SHASTA OF THE WOLVES
BY
OLAF BAKER
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
CHARLES LIVINGSTON BULL
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1952
COPYRIGHT, 1919
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS, INC., NEW YORK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I The Wolf-Child
II The Coming of Shoomoo
III Shasta Comes Very Near Being Eaten by a Bear
IV The End of the Fight
V Gomposh, the Wise One
VI Shasta Sings the Wolf Chorus
VII Shasta Joins the Wolf Pack
VIII The Voice that Was Goohooperay
IX The Coming of Kennebec
X How Shasta Hid in Time
XI Shasta's Restlessness and What Came of It
XII Shasta Sees His Redskin Kindred
XIII The Bull Moose
XIV Shasta Leaves His Wolf Kin
XV How Shasta Fought Musha-Wunk
XVI The Danger From the South
XVII Shasta Goes Scouting
XVIII The Wolves Avenge
SHASTA OF THE WOLVES
CHAPTER I
THE WOLF-CHILD
It was the old she-wolf Nitka that camerunning lightly along the dusk. Thoughshe had a great and powerful body, witha weight heavy enough to bear down a grownman, her feet made no sound as they camepadding through the trees. She had been along way, travelling for a kill, because at homethe wolf-babies were very hungry and gave herno peace. They were not well-behaved babiesat all. Whatever mischief there was in theworld seemed to be packed tight into theirlittle furry bodies. They played and foughtand worried each other till they grew hungryagain, and then they fell upon their motherlike the little ravening monsters that theywere. But Nitka bore it all patiently, as akind old mother should, and only gave them asmack occasionally, when their behaviour wasbeyond everything for naughtiness.
Now, as she came running through the treesshe drank in the air thirstily through her longnose. For it was her nose that brought hernews of the forest, telling her what creatureswere abroad, and whether there was a chanceof a kill. This evening the air was full ofsmells, and heavy with the heat of the longsummer day; but many of them were woodsmells, tree smells, green smells; not the scentof the warm fur and the warm flesh and thegood blood that ran in the warm bodies andmade them spill the secret of themselves alongthe air. And it was th