One morning—several years later—Karr lay asleep on the porch. It was in the early summer, the season of light nights, and it was as bright as day, although the sun was not yet up. Karr was by some one calling his name.  
"Is it you, Grayskin?" he asked, for he was accustomed to the 's nightly visits. Again he heard the call; then he recognized Grayskin's voice, and hastened in the direction of the sound.
 
Karr heard the elk's footfalls in the distance, as he dashed into the thickest pine wood, and straight through the brush, following no trodden path. Karr could not catch up with him, and he had great difficulty in even following the trail. "Karr, Karri" came the cry, and the voice was certainly Grayskin's, although it had a ring now which the dog had never heard before.
 
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" the dog responded. "Where are you?"
 
"Karr, Karr! Don't you see how it falls and falls?" said Grayskin.
 
Then Karr noticed that the pine needles kept dropping and dropping from the trees, like a steady fall of rain.
 
"Yes, I see how it falls," he cried, and ran far into the forest in search of the elk.
 
Grayskin kept running through the , while Karr was about to lose the trail again.
 
"Karr, Karr!" roared Grayskin; "can't you that odour in the forest?"
 
Karr stopped and .
 
He had not thought of it before, but now he remarked that the pines sent a much stronger odour than usual.
 
"Yes, I catch the scent," he said. 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 on the pines?"
Now his tone was so it would have melted a stone.
Karr paused to listen. He heard a faint but distinct "tap, tap," on the trees. It sounded like the ticking of a watch.
 
"Yes, I hear how it ticks," cried Karr, and ran no farther. He understood that the elk did not want him to follow, but to take notice of something that was happening in the forest.
 
Karr was beneath the branches of a great pine. He looked carefully at it; the needles moved. He went closer and saw a mass of grayish-white creeping along the branches, off the needles. Every branch was covered with them. The , crunch in the trees came from the working of their busy little . Gnawed-off needles fell to the ground in a continuous shower, and from the poor pines there came such a strong odour that the dog suffered from it.
 
"What can be the meaning of this?" wondered Karr. "It's too bad about the pretty trees! Soon they'll have no beauty left."
 
He walked from tree to tree, trying with his poor eyesight to see if all was well with them.
 
"There's a pine they haven't touched," he thought. But they had taken possession of it, too. "And here's a birch—no, this also! The game-keeper will not be pleased with this," observed Karr.
 
He ran deeper into the thickets, to learn how far the destruction had spread. Wherever he went, he heard the same ticking; the same odour; saw the same needle rain. There was no need of his pausing to investigate. He understood it all by these signs. The little caterpillars were everywhere. The whole forest was being by them!
 
All of a sudden he came to a where there was no odour, and where all was still.
 
"Here's the end of their domain," thought the dog, as he paused and glanced about.
 
But here it was even worse; for the caterpillars had already done their work, and the trees were needleless. They were like the dead. The only thing that covered them was a network of threads, which the caterpillars had 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. Karr knew them: They were Crooked-Back, who was a small elk, but had a larger hump than the others; Antler-Crown, who was the most of the elk; Rough-Mane, with the thick coat; and an old long-legged one, who, up till the autumn before, when he got a bullet in his , had been terribly hot-tempered and quarrelsome.
 
"What in the world is happening to the forest?" Karr asked when he came up to the elk. They stood with lowered heads, far upper lips, and looked puzzled.
 
"No one can tell," answered Grayskin. "This insect family used to be the least hurtful of any in the forest, and never before have they done any damage. But these last few years they have been multiplying so fast that now it appears as if the entire forest would be destroyed."
 
"Yes, it looks bad," Karr agreed, "but I see that the wisest animals in the forest have come together to hold a . Perhaps you have already found some remedy?"
 
When the dog said this, Crooked-Back solemnly raised his heavy head, up his long ears, and :
 
"We have summoned you hither, Karr, that we may learn if the humans know of this desolation."
 
"No," said Karr, "no human being ever comes thus far into the forest when it's not hunting time. They know nothing of this misfortune."
 
Then Antler-Crown said:
 
"We who have lived long in the forest do not think that we can fight this insect pest all by ourselves."
 
"After this there will be no peace in the forest!" put in Rough-Mane.
 
"But we can't let the whole Liberty Forest go to rack and ruin!" protested Big-and-Strong. "We'll have to consult the humans; there is no alternative."
 
Karr understood that the elk had difficulty in expressing what they wished to say, and he tried to help them.
 
"Perhaps you want me to let the people know the conditions here?" he suggested.
 
All the old elk nodded their heads.
 
"It's most unfortunate that we are obliged to ask help of human beings, but we have no choice."
 
A moment later Karr was on his way home. As he ran ahead, deeply over all that he had heard and seen, a big black water-snake approached them.
 
"Well met in the forest!" the water-snake.
 
"Well met again!" Karr, and rushed by without stopping.
 
The snake turned and tried to catch up to him.
 
"Perhaps that creature also, is worried about the forest," thought Karr, and waited.
 
Immediately the snake began to talk about the great disaster.
 
"There will be an end of peace and quiet in the forest when human beings are called hither," said the snake.
 
"I'm afraid there will," the dog agreed; "but the oldest forest know what they're about!" he added.
 
"I think I know a better plan," said the snake, "if I can get the reward
I wish."
"Are you not the one whom every one around here calls old Helpless?" said the dog, .
 
"I'm an old inhabitant of the forest," said the snake, "and I know how to get rid of such plagues."
 
"If you clear the forest of that pest, I feel sure you can have anything you ask for," said Karr.
 
The snake did not respond to this until he had crawled under a tree , where he was well protected. 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 the pines and spruces!"
 
"What's that you say?" asked Karr, up. "What harm has Grayskin ever done you?"
 
"He has the one whom I loved best," the snake declared, "and I want to be ."
 
Before the snake had finished speaking, Karr made a dash for him; but the lay safely hidden under the tree stump.
 
"Stay where you are!" Karr concluded. "We'll manage to drive out the caterpillars without your help."
 
THE BIG WAR OF THE
The following spring, as Karr was dashing through the forest one morning, he heard some one behind him calling: "Karr! Karr!"
 
He turned and saw an old fox standing outside his .
 
"You must tell me if the humans are doing anything for the forest," said the fox.
 
"Yes, you may be sure they are!" said Karr. "They are working as hard as they can."
 
"They have killed off all my kinsfolk, and they'll be me next," protested the fox. "But they shall be pardoned for that if only they save the forest."
 
That year Karr never ran into the woods without some animal's asking if the humans could save the forest. It was not easy for the dog to answer; the people themselves were not certain that they could conquer the moths. But considering how feared and hated old Kolmården had always been, it was that every day more than a hundred men went there, to work. They cleared away the underbrush. They felled dead tre............