No wonder wolves
are intelligent in avoiding every trap and in hunting together to outwit
some fleet-footed quarry with unbelievable cunning. Here on the edge of
the vast, untrodden barren, far from human eyes, in an ordinary family
of wolf cubs playing wild and free, eager, headstrong, hungry, yet
always under control and instantly subject to a wiser head and a
stronger will than their own, was the explanation of it all. Later, in
the bitter, hungry winter, when a big caribou was afoot and the pack hot
on his trail, the cubs would remember the lesson, and every free wolf
would curb his hunger, obeying the silent signal to ease the game and
follow slowly while the leader raced unseen through the woods to head
the game and lie in ambush by the distant runway.
From grasshoppers the cubs took to hunting the wood-mice that nested in
the dry moss and swarmed on the edges of every thicket. This was keener
hunting; for the wood-mouse moves like a ray of light, and always makes
at least one false start to mislead any that may be watching for him.
The cubs soon learned that when Tookhees appeared and dodged back again,
as if frightened, it was not because he had seen them, but just because
he always appears that way.
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