azan tearing about in the throes of the direst agony
that can befall a beast of the forests. His face and nose were a mat of
quills. For a few moments he rolled and dug in the wet mold and earth,
pawing madly at the things that pierced his flesh. Then he set off like
all dogs will who have come into contact with the friendly porcupine,
and raced again and again around the windfall, howling at every jump.
Gray Wolf took the matter coolly. It is possible that at times there are
moments of humor in the lives of animals. If so, she saw this one. She
scented the porcupine and she knew that Kazan was full of quills. As
there was nothing to do and nothing to fight she sat back on her
haunches and waited, pricking up her ears every time Kazan passed her in
his mad circuit around the windfall. At his fourth or fifth heat the
porcupine smoothed itself down a little, and continuing the interrupted
thread of its chatter waddled to a near-by poplar, climbed it and began
to gnaw the tender bark from a limb.

At last Kazan halted before Gray Wolf. The first agony of a hundred
little needles piercing his flesh had deadened into a steady burning
pain. Gray Wolf went over to him and investigated him cautiously. With
her teeth she seized the ends of two or three of the quills and pulled
them out. Kazan was very much dog now. He gave a yelp, and whimpered as
Gray Wolf jerked out a second bunch of quills. Then he flattened himself
on his belly, stretched out his forelegs, closed his eyes, and without
any other sound except an occasional yelp of pain allowed Gray Wolf to
go on with the operation. Fortunately he had escaped getting any of the
quills in his mouth and tongue. But his nose and jaws were soon red
with blood. For an hour Gray Wolf kept faithfully at her task and by the
end of that time had succeeded in pulling out most of the quills. A few
still remained, too short and too deeply inbedded for her to extract
with her teeth.

After this Kazan went down to the creek and buried his burning muzzle in
the cold water. This gave him some relief, but only for a short time.
The quills that remained worked their way deeper and deeper into his
flesh, like living things. Nose and lips began to swell. Blood and
saliva dripped from his mouth and his eyes grew red. Two hours after
Gray Wolf had retired to her nest under the windfall a quill had
completely pierced his lip and began to prick his tongue. In desperation
Kazan chewed viciously upon a