But, on the other hand, these thoughts only come when some external sight or sound arouses them in me, and at ordinary times I am content. I have enough to eat, which, after all, is the main thing in life, and am saved the work of finding food for myself. I never know real hunger now, as sometimes I knew it in the old days when the frost was on the ground; and there is no need now to hibernate. My first winter here I started, as a matter of habit, and scratched the sawdust and stuff into a heap in that corner over there. But what was the use, when it never got cold and my meals came every day?
My claws are growing horribly long from lack of use, because there is nothing here to dig for; and I know I am getting fat from want of exercise. But it is pleasant enough lying and dreaming of the old days; and, after all, perhaps I have lived my life. There is nothing that I look back upon with shame. It was not my fault that my sister Kahwa died; for I did my best to save her. Even if the later little Kahwa perished, still, I sent one son and a daughter out into the world, fit I think, to hold their own. Above all, I avenged the old insult to my parents. What more could I have done had I had my freedom longer?
It is all good to remember, and, except when I long for Wooffa, I am content.
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
FOOTNOTES
[[1]] It is not possible to give any idea of how a bear says wow-ugh. The wow begins at the bottom of the octave, runs halfway up and then down again, and the ugh comes from the very inside of his insides. It is as if he started on the ground floor of a house, wowed clear upstairs to the top and down again, and then went into the cellar to say ugh!
[[2]] The striped ground squirrels of North America.