Simmo was already packing up, to break camp that morning. So there
would be no time to carry out my long-cherished plan of watching young
lynxes at play, as I had before watched young foxes and bears and owls
and fish-hawks, and indeed almost everything, except Upweekis, in the
wilderness.
Presently one of the lucivees came out, yawned, stretched, raised
himself against a root. In the morning stillness I could hear the cut
and rip of his claws on the wood. We call the action sharpening the
claws; but it is only the occasional exercise of the fine flexor
muscles that a cat uses so seldom, yet must use powerfully when the
time comes. The second lucivee came out of the shadow a moment later
and leaped upon the fallen tree where he could better watch the
hillside below. For half an hour or more, while I waited expectantly,
both animals moved restlessly about the den, or climbed over the roots
and trunk of the fallen tree. They were plainly cross; they made no
attempt at play, but kept well away from each other with a wholesome
respect for teeth and claws and temper.
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