Nomads of the North: A Story of Romance and Adventure under the Open Stars

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  NOMADS OF THE NORTH

  A STORY OF ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE UNDER THE OPEN STARS

  BY

  JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was late in the month of March, at the dying-out of the Eagle Moon,that Neewa the black bear cub got his first real look at the world.Noozak, his mother, was an old bear, and like an old person she wasfilled with rheumatics and the desire to sleep late. So instead oftaking a short and ordinary nap of three months this particular winterof little Neewa's birth she slept four, which, made Neewa, who was bornwhile his mother was sound asleep, a little over two months old insteadof six weeks when they came out of den.

  In choosing this den Noozak had gone to a cavern at the crest of ahigh, barren ridge, and from this point Neewa first looked down intothe valley. For a time, coming out of darkness into sunlight, he wasblinded. He could hear and smell and feel many things before he couldsee. And Noozak, as though puzzled at finding warmth and sunshine inplace of cold and darkness, stood for many minutes sniffing the windand looking down upon her domain.

  For two weeks an early spring had been working its miracle of change inthat wonderful country of the northland between Jackson's Knee and theShamattawa River, and from north to south between God's Lake and theChurchill.

  It was a splendid world. From the tall pinnacle of rock on which theystood it looked like a great sea of sunlight, with only here and therepatches of white snow where the winter winds had piled it deep. Theirridge rose up out of a great valley. On all sides of them, as far as aman's eye could have reached, there were blue and black patches offorest, the shimmer of lakes still partly frozen, the sunlit sparkle ofrivulet and stream, and the greening open spaces out of which rose theperfumes of the earth. These smells drifted up like tonic and food tothe nostrils of Noozak the big bear. Down there the earth was alreadyswelling with life. The buds on the poplars were growing fat and nearthe bursting point; the grasses were sending out shoots tender andsweet; the camas were filling with juice; the shooting stars, thedog-tooth violets, and the spring beauties were thrusting themselves upinto the warm glow of the sun, inviting Noozak and Neewa to the feast.All these things Noozak smelled with the experience and the knowledgeof twenty years of life behind her--the delicious aroma of the spruceand the jackpine; the dank, sweet scent of water-lily roots andswelling bulbs that came from a thawed-out fen at the foot of theridge; and over all these things, overwhelming their individualsweetnesses in a still greater thrill of life, the smell of the heartitself!

  And Neewa smelled them. His amazed little body trembled and thrilledfor the first time with the excitement of life. A moment before indarkness, he found himself now in a wonderland of which he had never somuch as had a dream. In these few minutes Nature was at work upon him.He possessed no knowledge, but instinct was born within him. He knewthis was HIS world, that the sun and the warmth were for him, and thatthe sweet things of the earth were inviting him into his heritage. Hepuckered up his little brown nose and sniffed the air, and the pungencyof everything that was sweet and to be yearned for came to him.

  And he listened. His pointed ears were pricked forward, and up to himcame the drone of a wakening earth. Even the roots of the grasses musthave been singing in their joy, for all through that sunlit valleythere was the low and murmuring music of a country that was at peacebecause it was empty of men. Everywhere was the rippling sound ofrunning water, and he heard strange sounds that he knew was life; thetwittering of a rock-sparrow, the silver-toned aria of a black-throatedthrush down in the fen, the shrill paean of a gorgeously colouredCanada jay exploring for a nesting place in a brake of velvety balsam.And then, far over his head, a screaming cry that made him shiver. Itwas instinct again that told him in that cry was danger. Noozak lookedup, and saw the shadow of Upisk, the great eagle, as it flung itselfbetween the sun and the earth. Neewa saw the shadow, and cringed nearerto his mother.

  And Noozak--so old that she had lost half her teeth, so old that herbones ached on damp and chilly nights, and her eyesight was growingdim--was still not so old that she did not look down with growingexultation upon what she saw. Her mind was travelling beyond the merevalley in which they had wakened. Off there beyond the walls of forest,beyond the farthest lake, beyond the river and the plain, were theillimitable spaces which gave her home. To her came dully a sounduncaught by Neewa--the almost unintelligible rumble of the greatwaterfall. It was this, and the murmur of a thousand trickles ofrunning water, and the soft wind breathing down in the balsam andspruce that put the music of spring into the air.

  At last Noozak heaved a great breath out of her lungs and with a gruntto Neewa began to lead the way slowly down among the rocks to the footof the ridge.

