wilder brothers of his species. Pedro
had not been seen for a night and a day, a fact that Helen had noted
with concern. However, she had forgotten him, and therefore was the more
surprised to see him coming limping into camp on three legs.

"Why, Pedro! You have been fighting. Come here," she called.

The hound did not look guilty. He limped to her and held up his right
fore paw. The action was unmistakable. Helen examined the injured member
and presently found a piece of what looked like mussel-shell embedded
deeply between the toes. The wound was swollen, bloody, and evidently
very painful. Pedro whined. Helen had to exert all the strength of her
fingers to pull it out. Then Pedro howled. But immediately he showed his
gratitude by licking her hand. Helen bathed his paw and bound it up.

When Dale returned she related the incident and, showing the piece of
shell, she asked: "Where did that come from? Are there shells in the
mountains?"

"Once this country was under the sea," replied Dale. "I've found things
that 'd make you wonder."

"Under the sea!" ejaculated Helen. It was one thing to have read of
such a strange fact, but a vastly different one to realize it here among
these lofty peaks. Dale was always showing her something or telling her
something that astounded her.

"Look here," he said one day. "What do you make of that little bunch of
aspens?"

They were on the farther side of the park and were resting under a
pine-tree. The forest here encroached upon the park with its straggling
lines of spruce and groves of aspen. The little clump of aspens did not
differ from hundreds Helen had seen.

"I don't make anything particularly of it," replied Helen, dubiously.
"Just a tiny grove of aspens--some very small, some larger, but none
very big. But it's pretty with its green and yellow leaves fluttering
and quivering."

"It doesn't make you think of a fight?"

"Fight? No, it certainly does not," replied Helen.

"Well, it's as good an example of fight, of strife, of selfishness, as
you will find in the forest," he said. "Now come over, you an' Bo, an'
let me show you what I mean."

"Come on, Nell," cried Bo, with enthusiasm. "He'll open our eyes some
more."

Nothing loath, Helen went with them to the little clump of aspens.

"About a hundred altogether," said Dale. "They're pretty well shaded by
the spruces, but they get the sunlight from east an' south. These little
trees all came from the same seedl