Owl and hawk, fox and weasel and wildcat,--all the
prowlers of the day and night have long since discovered these good
hunting-grounds and leave the prints of wing and claw over the records
of the wood-mice; but still Tookhees returns, led by his love of the
snow-fields, and thrives and multiplies spite of all his enemies.
One moonlit night the old wolf took her cubs to the edge of one of these
snow-fields, where the eager eyes soon noticed dark streaks shooting
hither and yon over the bare white surface. At first they chased them
wildly; but one might as well try to catch a moonbeam, which has not so
many places to hide as a wood-mouse. Then, remembering the grasshoppers,
they crouched and crept and so caught a few. Meanwhile old mother wolf
lay still in hiding, contenting herself with snapping up the game that
came to her, instead of chasing it wildly all over the snow-field. The
example was not lost; for imitation is strong among intelligent animals,
and most of what they learn is due simply to following the mother. Soon
the cubs were still, one lying here under shadow of a bush, another
there by a gray rock that lifted its head out of the snow.
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