  In the golden pool of the valley it was even warmer than on the crestof the ridge. Noozak went straight to the edge of the slough. Half adozen rice birds rose with a whir of wings that made Neewa almost upsethimself. Noozak paid no attention to them. A loon let out a squawkyprotest at Noozak's soft-footed appearance, and followed it up with araucous screech that raised the hair on Neewa's spine. And Noozak paidno attention to this. Neewa observed these things. His eye was on her,and instinct had already winged his legs with the readiness to run ifhis mother should give the signal. In his funny little head it wasdeveloping very quickly that his mother was a most wonderful creature.She was by all odds the biggest thing alive--that is, the biggest thatstood on legs, and moved. He was confident of this for a space ofperhaps two minutes, when they came to the end of the fen. And here wasa sudden snort, a crashing of bracken, the floundering of a huge bodythrough knee-deep mud, and a monstrous bull moose, four times as big asNoozak, set off in lively flight. Neewa's eyes all but popped from hishead. And STILL Noozak PAID NO ATTENTION!

  It was then that Neewa crinkled up his tiny nose and snarled, just ashe had snarled at Noozak's ears and hair and at sticks he had worriedin the black cavern. A glorious understanding dawned upon him. He couldsnarl at anything he wanted to snarl at, no matter how big. Foreverything ran away from Noozak his mother.

  All through this first glorious day Neewa was discovering things, andwith each hour it was more and more impressed upon him that his motherwas the unchallenged mistress of all this new and sunlit domain.

  Noozak was a thoughtful old mother of a bear who had reared fifteen oreighteen families in her time, and she travelled very little this firstday in order that Neewa's tender feet might toughen up a bit. Theyscarcely left the fen, except to go into a nearby clump of trees whereNoozak used her claws to shred a spruce that they might get at thejuice and slimy substance just under the bark. Neewa liked this dessertafter their feast of roots and bulbs, and tried to claw open a tree onhis own account. By mid-afternoon Noozak had eaten until her sidesbulged out, and Neewa himself--between his mother's milk and the manyodds and ends of other things--looked like an over-filled pod.Selecting a spot where the declining sun made a warm oven of a greatwhite rock, lazy old Noozak lay down for a nap, while Neewa, wanderingabout in quest of an adventure of his own, came face to face with aferocious bug.

  The creature was a giant wood-beetle two inches long. Its two battlingpincers were jet black, and curved like hooks of iron. It was a richbrown in colour and in the sunlight its metallic armour shone in adazzling splendour. Neewa, squatted flat on his belly, eyed it with aswiftly beating heart. The beetle was not more than a foot away, andADVANCING! That was the curious and rather shocking part of it. It wa
sthe first living thing he had met with that day that had not run away.As it advanced slowly on its two rows of legs the beetle made aclicking sound that Neewa heard quite distinctly. With the fightingblood of his father, Soominitik, nerving him on to the adventure hethrust out a hesitating paw, and instantly Chegawasse, the beetle, tookupon himself a most ferocious aspect. His wings began humming like abuzz-saw, his pincers opened until they could have taken in a man'sfinger, and he vibrated on his legs until it looked as though he mightbe performing some sort of a dance. Neewa jerked his paw back and aftera moment or two Chegawasse calmed himself and again began to ADVANCE!

  Neewa did not know, of course, that the beetle's field of vision endedabout four inches from the end of his nose; the situation,consequently, was appalling. But it was never born in a son of a fatherlike Soominitik to run from a bug, even at nine weeks of age.Desperately he thrust out his paw again, and unfortunately for him oneof his tiny claws got a half Nelson on the beetle and held Chegawasseon his shining back so that he could neither buzz not click. A greatexultation swept through Neewa. Inch by inch he drew his paw in untilthe beetle was within reach of his sharp little teeth. Then he smelledof him.

  That was Chegawasse's opportunity. The pincers closed and Noozak'sslumbers were disturbed by a sudden bawl of agony. When she raised herhead Neewa was rolling about as if in a fit. He was scratching andsnarling and spitting. Noozak eyed him speculatively for some moments,then reared herself slowly and went to him. With one big paw she rolledhim over--and saw Chegawasse firmly and determinedly attached to heroffspring's nose. Flattening Neewa on his back so that he could notmove she seized the beetle between her teeth, bit slowly untilChegawasse lost his hold, and then swallowed him.

  From then until dusk Neewa nursed his sore nose. A little before darkNoozak curled herself up against the big rock, and Neewa took hissupper. Then he made himself a nest in the crook of her big, warmforearm. In spite of his smarting nose he was a happy bear, and at theend of his first day he felt very brave and very fearless, though hewas but nine weeks old. He had come into the world, he had looked uponmany things, and if he had not conquered he at least had gonegloriously through the day.