Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/217

 pounced upon and devoured. At length appeared another famished bear; and all the feasters, great and small alike, sullenly made way for him, knowing the lightning swiftness of his clumsy-looking paw. He sniffed ravenously at the mangled body of his kinsman, but being no cannibal, turned away in disappointment and disgust. The moose-calf, on the other hand, was just what he wanted. Squatting over it jealously he made a sumptuous, meal. Then, ignoring the other darting and prowling banqueters, he lugged away the substantial remnants of the calf, to hide them in his far-off lair in the heart of a cedar swamp.

To all this hungry stir, to all this yapping and snarling, the moose in their sheltered yard paid no attention whatever, but went on browsing or drowsing as their mood dictated. Only when the bear arrived did they take notice, and grow angrily alert. As long as the bear remained upon the scene they kept to the centre of the yard, the great bull stamping and snorting from time to time to show his readiness for battle. But when the bear waddled off with his prize, the stiff-legged, mutilated thing which had been a moose-calf, they once more fell unconcernedly to their browsing.

Days later, when at last nothing was left in that trodden snow-hollow but scattered tufts of black fur and a pinky-white skeleton gnawed and pol-