sleek and nimble-footed on her
foster mother's abundant milk, and presently learned to browse on the
tender leaves and twigs of the fresh green shrubbery. She soon,
however, found that the short, sweet grasses of the forest glades were
much more to her taste than any leaves or stringy twigs. But the lily
roots which her foster mother taught her to pull from the muddy lake
bottom, as they wallowed luxuriously side by side in the cool water,
defying flies and heat, suited her admirably. The great black moose
bulls--hornless at this season and fat and amiable as sheep--regarded
her with a reserved curiosity; and the moose calves, the strangeness of
her form and color once worn off, treated her with great respect.
Though she was so much smaller and lighter than they, her quickness on
her feet and her extremely handy way of butting made her easily master
of them all. Even the supercilious young cow who had been so
disagreeable to her at first grew indifferently friendly, and all was
peace around the secluded little lake.

"Late one afternoon, however, when the shadows were getting long and
black across the forest glades, the peace was momentarily broken. The
calf was pasturing in one of the glades, while her foster mother was
wallowing and splashing down among the lilies. A bear creeping up
through the thickets so noiselessly that not even a sharp-eyed
chick-a-dee or a vigilant red squirrel took alarm, peered out between
the branches and saw the calf.

"As luck would have it, it was the same old bear! He had recovered
from his wound, but naturally he had not forgotten the terrible horns
of the little fawn-colored Jersey cow. When he saw the fawn-colored
calf he flew into a rage, and hurled himself forth at her to avenge in
one stroke the bitter and humiliating memory.

"But the calf was too quick for him. At the first crackling of the
branches behind her she had jumped away like a deer. From the corner
of her eye she saw the great black shape rushing upon her, and, with a
wild cry, half the bawl of a calf, half the bleat of a young moose, she
went racing, tail in air, down to the water, with the bear at her heels.

"With a terrific splashing the cow moose hurried to the rescue. She
was a very big moose and she was in a very big rage; and very
formidable she looked as she came plowing her way to shore, sending up
the water in fountains before her. He knew well that a full-grown cow
moose was an awkward antagon