r Thor. Then he had to
seek farther for food, but each afternoon when the mountains began to throw
out long shadows he would return to the clump of trees in which they had
made the cache that the black bear robber had despoiled.

One day he went farther than usual in his quest for roots. He was a good
half-mile from the place he had made home, and he was sniffing about the
end of a rock when a great shadow fell suddenly upon him. He looked up, and
for a full half-minute he stood transfixed, his heart pounding and jumping
as it had never pounded and jumped before in his life. Within five feet of
him stood Thor! The big grizzly was as motionless as he, looking at him
steadily. And then Muskwa gave a puppy-like whine of joy and ran forward.
Thor lowered his huge head, and for another half-minute they stood without
moving, with Thor's nose buried in the hair on Muskwa's back. After that
Thor went up the slope as if the cub had never been lost at all, and Muskwa
followed him happily.

Many days of wonderful travel and of glorious feasting came after this, and
Thor led Muskwa into a thousand new places in the two valleys and the
mountains between. There were great fishing days, and there was another
caribou killed over the range, and Muskwa grew fatter and fatter and
heavier and heavier until by the middle of September he was as large as a
good-sized dog.

Then came the berries, and Thor knew where they all grew low down in the
valleys--first the wild red raspberries, then the soap berries, and after
those the delicious black currants which grew in the cool depths of the
forests and were almost as large as cherries and nearly as sweet as the
sugar which Langdon had fed Muskwa. Muskwa liked the black currants best of
all. They grew in thick, rich clusters; there were no leaves on the bushes
that were loaded with them, and he could pick and eat a quart in five
minutes.

But at last the time came when there were no berries. This was in October.
The nights were very cold, and for whole days at a time the sun would not
shine, and the skies were dark and heavy with clouds. On the peaks the snow
was growing deeper and deeper, and it never thawed now up near the
sky-line. Snow fell in the valley, too--at first just enough to make a
white carpet that chilled Muskwa's feet, but it quickly disappeared. Raw
winds began to come out of the north, and in place of the droning music of
the valley in summertime there were now shrill wailing