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Updated: June 22, 2025
Then he said: "Tell Grayskin that if he will leave Liberty Forest forever, and go far north, where no oak tree grows, I will send sickness and death to all the creeping things that gnaw the pines and spruces!" "What's that you say?" asked Karr, bristling up. "What harm has Grayskin ever done you?" "He has slain the one whom I loved best," the snake declared, "and I want to be avenged."
Grayskin fought quietly, while Antler-Crown puffed and snorted. The old elk, in his turn, was now being forced backward over the meadow. Suddenly a loud crash was heard! A taglet in the old elk's antlers had snapped. He tore himself loose, and dashed into the forest. Karr was still standing at the forest border when Grayskin came along.
"The first day you were in the forest you killed the wife of poor old Helpless," said Crawlie. Grayskin turned quickly from the adder, and continued his walk with Karr. Suddenly he stopped. "Karr, it was I who committed that crime! I killed a harmless creature; therefore it is on my account that the forest is being destroyed." "What are you saying?" Karr interrupted.
On his walk home Karr was too unhappy for words! He could not understand why Grayskin should allow that wretch of a water-snake to trick him away. He had never heard of such folly! "What power can that old Helpless have?" As Karr walked along, his mind full of these thoughts, he happened to see the game-keeper, who stood pointing up at a tree.
"You did right to retreat," said Karr. "A young elk bull with only a taglet crown must be careful about fighting with an old elk. Another would have disgraced his name in the whole forest by retreating without resistance, but such things needn't worry you who are going to move to a foreign land." Karr had barely finished speaking when Grayskin turned and walked down to the meadow.
"You may tell the water-snake, Helpless, that Grayskin goes into exile to-night!" "That I shall never tell him!" protested Karr. "The Far North is a dangerous country for elk." "Do you think that I wish to remain here, when I have caused a disaster like this?" protested Grayskin. "Don't be rash! Sleep over it before you do anything!"
"If you haven't told him, by all means do so!" insisted the snake. "You must see that the humans know of no cure for this plague." "Neither do you!" retorted the dog, and ran on. Karr found Grayskin, but the elk was so low-spirited that he scarcely greeted the dog. He began at once to talk of the forest. "I don't know what I wouldn't give if this misery were only at an end!" he said.
"What are you looking at?" asked a man who stood beside him. "Sickness has come among the caterpillars," observed the game-keeper. Karr was astonished, but he was even more angered at the snake's having the power to keep his word. Grayskin would have to stay away a long long time, for, of course, that water-snake would never die.
"The fact is," began Crooked-Back, "we have been informed that a crime has been committed here, and that the whole forest is being destroyed because the criminal has not been punished." "What kind of a crime was it?" "Some one killed a harmless creature that he couldn't eat. Such an act is accounted a crime in Liberty Forest." "Who could have done such a cowardly thing?" wondered Grayskin.
As he bent his head toward the calla stalks, he happened to disturb a big black snake, which lay sleeping under them. Grayskin had heard Karr speak of the poisonous adders that were to be found in the forest. So, when the snake raised its head, shot out its tongue and hissed at him, he thought he had encountered an awfully dangerous reptile.
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