered through the day-had
not done much to fill the emptiness
that was growing steadily in him.
With the approach of night Baree's
fears and great loneliness returned.
Before the day had quite gone he
found himself shelter under big
rock, where there was warm, soft
bed of sand. Since his fight with
Papayuchisew, he had Travelled long
distance, and the rock under which he