there was no food to
be had, why should he not feast for days and days off the
Buffalo?--that is, if anything happened to Shag. Something might
happen to him very easily. A'tim knew of many muskegs where a
stupid, heavy-footed Bull might be mired; also, there was the
poison plant, the Death Flower of the Monkshood. He could
persuade the stupid Shag to eat of it, and in an hour the Bull
would die--puffed up like a Cow's udder; it would not hurt the
flesh. Eu-h-h! there were many ways. Shag's company was good--he
was weary of being alone; it was dreadful to be an Outcast; but
rather than starve to death--well, he would eat his friend.

What matter to him the ever-increasing beauty of the landscape,
the richer growth that appealed strongly to his companion from
the bare Southern plain? The wild rose bushes, red-berried in the
autumn of their fruitage, caressed their ankles as they passed;
pink and white berries clung to silver-leafed Buffalo willow
like rose-tinted snowflakes; hazel and wild cherry and gentle
maple swayed in the prairie wind, and sent fluttering leaf-kisses
to the parent earth. Great patches of feed-land waved silver gray
with a tasseled spread of seeding grasses. Oh! but they were
coming into a land of much growth. Shag the Bull lowed in soft
content as he rested full-bellied on the black-loamed prairie.
All the time A'tim was but thinking of something to kill,
something to eat.

That was as they came to Egg Lake.

"Trail slowly, kind Brother," admonished the Dog-Wolf. "It is now
the season of many Ducks here, even at Egg Lake; perchance in the
reed grass yonder, by the willows, I may stalk a Wavey, or even a
Goose." Ghur-r-r! but he was hungry!

A'tim stole on in front; flat to the grass his belly, and low his
head. As silently as floating foam on still water he passed into
the thicket of reed grass, his fierce eyes fixed on four Mallard
that gabbled and dove their supple heads to the mud bottom for
wild rice. Only a little farther and A'tim would be upon them.
Shag was watching solicitously the stalk of his friend.

Suddenly, and without provocation, the lake seemed to stand up
on end and commence throwing things about. The Bull was
startled--what did it all mean? Gradually something huge and
black began to take shape and form from amidst the whirl of many
moving things.

"A Bear!" gasped Shag. "By the strength of my neck he means to
devour A'tim!"

With a rushing charge Shag was upon the fi