LITTLE Spot, the wilful¹ young reindeer², trembled as he crowded up to his mother. He couldn’t get close enough to her. He no longer wanted to be out in the Great World by himself. He wondered that his mother did not run. Every moment or two he looked back to see if those wolves were coming up over the hill. But Big Spot seemed in no hurry at all. You see, she was wise with the wisdom of experience. She didn’t want Little Spot to get over his fright so soon that he would forget the lesson he had learned. Then, too, she wanted him to get rested a little and get his wind back.

 

At last, she quieted Little Spot’s fears. “Those wolves did not chase you, my son,” said she. “They chased the young caribou³, and it is very fortunate for you that they did.”

 

“I’m sure I could run faster than those wolves,” said Little Spot boastfully.

 

“Yes, you could,” replied his mother. “You could run faster than they could for a while, but you do not know the patience of wolves, my dear. You would have run so hard and so fast that presently you would have tired yourself out so that the wolves would have had no trouble in catching⁴ you. Ever since you were a little fawn⁵ I have told you about the wolves, and that they are our worst enemies; but I don’t think you ever have believed it. Now you have seen them and you know what they are like. The wolves are very smart people. They watch for a deer to stray away. Then they get between the herd⁶ and that deer. When this happens, that deer will not live long.”

 

“Have the deer always been afraid of the wolves?” asked Little Spot.

 

“Ever since the days when the world was young,” replied his mother.

 

“Tell me about the days when the world was young,” begged Little Spot.

 

For a few moments his mother said nothing. Gradually, into her big, dark eyes there crept a far-away look. “Once upon a time,” she began at last, “the world was mostly water, like the salt water that you saw in the summer.”

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