ose and lick his face even though he did smell to heaven. He wanted to
hear him grunt and squeal in his funny, companionable way; he wanted to
hunt with him again, and play with him, and lie down beside him in a
sunny spot and sleep. Neewa, at last, was a necessary part of his world.

He set out.

And Neewa, far up the creek, still followed hopefully and yearningly
over the trail of Miki.

Half way to the dip, in a small open meadow that was a glory of sun,
they met. There was no very great demonstration. They stopped and
looked at each other for a moment, as if to make sure that there was no
mistake. Neewa grunted. Miki wagged his tail. They smelled noses. Neewa
responded with a little squeal, and Miki whined. It was as if they had
said,

"Hello, Miki!"

"Hello, Neewa!"

And then Neewa lay down in the sun and Miki sprawled himself out beside
him. After all, it was a funny world. It went to pieces now and then,
but it always came together again. And to-day their world had
thoroughly adjusted itself. Once more they were chums--and they were
happy.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was the Flying-Up Moon--deep and slumbering midsummer--in all the
land of Keewatin. From Hudson Bay to the Athabasca and from the Hight
of Land to the edge of the Great Barrens, forest, plain, and swamp lay
in peace and forgetfulness under the sun-glowing days and the
star-filled nights of the August MUKOO-SAWIN. It was the breeding moon,
the growing moon, the moon when all wild life came into its own once
more. For the trails of this wilderness world--so vast that it reached
a thousand miles east and west and as far north and south--were empty
of human life. At the Hudson Bay Company's posts--scattered here and
there over the illimitable domain of fang and claw--had gathered the
thousands of hunters and trappers, with their wives and children, to
sleep and gossip and play through the few weeks of warmth and plenty
until the strife and tragedy of another winter began. For these people
of the forests it was MUKOO-SAWIN--the great Play Day of the year; the
weeks in which they ran up new debts and established new credits at the
Posts; the weeks in which they foregathered at every Post as at a great
fair--playing, and making love, and marrying, and fattening up for the
many days of hunger and gloom to come.

It was because of this that the wild things had come fully into the
possession of their world for a space. There was no longer the scent