ece of luck. Not
very far from her hollow tree she met a buck that had been mortally
wounded by a hunter. He had had strength enough to run away, and to
throw his pursuer off his track, but there was very little fight left in
him. In such a case as this she was quite ready to attack, and it did
not take her long to finish him. Probably it was a merciful release, for
he had suffered greatly in the last few days. Fortunately no wolves or
other large animals found him, and he gave her meat till after the
kittens had come and she had begun to grow well and strong again.

The kittens were a great success--two of the finest she had ever had,
and she had had many. But at first, of course, they were rather
insignificant-looking--just two little balls of reddish-brown fur that
turned over once in a while and mewed for their dinner. Some of the
scientific men say that a new-born baby has no mind, but only a blank
something that appears to be capable of receiving and retaining
impressions, and that may in certain cases have tendencies. There is
reason for thinking that the baby lynxes had tendencies. But imagine, if
you can, what their first impressions were like. And remember that they
were blind, and that if their ears heard sounds they certainly did not
comprehend them. Sometimes they were cold and hungry and lonesome, and
that was an impression of the wrong sort. They did not know what the
trouble was, but something was the matter, that was certain, and they
cried about it, like other babies. Then would come a great, warm,
comforting presence, and all would be right again; and that was a very
pleasant impression, indeed. I don't suppose they knew exactly what had
been done to them. Probably they were not definitely aware that their
empty stomachs had been filled, or that their shrinking, shivering
little bodies were snuggled down in somebody's thick fur coat, or that
somebody's warm red tongue was licking and stroking and caressing them.
Much less could they have known how that big, strong, comforting
somebody came to be there, or how many harmless and guiltless little
lives had been snuffed out to give her life and to enable her to give it
to them. But they knew that all was well with them, and that everything
was just as it should be--and they took another nap.

[Illustration: "_The hole was suddenly darkened, and a round, hairy face
looked in._"]

By and by they began to look about for impressions, and were no longer
con