Who Appreciates?

Baby Moose By F. H. Sweet

Billows of smoke rolled up the vertical mountain side, and out of them flashed angry sheets of flame. The whole forest on the steep west bank of the St. Maurice, above Rat River, was ablaze. At the southern boundary of the fire, men were fighting it with shovels, fire and water. On the river, Burden and Winne, fire-rangers, were paddling their light canoe up the swift current, seeking a point of attack from above. They had passed the fiercest of the flames, and were headed for the bank, when a puff of wind rolled down a cloud of smoke which nearly smothered them. For a minute they floated on the stream, blind to their course, not knowing which way to turn. Then came a crash as a big animal plunged into the water beside them, and a cow-moose swam past within reach of their paddles. A moment later, as the cloud of smoke lifted, the rangers saw an ungainly little animal awkwardly struggling in the water between themselves and the nearby bank of the river. With a sweep of his paddle Burden cent the canoe gliding toward the little creature, as he shouted to his companion:

"Grab it, Winne! It's a baby moose!" "All right," answered Winne. "I'll take care of the baby, if you'll look after the canoe. We'll be in the river in a minute." Winne caught the creature by the ear and held its head well out of the water, despite its desperate struggles, while Burden balanced the canoe against the shifting weight of his companion. After a little the animal teamed to struggle, and Burden began to drive the craft toward the bank as they drifted with the current. They had almost reached the shore, when the baby moose made a sudden plunge, and striking the canoe with knees and head, capsized the craft. Burden swam ashore with the canoe, which he dragged out on the bank, while Winne and the moose were swept down stream by the current. The ranger was an expert swimmer, given to diving from high bridges, and other acrobatic follies, but he found that swimming with a frightened young moose in deep water of a turbulent river called for all his skill. Often he got near the bank, and as often was swept away, until he had

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been carried a quarter of a mile down the river, and the end of his strength was in sight. Then a favoring eddy swept him against a bank from which the soil had been washed away until the roots of the trees which grew upon it projected into the river. Exhausted though he was, Winne managed to cling to a root until his companion, scrambling through hot ashes and around burning stumps, could get to him. Then Burden made fast, around the neck of the baby moose, the long sash which Canada woodsmen often wear in place of a belt, and Winne crawled out on the bank. Together the fire-rangers dragged the long-legged, awkward little animal out of the river and tied him to a tree. The rangers, who had been carried below the line of the forest fire, now returned to theirwork of directing and aiding the men whom they had called out to fight it. It was late at night when the fire was finally subdued, and the returning rangers found Baby Moose bleating piteously beside the tree to which they had tied him. They petted and soothed the little creature until he lost his fear of them, and they then led him without trouble down to the river to the house of a French habitant, where they got a pail of milk. After Baby Moose's nose had been pushed into the milk a few times, he learned to drink, and after he had emptied the pail he lay down contentedly to sleep, with the rangers camped beside him. In the morning, Burden hunted up a drive-boat, in which he offered to row Winne and Baby Moose across the St. Maurice to the house of a friend of theirs, the forester of a great lumber company which controlled a thousand square miles of land and water on the St. Maurice and its tributaries. He stipulated that Winne must be responsible for the baby during the voyage, and in case of disaster must swim ashore with it. But there was no trouble on the trip, for Baby Moose behaved like a tourist, and remained quietly on the boat, viewing the scenery, until the craft landed at the bank beside the cottage of their friend. The forester put Baby Moose in his little garden of a quarter of an acre, which was surrounded by a wooden fence to keep out the cattle of the lumber company. After the baby had been fed he was introduced to the forester's dog, of which he showed no fear, while the big dog licked the baby's nose, perhaps because it had just been dipped in a pail of milk.

Baby Moose was gaunt and ungainly, long-legged and awkward beyond belief. His lying-down and getting-up were picturesque in their clumsiness, but day after day he grew less thin, and day after day his intelligence and friendliness increased. He followed the forester's wife as she walked around the garden, and bleated when she left him. He was friendly with the