The bears came ambling across the meadow in pairs and singly to slide down the leaning spruce for their spring meeting before the flowering of their love moon. The wolves ran under the spring stars or howled on barren ridges. Midnight did not pay much attention to the gray killers. He had come to know by their howls when they were hunting and when they were serenading. The old tom cougars stalked through the timber while the she-cats sought them out, which is the way of the big cats. And the little folk left their winter dens to race about in the warm sunshine. The yellowbelly whistlers blasted their shrill warning from the sentinel stone while the calico chips and the rockchips stayed within the protected area where they could pay attention to the warnings given by the whistlers. The hawks circled in the blue above, billowing with the gusts of spring wind, while the eagles circled high above them in the still upper air. One day the chipmunks came out and the meadow rang with their chock-chock song as they celebrated their awakening. In all this celebrating and excitement the cabin at the edge of the meadow stood silent and disconsolate, dead and lifeless. It seemed older and more weathered than before. The weeds on its dirt roof did not break into green foliage as soon as those in the meadow. One of the eaves boards had given way, letting the dirt covering slip from a corner of the roof and exposing the split slabs beneath. The spring showers made little gullies and seams which looked like wrinkles. At the door the willow chair lay on its side, tipped over by the snow or some inquisitive visitor who recognized that the man smell was long cold and dead. Midnight visited the cabin often, smelling about. He used its rough log corners as a scratching post against which he leaned and rubbed while he grunted with pleasure. The rubbing loosened mats of hair from his sides and soon his coat was sleek and shining, new as the blue flowers crowding the shady spots at the edge of the timber. As spring advanced Midnight became more nervous. He ran more often and for longer at a time, sometimes circling the meadow several times before halting to paw restlessly. He did not leave the meadow but he was always listening and often paused to call shrilly.