ight!"

"That I shall never tell him!" protested Karr. "The Far North is a
dangerous country for elk."

"Do you think that I wish to remain here, when I have caused a disaster
like this?" protested Grayskin.

"Don't be rash! Sleep over it before you do anything!"

"It was you who taught me that the elk are one with the forest," said
Grayskin, and so saying he parted from Karr.

The dog went home alone; but this talk with Grayskin troubled him, and
the next morning he returned to the forest to seek him, but Grayskin was
not to be found, and the dog did not search long for him. He realized
that the elk had taken the snake at his word, and had gone into exile.

On his walk home Karr was too unhappy for words! He could not understand
why Grayskin should allow that wretch of a water-snake to trick him
away. He had never heard of such folly! "What power can that old
Helpless have?"

As Karr walked along, his mind full of these thoughts, he happened to
see the game-keeper, who stood pointing up at a tree.

"What are you looking at?" asked a man who stood beside him.

"Sickness has come among the caterpillars," observed the game-keeper.

Karr was astonished, but he was even more angered at the snake's having
the power to keep his word. Grayskin would have to stay away a long long
time, for, of course, that water-snake would never die.

At the very height of his grief a thought came to Karr which comforted
him a little.

"Perhaps the water-snake won't live so long, after all!" he thought.
"Surely he cannot always lie protected under a tree root. As soon as he
has cleaned out the caterpillars, I know some one who is going to bite
his head off!"

It was true that an illness had made its appearance among the
caterpillars. The first summer it did not spread much. It had only just
broken out when it was time for the larvae to turn into pupae. From the
latter came millions of moths. They flew around in the trees like a
blinding snowstorm, and laid countless numbers of eggs. An even greater
destruction was prophesied for the following year.

The destruction came not only to the forest, but also to the
caterpillars. The sickness spread quickly from forest to forest. The
sick caterpillars stopped eating, crawled up to the branches of the
trees, and died there.

There was great rejoicing among the people when they saw them die, but
there was even greater rejoicing among the forest animals.

From day to day the dog Karr