Followers of the Trail

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[Illustration: The Hermit and Pal Took Many a Trip into the forest.]

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FOLLOWERS OF THE TRAIL

By
ZOE MEYER

Illustrated by
WILLIAM F. STECHER

Boston
Little, Brown, And Company
1926

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Copyright, 1926,
By Little, Brown, and Company.

All rights reserved

Published May, 1926
Printed in the United States of America

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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

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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

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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.