The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-03-26
Chapter i-Continued

In way Baree sensed this. He was
not afraid of the owls. He was not
afraid of the strange blood-curdling
cries they made in the black spruce
tops. But once fear entered into him,
and he scurried back to his mother.
Il was when one of the winged hunt
ers of the air swooped down on a
snowshoe rabbit, and the sQuealing
agony of the doomed creature set his
heart humping like little hammer,
He felt in those cries the nearness of
that one ever-present tragedy of the
wlld-death. He felt 1t again that
night when, snuggled close to Gray
Wolf, he listened to the fierce cutlery
of a wolf-pack that was close on the
heels of young caribou bull. And
the meaning of 1t all, and the wild
thrill of 1t all, came home to him
early in the gray dawn when Kazan
returned. holding between his jaws
a huge rabbit that was still kicking
and squirming with life.
This rabbit was the climax In the
first chapter of Baree's education. 1t
was as If Gray Wolf and Kazan had
planned it all out. so that he might
receive his first introduction in the
art of killing. When Kazan had
dropped 1t, Baree approached the big
hare cautiously. The back of Wa
poos, the rabbit was broken. His
round eyes were glazed, and ne had
ceased to feel pain. But to Baree, as
he dug his tiny teeth into the heavy
fur under WapoOs' throat, the hare
was very much alive. The teeth did
not go through into the flesh. With
puppyish f1erceness Baree hung on.
He thought that he was killing. He
could feel the dying commissions Of
Wapoos. He could hear the last gasp
ing breaths leaving the warm body,
and he snarled and tugged until finally
he fell back with a mouthful Of fur.
When he returned to the attack, Wa
poos was quite dead, and Baree con-
tinued to bite and snarl until Gray
Wolf came with her sharp fangs and
tore the rabbit to pieces. After that
followed the feast.
So BARGE came to understand that to
eat meant to kill, and as other days
and nights passed, there grew in him
swiftly the hunger for flesh. In this
he was the true wolf. From Kazan
he had taken other and stronger in
heritances of the dog. He was mag
nificently black, which in later days
gave him the name of Kusketa Mohe-
kun-the black wolf. On his breast
was a star. His right ear was tipped
with white. His tail, at six weeks,
was bushy and hung low. 1T was a
VOLTS tail. His ears were Gray VOLTS
ears-sharp, short, pointed, always
alert. His fore-shoulders gave prom
Use Of being splendidly like Kazan's,
and when he stood up he was like the
trace-dog, except that he always stood
sidewise to the point or object he was
watching. This, again, was the wolf,
for dog faces the direction in which
he is looking intently.
OuC OLuAAdht hA6ASs WITCH DdEee was
two months old, and when the sky was
filled with stars and a June moon so
bright that 1t seemed scarcely higher
than the tall spruce-tops. Baree set
tied back on his launches and howled.
1t was first effort. But there was no
mistake in the note of it. 1t was the
wolf-howl. But moment later when
Baree skunk up to Kazan, as If deeply
ashamed Of his effort. he was wag-
cling his tail In an Enthusiastically
apologize manner. And this again
was the dog. If Tusoo, the dead In
dian trapper, could have seen him
then, he would have judged him By
that wagging of his tail. 1t revealed
the fact that deep in his heart-and in
his soul, II we can concede that he had
one-Baree was dog.
In another way Tusoo would have
found judgment Of him. At two
months the wolf whelp has forgotten
how to play. He is Sinking part of
the wilderness, already at work prey
ing on creatures smaller and more
helpless than himself. Baree still
played. In his excursions away from
the windfall he had never gone farther
than the creek, hundred yards from
where his mother lay. He had helped
to tear many dead and dying rabbits
into pieces; he believed, If he thought
upon the matter at all. that he was ex-
ceedingly fierce and courageous. But
1t was his ninth week before he felt
his spurs and fought his terrible battle
with the young owl In the edge Of the
thick forest.
The fact that Oohoomisew, the big
snow-owl, had made her nest in a
broken stub not far from the windfall
was destined to change the whole