“The first day you were in the forest you killed the wife of poor old Helpless,” said Crawlie.

Grayskin turned quickly from the adder, and continued his walk with Karr.  Suddenly he stopped.

“Karr, it was I who committed that crime!  I killed a harmless creature; therefore it is on my account that the forest is being destroyed.”

“What are you saying?” Karr interrupted.

“You may tell the water-snake, Helpless, that Grayskin goes into exile to-night!”

“That I shall never tell him!” protested Karr.  “The Far North is a dangerous country for elk.”

“Do you think that I wish to remain here, when I have caused a disaster like this?” protested Grayskin.

“Don’t be rash!  Sleep over it before you do anything!”

“It was you who taught me that the elk are one with the forest,” said Grayskin, and so saying he parted from Karr.

The dog went home alone; but this talk with Grayskin troubled him, and the next morning he returned to the forest to seek him, but Grayskin was not to be found, and the dog did not search long for him.  He realized that the elk had taken the snake at his word, and had gone into exile.

On his walk home Karr was too unhappy for words!  He could not understand why Grayskin should allow that wretch of a water-snake to trick him away.  He had never heard of such folly!  “What power can that old Helpless have?”

As Karr walked along, his mind full of these thoughts, he happened to see the game-keeper, who stood pointing up at a tree.

“What are you looking at?” asked a man who stood beside him.

“Sickness has come among the caterpillars,” observed the game-keeper.

Karr was astonished, but he was even more angered at the snake’s having the power to keep his word.  Grayskin would have to stay away a long long time, for, of course, that water-snake would never die.

At the very height of his grief a thought came to Karr which comforted him a little.

“Perhaps the water-snake won’t live so long, after all!” he thought.  “Surely he cannot always lie protected under a tree root.  As soon as he has cleaned out the caterpillars, I know some one who is going to bite his head off!”

It was true that an illness had made its appearance among the caterpillars.  The first summer it did not spread much.  It had only just broken out when it was time for the larvae to turn into pupae.  From the latter came millions of moths.  They flew around in the trees like a blinding snowstorm, and laid countless numbers of eggs.  An even greater destruction was prophesied for the following year.

The destruction came not only to the forest, but also to the caterpillars.  The sickness spread quickly from forest to forest.  The sick caterpillars stopped eating, crawled up to the branches of the trees, and died there.

There was great rejoicing among the people when they saw them die, but there was even greater rejoicing among the forest animals.