ts and acorns.

The nights were chill, but each day brought a perceptible shrinking of
the snowy mantle, leaving bare patches of wet, brown earth. One day
Mokwa, breaking through a thick clump of juniper bushes, came out upon
the bank of the Little Vermilion, its glassy surface as yet apparently
unaffected by the thaw. For a moment the bear hesitated, his little
near-sighted eyes searching the opposite bank and his nose sniffing the
wind inquiringly; then, as if reassured, he stepped out upon the ice
and made for the opposite shore.

On the surface the ice appeared solid enough, but in reality it was so
honeycombed by the thaw that it threatened to break up at any moment and
go out with a rush. Mokwa was in mid-stream when a slight tremor beneath
his feet warned him of danger. He broke into a shuffling trot, but had
gone only a few steps when, with a groaning and cracking which made the
hair rise upon his back, the entire surface of the river seemed to
heave. A great crack appeared just before him. With a frantic leap he
cleared it, only to be confronted the next moment by a lane of rushing
black water too wide for even his powerful muscles to bridge. Mokwa
crouched down in the center of his ice cake, which was now being swept
along in mid-stream with a rapidity which made him giddy. The weight of
the bear helped to steady his queer craft, and unless it should strike
another floating cake, Mokwa was in no immediate danger.

Thus he drifted for miles, while the banks seemed to glide swiftly to
the rear and the stream grew gradually wider. At length a faint roar,
growing louder every moment, caused Mokwa to stir uneasily as he peered
ahead across the seething mass of black water and tumbling ice cakes.
Suddenly his body stiffened and his eyes took on new hope. His cake had
entered a side current which carried him near shore. Closer and closer
drifted the great cakes all about him until at length, with a hoarse
grinding, they met, piling one upon the other, but making a solid bridge
from shore to shore. The jam lasted but a moment, but in that moment the
bear leaped, as if on steel springs, and as the ice again drifted apart
and swept on to the falls not far below, he scrambled ashore, panting
but safe. Here, with tongue hanging out, he stood a moment watching the
heaving waters which seemed maddened at the loss of their prey. Then he
turned and vanished into the forest.

Mokwa now found himself in unknown territory, bu