From the first, one of the cubs gave promise of being no ordinary wolf.
Long white hairs appeared among the down upon his back and sides,
growing more and more numerous until, when the cub was half grown, they
made a coat of pure white. The first time his mother returned from her
hunting to see him standing in the sunlight at the mouth of the den, she
stopped several yards away, looking at him keenly and half suspiciously.
The moment he discovered her presence the cub ran to meet her with a
glad whine of recognition and her look changed. From that time on, she
accepted him without question.
The white cub grew fast, and as he grew, the wild and savage nature of
his surroundings seemed to creep into his blood and become a part of
him. His baby growl was drowned by the ceaseless roar of the falls, but
as his voice grew stronger and fuller it took on the deep note of the
cataract. Long before his brother, he learned to pounce upon the
luckless grasshopper or cricket which appeared near the cave and to hold
it down with his fore-paws while he crunched it with relish. From
grasshoppers he progressed to mice, and from mice to rabbits, until he
came to depend but little upon the spoils of the mother wolf's hunting.
One night, when he was little more than half grown, the cub awakened to
find his mother absent at her hunting. The moonlight at the entrance to
the cave called him and he trotted out. Save for the thunder of the
falls, the night was very still. He stood upon the ledge before the
cave, looking down upon the wilderness, mysterious and alluring in the
moonlight, and the sight affected him strangely.
Suddenly there came to his ears a long-drawn howl. At the sound,
indescribably lonely and wild, the hair rose upon the back of the young
wolf and his eyes gleamed. It was the summons of the leader to the pack
and, though the cub knew nothing of its meaning, his heart instinctively
thrilled to it.
There was a moment of silence. Then, from far diverging points, the cry
was taken up as the various members of the pack rallied to the call of
their leader. The cub's heart swelled with a new and strange emotion.
The next moment, high on his rocky ledge, he lifted his muzzle to the
moon and sent out his own answer. The call was lost in the roar of the
cataract, but from that night the white cub felt his kinship with the
pack of which he was one day to become the leader.
[Illustration: High on his rocky ledge he lifted his muzzle to the moon.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account