s
like a wedge and keeping every crack of escape shut tight until they had
the slippery morsel safe under their back teeth. And even then it was
deliciously funny to watch their expression as they chewed, opening
their jaws wide as if swallowing a rabbit, snapping them shut again as
the grasshopper wiggled; and always with a doubt in their close-set
eyes, a questioning twist of head and ears, as if they were not quite
sure whether or not they were really eating him.

Another suggestive thing came out in these hunts, which you must notice
whether you watch wolves or coyotes or a den of fox cubs. Though no
sound came from the watchful old mother, the cubs seemed at every
instant under absolute control. One would rush away pell-mell after a
hopper, miss him and tumble away again, till he was some distance from
the busy group on the edge of the big lonely barren. In the midst of his
chase the mother would raise her head and watch the cub intently. No
sound was uttered that human ears could hear; but the chase ended right
there, on the instant, and the cub came trotting back like a well-broken
setter at the whistle. It was marvelous beyond comprehension, this
absolute authority and this silent command that brought a wolf back
instantly from the wildest chase, and that kept the cubs all together
under the watchful eyes that followed every movement. No wonder wolves
are intelligent in avoiding every trap and in hunting together to outwit
some fleet-footed quarry with unbelievable cunning. Here on the edge of
the vast, untrodden barren, far from human eyes, in an ordinary family
of wolf cubs playing wild and free, eager, headstrong, hungry, yet
always under control and instantly subject to a wiser head and a
stronger will than their own, was the explanation of it all. Later, in
the bitter, hungry winter, when a big caribou was afoot and the pack hot
on his trail, the cubs would remember the lesson, and every free wolf
would curb his hunger, obeying the silent signal to ease the game and
follow slowly while the leader raced unseen through the woods to head
the game and lie in ambush by the distant runway.

From grasshoppers the cubs took to hunting the wood-mice that nested in
the dry moss and swarmed on the edges of every thicket. This was keener
hunting; for the wood-mouse moves like a ray of light, and always makes
at least one false start to mislead any that may be watching for him.
The cubs soon learned that when Tookhees