The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-05-14

AmpetieQ Dy tue wiz alarm Oh the
Willows terrible cries and the sight Of
Pierrot dashing madly toward him
from the dead body OF WakayOo, Baree
did not stop running until it seemed
another breath. When he stopped he
was well out of the canyon and headed
for the beaver pond.
Exactly wherein lay Baree's fears 1t
would be difficult to say--but surely
1t was not because of Nepeese. The
Willow had chased him hard. She had
flung herself upon him. He had felt
the clutch of her hands and the smooth
er OF her soft hair, and yet of her he
was not afraid! If he stopped now
and then in bis flight and looked back,
1t was to see IL Nepeese was following.
He would not have run hard from her
alone. Her eyes and voice and
hands had something stirring In him |;
he was awed with a greater yearning
and a greater loneliness now--and that
night he dreamed troubled dreams.
Baree was glad when the dawn
GENE. He did not seek for food, but
went down to the pond. There was
little hope and anticipation In his man
ner now. He remembered that, as
plainly as animal ways could talk.
Umisk and his playmates had told him
they wanted nothing to do with him.
And yet the fact that they were there
took away some of his loneliness. It
was more than loneliness. The wolf
in him was submerged. The dog was
master. And in these passing mo-
ments, when the blood of the wild was
almost dormant in him, he was de-
pressed by the instructive and growing
feeling that he was not of that wild,
but fugitive in 1t, menaced on all
sides by strange dangers.
Deep in the northern forests the
beaver does not work and play in dark
ness only, but uses day even. more than
night, and many of Beaver-tooth's peo-
pie were awake when Baree began dis
consolately to investigate the shores
Of the pond. He did not try to hide
himself now. and at least half dozen
beavers had good look at him before
he came to the point where the pond
narrowed down to the width OF the
stream, almost half mile from the
dam. Then he wandered back. Az
that morning he lowered about the
pond, showing himself openly.
In their big mad-and-stick strong
holds the beavers held council OF
war. They were distinctly puzzled
There were four enemies which they
dreaded above all others: The otter,
who destroyed their dams in the win
ter time and brought death to them
frem cold and by lowering the water
so they could not get to their food
supplies; the lynx, who preyed on them
all, young and old alike; and the fox
and wolf, who would lie in ambush
for hours in order to pounce on the
very young, like Umisk and his play
mates. If BARGE had been any one of
these four, willy Beaver-tooth and his
people would have known what to do.
But BARGE was surely not an otter, and
If he was a fox or wolf or lynx, his
actions were very strange, to say the
least. Half dozen times he had the
opportunity to pounce on his prey, II
he had been seeking prey. But at no
time had he shown the desire to harm
them.
1t may be that the beavers discussed
the matter fully among themselves. 1t
is possible that Umisk and his play
mates told their parents Of their ad-
venture and of how BARGE made no
move to harm them when he could
quite easily have caught them. How
ever this may be, courageous old
Beaver-tooth took 1t upon himself to
end the suspense.
1t was early in the afternoon that
for the third or fourth time Baree
walked out on the dam. This dam was
fully two hundred feet in length, but
at no point did the water run over it.
the overflow finding its way through
narrow sluices. A week or two ago
Baree could have crossed to the oppo-
site side of the pond on this dam, but