“It’s about ten days’ journey south of here.” Mother Reindeer told him. Then she asked him if he still wished to live with the wild caribou.
“No, no, mother! There were no lame ones and no old ones among our wild cousins. I wondered about it yesterday, but now I know the reason. The wolves caught and ate them.”
“Now do you know,” Mother Reindeer asked him, “why our wild cousins are always looking this way and that?”
“Yes,” White Sox answered, “I know now. It’s the wolves. They are always on the lookout for wolves. They dare not sleep at night for fear of these enemies. They dare not even graze in the willow valleys where the best moss grows. They must have strong, sharp antlers with which to protect themselves. I understand it all now, mother. Our wild cousins must ever be on the watch for these sneaking wolves. No, mother! No wild caribou life for me! Let us go back to the tame life of the big herd.”
FOOTNOTES:
[2] These oil lakes were discovered near the Arctic coast east of Point Barrow a few years ago. In the fall of 1921 they were staked by two oil companies.
“Mother Reindeer changed her course so that they almost faced the wind.”