ONE OF THE FLEETEST
It was the most interesting thing! The big brother elk, who was just a year old, peered in through the branches, his ears pointed forward. His great soft eyes were shining, and his nostrils were quivering with excitement. There, on a bed of leaves in the mountain-thicket, lay a new little baby elk.
He looked like the big brother, except for the white spots on his satiny brown coat. With his slender legs doubled under him he lay perfectly still, not even twitching his ears, as old deer to catch the slightest sound. He was looking up at his big brown mother standing beside him.
The brother elk edged nearer and nearer, till a branch crackled under his hoofs. Instantly the old mother raised her head and pricked her ears in the direction of the sound. When she caught sight of the brother she drew back her lips from her teeth and squealed angrily. Her eyes gleamed. She began to walk toward him, squealing and shaking her head to drive him away. He was so surprised that he snorted out loud. Then backing off, first one foot and then the other, he hid among some trees close by.
He must have felt very lonesome as he waited there by himself on the mountain. He listened to every rustle of a leaf or crackle of a twig in the thicket where the baby was lying. Before this his mother had always been kind to him. He did not know why she drove him away,—when he was not doing any harm. The reason was because every little noise made her nervous. She was afraid wolves or panthers might come prowling around there, where the baby lay helpless on the leaves.
After a few days the baby scrambled to his feet and went staggering a bit unsteadily after his mother as she led the way out from the thicket. The big brother came timidly up to them. He smelled the little one very gently, nosing all over his soft dappled body. The mother did not pay much attention, and the baby was not afraid. He stood quite still, looking around with his shining eyes.
It was a beautiful world in May. All around him there were groves of aspens twinkling their silvery leaves in the early sunlight. Farther up the mountain-side dark evergreens grew thick among the rocks. Down the valley a brook splashed and gurgled over stones on its way to a lake lying in the cool shadow of the pines.