orning, I found a porcupine in my path, but
did not stop to slap it. By the river's bank the little brown-coated
minks were hunting among the grass, and by the dam the beavers were
hard at work protecting and strengthening their house against the
spring floods, which were already rising.

It was only a couple of hundred yards or so from my den to the stream,
and for the first few days I hardly went farther than that. But it was
impossible that I should not all the time--that is, as soon as I could
think of anything except my hunger--be contrasting this spring with the
spring before, when Kahwa and I had played about the rock and the
cedar-trees, and I had tumbled down the hill. And the more I thought of
it, the less I liked being alone. And my father and mother, I knew, must
be somewhere close by me--for I presumed they had spent the winter in
the spot that they had chosen--so I made up my mind to go and join them
again.

It was in the early evening that I went, about a week after I had come
out of my winter-quarters, and I had no trouble in finding the place;
but when I did find it I also found things that I did not expect.

"Surely," I said to myself as I came near, "that is little Kahwa's
voice!" There could be no doubt of it. She was squealing just as she
used to do when she tried to pull me away from the rock by my hind-foot.
So I hurried on to see what it could mean, and suddenly the truth dawned
upon me.

My parents had two new children. I had never thought of that
possibility. I heard my mother's voice warning the cubs that someone
was coming, and as I appeared the young ones ran and smuggled up to
her, and stared at me as if I was a stranger and they were afraid
of me, as I suppose they were. It made me feel awkward, and almost
as if my mother was a stranger, too; but after standing still a
little time and watching them I walked up. Mother met me kindly and
the cubs kept behind her and out of the way. I spoke to mother and
rubbed noses with her, and told her that I was glad to see her. She
evidently thought well of me, and I was rather surprised, when
standing beside her, to find that she was not nearly so much bigger
than I as I had supposed.

But before I had been there more than a minute mother gave me warning
that father was coming, and, turning, I saw him walking down the
hillside towards us. He saw me at the same time, and stopped and
growled. At first, I think, not knowing who I was, he was astonis