Page:They who walk in the wilds, (IA theywhowalkinwil00robe).pdf/55

 calf, to nuzzle him and inquire if he was hurt. But the bull, beside himself with rage, charged on and came crashing straight through the osiers. Whereupon the bear, appalled at his fury, threw dignity to the winds and fled at full gallop, like a frightened cat, leaving the triumphant bull to thrash the bushes and roar his defiance.

The great bull stayed with the red calf and his mother for five or six days, and then wandered off in search of other mates. But these, as it appeared, failed to hold his fancy; for towards the end of November, after the first heavy snowfall, he returned, and took charge of the family for the winter. Moving back from the lake to a sheltered and thick-wooded valley where such forage as moose love—especially birch and poplar and maple—was abundant, he established their winter quarters. There they trampled down deep paths in the ever-increasing snow, and lay snugly housed from storm beneath the dense branches of an overhanging hemlock. The calf, fortunately for him-! self, had learned from his mother to browse on twigs and not to depend on grass for his nourishment, and so he got through the winter without starving.

The intense cold was a searching trial to the calf, but by sleeping huddled between his mother and the bull—who had lost his antlers soon after Christmas—he managed to keep from freezing,