Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/45

 Moran told Flash why it was that these animals are seldom seen in pairs and how, among all the animals of the wild, the wolf and his cousins are the only true lovers of the lot; that the males of wolf, fox and coyote are the only ones that help raise their own young and rustle food for the female and the pups.

Moran knew that fatherhood rests lightly on the antlered tribes and that the bull elk or blacktail buck that remains with the herd, and protects his wives and offspring, is the hero of legend, not the real animal of the hills whose wives know him only during the mating moon; that the males of the wandering cat tribes in common with most of the furry kinds are even prone to kill their own offspring if they meet before the kits are grown.

Moran told all this to Flash, and he listened in dignified silence, drinking in each word without understanding even one. But in his own right Flash already knew these things—and many more which Moran, for all his constant research, would never know.

As if to make up for the marital shortcomings of other beasts the wolf lavishes the utmost care upon his mate and pups.