. We the strong, the
just, the wise, this we have said!'

"This man told me that he could not hear all the song that the
mountains chanted, nor all they whispered among themselves. But
he thought they said that they had swallowed up and consumed one
race of beings who became fixed only upon the winning of what
they called wealth, and had crushed out this wealth and burned
up their precious things. This may be true, for to-day men visit
the mountains to dig there for wealth, and this which they call
gold is found much scattered, as though it had been crumbled and
burned and blown wide over the earth upon the four winds. For
these reasons this man thought that the mountains had once eaten
up the plains; and that perhaps at some time they might do this
again."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: The Savage and its Heart]

[Illustration]

THE SAVAGE AND ITS HEART

"Once," said the Singing Mouse, "I knew a man who found a little
dog, starved, beneath a building where it had been left. He took
it and fed it; and each time he held out his hand to give it
food, it bit his hand, knowing not that he was its friend. Many
times he fed it, and always it bit his hand. It was a long time
before it learned that the man was its friend. It was but a
savage. He fed it patiently, and so after a time the dog bit him
no more, having learned that he was its friend. When it had
ceased to be savage, it loved him. The man gave it neither blow
nor unkindness, and fed it, knowing that he was older and more
wise and that in time it might love him. So at last it did; and
this may often happen for those who wait, large and kind and
patient; and so often friends are made."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: The Beast Terrible]

[Illustration]

THE BEAST TERRIBLE

The little room was resplendent one night with a fire which
flamed and flickered gloriously. It set in motion many shadows
which had their home in the corners of the walls, and bade them
cease their sullenness and come forth to dance in the riot of
the hour. And so each shadow found its partner in a ray of
firelight, and there they danced. They danced about the tangled
front of the big bison's head which hung upon the wall. They
crossed the grinning skull of the gray wolf. They softened the
eyes of the antelope's head, and made dark lines behind the
long-tined antlers of the elk and of the deer. They brought
forth to view in alternate eclipse and definition the