nothing of them but their bones that glinted in the sun.

"Old age came on me there. Among these bones weariness crept into
my limbs. My head grew heavy, my eyes dim, my knees jerked and
trembled, and there the wolves dared chase me.

"I went again to the cave that had been my home when I was an old
man.

"One day I stole from the cave to snatch a mouthful of grass, for
I was closely besieged by wolves. They made their rush, and I
barely escaped from them. They sat beyond the cave staring at me.

"I knew their tongue. I knew all that they said to each other,
and all that they said to me. But there was yet a thud left in my
forehead, a deadly trample in my hoof. They did not dare come
into the cave.

"'To-morrow,' they said, 'we will tear out your throat, and gnaw
on your living haunch'."



CHAPTER VII

"Then my soul rose to the height of Doom, and I intended all that
might happen to me, and agreed to it.

"'To-morrow,' I said, 'I will go out among ye, and I will die,'
and at that the wolves howled joyfully, hungrily, impatiently.