n March came, the bitterest month of all for the Wood Folk, even
Wayeeses was often hard pressed to find a living. Small game grew scarce
and very wild; the caribou had wandered far away to other ranges; and
the cubs would dig for hours after a mouse, or stalk a snowbird, or wait
with endless patience for a red squirrel to stop his chatter and come
down to search under the snow for a fir cone that he had hidden there in
the good autumn days. And once, when the hunger within was more nipping
than the eager cold without, one of the cubs found a bear sleeping in
his winter den among the rocks. With a sharp hunting cry, that sang like
a bullet over the frozen wastes, he called the whole pack about him.
While the rest lay in hiding the old he-wolf approached warily and
scratched Mooween out of his den, and then ran away to entice the big
brute into the open ground, where the pack rolled in upon him and killed
him in a terrible fight before he had fairly shaken the sleep out of his
eyes.

Old Tomah, the trapper, was abroad now, taking advantage of the spring
hunger. The wolves often crossed his snow-shoe trail, or followed it
swiftly to see whither it led. For a wolf, like a farm dog, is never
satisfied till he knows the ways of every living thing that crosses his
range. Following the broad trail Wayeeses would find here a trapped
animal, struggling desperately with the clog and the cruel gripping
teeth, there the flayed carcass of a lynx or an otter, and yonder the
leg of a dog or a piece of caribou meat hung by a cord over a runway,
with the snow disturbed beneath it where the deadly trap was hidden. One
glance, or a sniff at a distance, was enough for the wolf. Lynxes do not
go about the range without their skins, and meat does not naturally hang
on trees; so Wayeeses, knowing all the ways of the woods, would ignore
these baits absolutely. Nevertheless he followed the snow-shoe trails
until he knew where every unnatural thing lay hidden; and no matter how
hungry he was, or how cunningly the old Indian hid his devices, or
however deep the new snow covered all traces of man's work, Wayeeses
passed by on the other side and kept his dainty feet out of every snare
and pitfall.

Once, when the two cubs that hunted together were hard pinched with
hunger, they found Old Tomah in the twilight and followed him
stealthily. The old Indian was swinging along, silent as a shadow of the
woods, his gun on his shoulder and some skins on h