But peace had spread its wings of sunshine and plenty over the swamp.  There were no intruders, unless the noisy whisky-jacks, the big-eyed moose-birds, the chattering bush sparrows, and the wood-mice and ermine could be called such.  After the first day or two Kazan went more frequently into the windfall, and though more than once he nosed searchingly about Gray Wolf he could find only the one little pup.  A little farther west the Dog-Ribs would have called the pup Ba-ree for two reasons—­because he had no brothers or sisters, and because he was a mixture of dog and wolf.  He was a sleek and lively little fellow from the beginning, for there was no division of mother strength and attention.  He developed with the true swiftness of the wolf-whelp, and not with the slowness of the dog-pup.

For three days he was satisfied to cuddle close against his mother, feeding when he was hungry, sleeping a great deal and preened and laundered almost constantly by Gray Wolf’s affectionate tongue.  From the fourth day he grew busier and more inquisitive with every hour.  He found his mother’s blind face, with tremendous effort he tumbled over her paws, and once he lost himself completely and sniffled for help when he rolled fifteen or eighteen inches away from her.  It was not long after this that he began to recognize Kazan as a part of his mother, and he was scarcely more than a week old when he rolled himself up contentedly between Kazan’s forelegs and went to sleep.  Kazan was puzzled.  Then with a deep sigh Gray Wolf laid her head across one of her mate’s forelegs, with her nose touching her runaway baby, and seemed vastly contented.  For half an hour Kazan did not move.

When he was ten days old Ba-ree discovered there was great sport in tussling with a bit of rabbit fur.  It was a little later when he made his second exciting discovery—­light and sunshine.  The sun had now reached a point where in the middle of the afternoon a bright gleam of it found its way through an overhead opening in the windfall.  At first Ba-ree would only stare at the golden streak.  Then came the time when he tried to play with it as he played with the rabbit fur.  Each day thereafter he went a little nearer the opening through which Kazan passed from the windfall into the big world outside.  Finally came the time when he reached the opening and crouched there, blinking and frightened at what he saw, and now Gray Wolf no longer tried to hold him back but went out into the sunshine and tried to call him to her.  It was three days before his weak eyes had grown strong enough to permit his following her, and very quickly after that Ba-ree learned to love the sun, the warm air, and the sweetness of life, and to dread the darkness of the closed-in den where he had been born.