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208
Animal Heroes
·
Ernest Thompson Seton
75
VI
THE
BEGUILING
OF
THE
YELLOW
WOLF
The
life
game
is
a
hard
game,
for
we
may
win
ten
thousand
times,
and
if
we
fail
but
once
our
gain
is
gone.
How
many
hundred
times
had
the
Yellow
Wolf
scorned
the
traps;
how
many
Cubs
she
had
trained
to
do
the
same!
Of
all
the
dangers
to
her
life
she
best
knew
traps.
October
had
come;
the
Cub
was
now
much
taller
than
the
mother.
The
wolver
had
seen
them
once--a
Yellow
Wolf
followed
by
another,
whose
long,
awkward
legs,
big,
soft
feet,
thin
neck,
and
skimpy
tail
proclaimed
him
this
year's
Cub.
The
record
of
the
dust
and
sand
said
that
the
old
one
had
lost
a
right
front
toe,
and
that
the
young
one
was
of
giant
size.
It
was
the
wolver
that
thought
to
turn
the
carcass
of
the
Calf
to
profit,
but
he
was
disappointed
in
getting
Coyotes
instead
of
Wolves.
It
was
the
beginning
of
the
trapping
season,
for
this
month
fur
is
prime.
A
young
trapper
often
fastens
the
bait
on
the
trap;
an
experienced
one
does
not.
A
good
trapper
will
even
put
the
bait
at
one
place
and
the
trap
ten
or
twenty
feet
away,
but
at
a
spot
that
the
Wolf
is
likely
to
cross
in
circling.
A
favorite
plan
is
to
hide
three
or
four
traps
around
an
open
place,
and
scatter
some
scraps
of
meat
in
the
middle.
The
traps
are
buried
out
of
sight
after
being
smoked
to
hide
the
taint
of
hands
and
iron.
Sometimes
no
bait
is
used
except
a
little
piece
of
cotton
or
a
tuft
of
feathers
that
may
catch
the
Wolf's
eye
or
pique
its
curiosity
and
tempt
it
to
circle
on
the
fateful,
treacherous
ground.
A
good
trapper
varies
his
methods
continually
so
that
the
Wolves
cannot
learn
his
ways.
Their
only
safeguards
are
perpetual
vigilance
and
distrust
of
all
smells
that
are
known
to
be
of
man.
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