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Updated: June 22, 2025
The water was as smooth as a mirror, and reflected the shores, which were veiled in thin, light mists. When Grayskin saw the lake he stood entranced. "What is this, Karr?" he asked. It was the first time that he had seen a lake. "It's a large body of water a lake," said Karr. "Your people swim across it from shore to shore.
One could hardly expect you to be familiar with this; but at least you should go in and take a swim!" Karr, himself, plunged into the water for a swim. Grayskin stayed back on the shore for some little time, but finally followed. He grew breathless with delight as the cool water stole soothingly around his body. He wanted it over his back, too, so went farther out.
But the boy insisted that he had, and then the raven told him the whole story about Karr and Grayskin and Helpless, the water-snake. When he had finished, the boy sat quietly for a moment, looking straight ahead. Then he spoke: "I seem to like the forest better since hearing this. I wonder if there is anything left of the old Liberty Forest." "Most of it has been destroyed," said Bataki.
Grayskin walked over to the elk, but almost immediately he came back to Karr, who had remained at the edge of the clearing. "You were not very well received, were you?" said Karr. "I told him that this was the first time I had run across any of my kinsmen, and asked if I might walk with them on their meadow. But they drove me back, threatening me with their antlers."
Grayskin pretended not to hear it; but Karr understood why the elk was so downhearted. "I say, Grayskin, what does the water-snake mean by saying you killed the one he loved best?" "How can I tell?" said Grayskin. "You know very well that I never kill anything."
"You will be a prisoner in a large park and will have no responsibilities. It seems a pity that you must leave here without having seen the forest. You know your ancestors have a saying that 'the elk are one with the forest. But you haven't even been in a forest!" Grayskin glanced up from the clover which he stood munching.
At first the dog had no desire to leave his master even for a moment. Since he accompanied him everywhere, he went with him to the cow shed. When he gave the elk calf its milk, the dog would sit outside the stall and gaze at it. The game-keeper called the calf Grayskin because he thought it did not merit a prettier name, and Karr agreed with him on that point.
He did not stop long enough to find out the cause of it, but hurried on after Grayskin. The elk ran ahead with such speed that the dog could not catch up with him. "Karr, Karr!" he called; "can't you hear the crunching on the pines?" Now his tone was so plaintive it would have melted a stone. Karr paused to listen. He heard a faint but distinct "tap, tap," on the trees.
The only thing that covered them was a network of ragged threads, which the caterpillars had spun to use as roads and bridges. In there, among the dying trees, Grayskin stood waiting for Karr. He was not alone. With him were four old elk the most respected in the forest.
There were no insect folk in the whole country that were so scarce, and they would have remained quite harmless and powerless had they not, most unexpectedly, received a helper. This fact has some connection with Grayskin's flight from the game-keeper's paddock. Grayskin roamed the forest that he might become more familiar with the place.
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