"It was a moose." "I'd have been ashamed of you," said Uncle Andy, "if you hadn't known that at once from my description.

Of course, it was a cow moose.

But where the calf's great piece of luck came in was in the fact that the moose had lost her calf, just the day before, through its falling into the river and being swept away by the rapids.

Her heart, heavy with grief and loneliness, her udder aching with the pressure of its milk, she had been drawn up to see what manner of baby it was that dared to cry its misery so openly here in the dangerous forest.
"And when the calf adopted her so confidently, after a brief shyness--the shyness of all wild things toward the creatures who have come under man's care--she returned the compliment of adopting the calf.
"After a little, when the calf had satisfied its appetite, she led it away through the trees.

It followed readily enough for a while--for perhaps half a mile.