Moreover, it is useless to dissimulate, to go out and play
and then to be sleeping innocently with the cubs when the old wolf's
shadow darkens the entrance. No concealment is possible from wolf's
nose; before she enters the den the mother knows perfectly all that has
happened since she went away. So the days glided by peacefully between
sleep and play, the cubs trusting absolutely in the strength and
tenderness that watched over them, the mother building the cubs' future
on the foundation of the two instincts which are strong in every wild
creature born into a world of danger,--the instinct to lie still and let
nature's coloring hide all defenseless little ones, and the instinct to
obey instantly a stronger will than their own.
There was no fear as yet, only instinctive wariness; for fear comes
largely from others' example, from alarms and excitement and cries of
danger, which only the grown animals understand. The old wolf had been
undisturbed; no dog or hunter had chased her; no trap or pitfall had
entangled her swift feet. Moreover, she had chosen her den well, where
no man had ever stood, and where only the eyes of two children had seen
her at a distance.
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