TO THE NORTH!
IT was in the very early hours of the morning when little Queen was
rudely awakened by the sudden rising of her mother, upon whose warm
flank her little head was lying. As her consciousness lighted up, she
became aware of a most disturbing odour in the air. Forms of restless
horses moved about in the semi-darkness and the rhythmic sound of
hoof-beats told of threatening danger. Her mother was standing next to
the white mare in a group that seemed transfixed by a reddish light
which came from the southwest. In the distance, on the horizon, was a
low crescent of fire. Far away as the fire was, Queen could see the
flames creeping. It looked very much like a vast herd of glowing
creatures, among which, now and then, one leaped high above the others.
Terrified so that the very muscles in her body quivered, she sprang
toward her mother and pushed her way in between the two mares. Fire had
been part of the horrible process in the corral, but that fire had been
as nothing to this. She was afraid! She wanted to run, and she worried
about their standing still.
The black colt on the other side of his white mother was not the least
bit frightened. He had as yet met with nothing baneful in fires and they
only interested him. At that moment, having slept well and fed well and
feeling unusually good, he wanted very much to frisk about and play. He
trotted over to Queen and mischievously butted her from behind, pushing
her half way out from between the two mares. Queen was much too nervous
to tolerate his playfulness. With an impatient toss of her head she
moved back against her mother and called for help. The old buckskin
herself was in no mood for trifling and drove the black colt away with
an angry threat. The white mare, who was as indulgent a mother as the
buckskin, took the matter so seriously that there would have been
trouble but for a sudden blast of wind, loaded with smoke.
There was a hurried clatter of hoofs and the herd started away as with
one impulse. Down slopes, through wide hollows, up hills, leaping over
badger holes and stones, they ran, half enjoying the excitement.
Occasionally they stopped to look back with glaring eyes upon the flames
that swept along in their wake, still far, but unmistakably nearer every
time they stopped.
With the coming of full daylight the flames lost their brilliance and
the colts, tired of running, would stop every once in a while and
noisily protest to their mothers, who kept a short distance ahead of
them. They would then walk slowly and whinny till a new gust of wind
with a new offensive cloud of smoke would frighten them and send them on
again with renewed energy.
But their endurance was rapidly giving out and toward the middle of the
day they refused to run any more. Their mothers, a few paces ahead of
them, called to them solicitously, ran on as if they meant to desert
them, then seeing that that did not move them, they came back calling
coaxingly and tried to encourage them. A step at a time, their heads
bobbing wearily, their sides wet, they lumbered along complainingly.
The prairie fire kept gaining upon them. The mothers’ anxiety turned
into desperation. They came back to them and getting behind them fairly
pushed them along. Suddenly a blazing thistle, driven by the gale,
rolled into their midst. All weariness, all aches and pains were at once
forgotten. As if they were controlled by a single mind, they bounded
forward, re-entering the race for life with an energy which they
themselves did not know they had.
The sun with smiling indifference moved rapidly down the lower half of
its diurnal arc. The wind tore along behind them with irregular force
and with a constant changing of direction. The smoke it had borne all
day had grown less and less perceptible. The weight of Queen’s body
dragged more and more irresistibly downward. Her head began swimming in
waves of weariness that were inundating the whole of her body; but she
struggled on bravely, though she vaguely felt that it would not be long
before she would be forced to give up the struggle. Then, as she reached
the top of a hill, she beheld through the film of moisture on her eyes,
the mares and the stronger colts who had gone on ahead, now grazing on
the other side of a long, black, dried mud spot down in the hollow.
That the wind had veered decidedly, taking smell and smoke and fire off
to the east, they had not even noticed. They had been running
unnecessarily for some time, impelled by the fear of the burning
thistle. The sight of the herd grazing with apparent fearlessness
reassured them. Most of the stragglers walked on ahead to join them, but
Queen selected a soft spot on the grass and dropped to the ground with a
sigh.
Hunger had no power over her now. She stretched out her legs and her
head and relaxed, sinking willingly into the stupor that swept over her.
Her mother near her cropped the delicious grass with avidity; but the
long-drawn sighs that came from her little one and the rapid sinking and
swelling of her wet sides, worried her. She walked over to Queen,
whinnied softly and licked the perspiration from her little body. Little
Queen continued to breathe heavily but a note of relief entered the
sound of her breathing, and now more comfortable she fell asleep.
