Followers of the Trail

Followers of the Trail, by

Zoe Meyer and William F. Stecher This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Followers of the Trail
Author: Zoe Meyer William F. Stecher
Release Date: August 13, 2007 [EBook #22311]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLLOWERS OF THE TRAIL ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: The Hermit and Pal Took Many a Trip into the forest.]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FOLLOWERS OF THE TRAIL
By ZOE MEYER
Illustrated by WILLIAM F. STECHER
Boston Little, Brown, And Company 1926
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1926, By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published May, 1926 Printed in the United States of America
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS PAGE
PAL 1
THE CALL OF THE SPRING 19
THE ADVENTURES OF KAGH, THE PORCUPINE 35
THE TRAIL OF THE MOOSE 48
IN THE BEAVERS' LODGE 65
SILVER SPOT 81
WHEN THE MOON IS FULL 96
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF RINGTAIL, THE RACCOON 109
THE HAUNTER OF THE TRAIL 126
WHERE WINTER HOLDS NO TERRORS 140
BROWN BROTHER 154
IN THE WAKE OF THE THAW 171
THE TWINS 184
THE WHITE WOLF 202
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Hermit and Pal took many a trip into the forest Frontispiece
PAGE
Slowly it advanced, its body almost brushing the snow 15
And then occurred a memorable battle 33
Pal stopped, clearly astonished 45
As if carved from the rock the big moose stood 49
The Hermit took the one chance that presented itself 59
The dam, when finished, was a work worthy of a trained engineer 67
A full grown fox stood motionless in the sunlight, a rabbit hanging limply from her jaws 83
The big frog was flipped out upon the bank 97
Ringtail had heard the agonized cry of his playmate 119
He crouched upon a branch, glaring down at the animated leaf-pile 131
The hawk dropped like a thunderbolt and caught him in its talons 143
Instantly the fawn thrust out his delicate muzzle and licked the outstretched hand 155
Both glared but refused to let go 175
The other cub forgot her fear and demanded her sugar lump 189
High on his rocky ledge he lifted his muzzle to the moon 205
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FOLLOWERS OF THE TRAIL
In the depths of the green wilderness, where dark spruce and hemlock guard the secrets of the trail, are still to be found wild creatures who know little of man and who regard him with more of curiosity than of fear. Woodland ponds, whose placid waters have never reflected the dark lines of a canoe, lie like jewels in their setting of green hills; ponds where soft-eyed deer come down to drink at twilight, and where the weird laughter of the loon floats through the morning mists. Toward the south, however, man is fast penetrating the secrets of the forest, blazing dim trails and leaving fear and destruction in the wake of his guns and traps.
Occasionally a hunter, unarmed save perhaps for a camera, enters the wilderness to study its inhabitants, not that he may destroy them, but that he may the better understand them, and through them draw closer to nature. Such a man was the Hermit, who dwelt alone in a log cabin where the southern border of the wilderness terminated abruptly at an old snake fence. Tall forest trees leaned toward the clearing and many a follower of dim forest trails approached the fence during the hours of darkness to peer curiously, though somewhat fearfully, at the lonely cabin.
Perhaps the visitor might be a black bear in search of the berries which were sure to be found at the edges of the cleared ground; perhaps a lynx, staring with pale, savage eyes upon the cabin, hating the man who occupied it, yet fearing his power. Again it might be an antlered deer who paused a moment, one dainty hoof uplifted, brown eyes, wholly curious, fixed upon the silent dwelling. Only the smaller woodfolk such as rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, and now and then a fox, dared make a closer investigation of the clearing.
As for the man himself, he would, if possible, have made a friend of every wild creature who came near his dwelling. Broken in health, he had turned wearily from the rush and clamor of the city to the clear, balsam-scented air of the woods, where he was fast gaining a health and vigor that he had not believed possible. Out of a lean face, tanned by exposure and wrinkled with kindly humor, a pair of keen gray eyes looked with never-flagging interest upon the busy world about him.
The Hermit, in spite of his comparative isolation from those of his kind, was far from leading a life of uselessness. Having been from boyhood an enthusiastic student of botany, he had located in the big woods many a leaf, bark and root which, when sent back into