A moment before the hillside had appeared utterly lifeless, so still and
rugged and desolate that one must notice and welcome the stir of a mouse
or ground squirrel in the moss, speaking of life that is glad and free
and vigorous even in the deepest solitudes; yet now, so quietly did the
old wolf appear, so perfectly did her rough gray coat blend with the
rough gray rocks, that the hillside seemed just as tenantless as before.
A stray wind seemed to move the mosses, that was all. Only where the
mountains once slept now they seemed wide-awake. Keen eyes saw every
moving thing, from the bees in the bluebells to the slow fishing-boats
far out at sea; sharp ears that were cocked like a collie's heard every
chirp and trill and rustle, and a nose that understood everything was
holding up every vagrant breeze and searching it for its message. For
the cubs were coming out for the first time to play in the big world,
and no wild mother ever lets that happen without first taking infinite
precautions that her little ones be not molested nor made afraid.
A faint breeze from the west strayed over the mountains and instantly
the old wolf turned her sensitive nose to question it.
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