] Then at last having found the track, he went in hot haste
after Mr. Rabbit. And both ran hard, till, night coming on, Rabbit, to
protect himself, had only just time _to trample down the snow a little,
and stick up a spruce twig on end and sit on it_. But when Wild Cat
came up he found there a fine wigwam, and put his head in. All that he
saw was an old man of very grave and dignified appearance, whose hair
was gray, and whose majestic (_sogmoye_) appearance was heightened
by a pair of long and venerable ears. And of him Wild Cat asked in a
gasping hurry if he had seen a Rabbit running that way.
"Rabbits!" replied the old man. "Why, of course I have seen many. They
abound in the woods about here. I see dozens of them every day." With
this he said kindly to Wild Cat that he had better tarry with him for a
time. "I am an old man," he remarked with solemnity,--"an old man,
living alone, and a respectable guest, like you, sir, comes to me like
a blessing." And the Cat, greatly impressed, remained. After a good
supper he lay down by the fire, and, having run all day, was at once
asleep, and made but one nap of it till morning. But how astonished,
and oh, how miserable he was, when he awoke, to find himself on the
open heath in the snow and almost starved! The wind blew as if it had a
keen will to kill him; it seemed to go all through his body.
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