But if Queen had gone to sleep thinking that her exhausting journey was
over, she was doomed to disappointment. She woke shortly after she had
fallen asleep, with a most intense desire to drink. On the hill above
the hollow she saw the greater part of the herd already moving on. Some
of the mares and their colts near Queen were starting away and her
mother was calling her, very evidently moved by the same urge. There was
nothing behind them forcing them to go. There was no discussion of any
sort to make clear the need for going. In the mind of each of them there
was the image of a slough. It was a sort of composite image of all the
sloughs they had ever drunk from and with that image like a mirage on
the prairie distance before them, they doggedly hit once more the
unbroken trail to the north.
All day and most of the evening they continued the discouraging advance
without coming even to the bed of a dried-up slough. That night they
grazed a little and slept a little, but the thirst for water, somewhat
weakened by the coldness of the early night, soon reasserted itself and
sent them restlessly going again. The morning brought some relief. The
ground was covered with a thick frost and the grass they ate partially
quenched their thirst. But by the time the sun was quite high on its arc
they were as thirsty as ever and soon commenced the weary march once
more.
It was in the early evening that they came at last upon a half-dried
slough toward one end of which there was a good sized hole full of
water. The surface of the water was covered with a layer of ice. With
her hoof one of the mares made a large hole in the ice and as many as
could squeeze into the first circle around it, drank till some of the
others began to fear that there would be no water left for them. Some
pushed the drinkers greedily and even nipped at them but the others just
waited patiently.
Her mother was one of the first to drink, but little Queen waited till
she saw two of the horses—strangers to her—turn away. The old work-horse
whose good nature had impressed itself upon her at the haystack, and who
by daylight seemed even more kindly disposed, his sorrel coat somehow
intensifying his harmlessness, took half the space they left and Queen
walked up beside him. The old fellow’s upper lip trembled in soft
assurance of his friendship. Very grateful to him Queen bent down and
drank, a few inches away from his head, keeping her eyes on the
reflections in the water, raising her head hastily just as soon as one
of the reflections moved.
The world seemed altogether different to her after that drink. It seemed
as if every wish of her little soul had been gratified. She was still
tired but it was not a very painful tiredness and not strong enough to
keep her from preferring the tender grasses in the old slough to
resting.
Night came again. The wind completely changed. It blew strong and cold
now from the southeast. The sky was very clear and in the north just
above the horizon many lights quivered. The old buckskin mare settled
down comfortably in the midst of the other mares and little Queen
nestled up against her warm body. With her head upon her mother’s flank
she delighted in her comfort and gazed at the northern lights, whose
brilliant display did not seem to worry the older horses. Yet so long as
Queen’s eyes were open they were fastened upon those lights; and so long
as the little brain was awake it kept wondering with a bit of fear what
they might mean, for they were different from fire yet moved as fire
did.
She had slept a long time when she was awakened by the sound of anxious
neighing that seemed far away and yet filled the air above the little
valley. Upon opening her eyes she beheld the northern lights so clear
and so near that she trembled for fear of them, and was certain that the
disorderly running about that she heard was due to the same fear. But
when her mother jumped up and she followed, she discovered that the
frightful odour of fire was coming on the wind from the south, where she
had last seen the flames creeping behind her.
The same confusion, the same bewildering excitement and again the
wearing race for life began. That they ran directly toward the northern
lights convinced her that these were as harmless as the moon and stars.
With very few differences this flight was like the first. Though the
discomfort of it was even more hateful to her, Queen felt no impending
breakdown and without realising it, she was stronger now.
Dawn came and soon gave way to a somewhat dull day. The wind changed
several times and finally for a while died down altogether. There was no
trace of smoke in the air; but the south was now established as a region
of horror and they continued their flight northward till late in the
afternoon.
They ran down a steep hillside dotted with many knolls and stones and
came into an elongated, bowl-like valley toward one end of which there
was a small spring lake. There they stopped to drink, to graze and to
rest.
Just as the air in that valley bore no trace of smoke, the plains that
stretched away from that valley bore no trace of man. A few
grass-overgrown buffalo trails led from the lands above to the deepest
part of the ancient lake and a bleached buffalo skull beside the main
trail told the story of a day and its life that had passed.
A coyote den at the opposite end of the bowl and half way up the slope
gave the only evidence of life about the lake. The rim of the bowl shut
away the barrenness of the prairies above. The very dome of heaven
rested upon the rim of that bowl and vast primordial spaces interposed
protection against man’s greedy intrusions.
Little Queen drank some water at the ice hole, drank the milk that
nature had prepared for her with all the care and concern of her
mother’s love, then slept away another night at her beloved mother’s
side, never even dreaming that this night was shutting fast forever the
doors behind which lay the closed first period of her life.
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