THE GREAT CHANGE The rocks, the ridges and the valleys were taking on a warmer glow.

The poplar buds were ready to burst.

The scent of balsam and of spruce grew heavier in the air each day, and all through the wilderness, in plain and forest, there was the rippling murmur of the spring floods finding their way to Hudson's Bay.

In that great bay there was the rumble and crash of the ice fields thundering down in the early break-up through the Roes Welcome--the doorway to the Arctic, and for that reason there still came with the April wind an occasional sharp breath of winter.
Kazan had sheltered himself against that wind.

Not a breath of air stirred in the sunny spot the wolf-dog had chosen for himself.