"Those who secured more food than they could eat and tried to store away
the rest found that no matter how cunningly they chose a hiding-place
for it and covered their tracks, Mr. Wolverine was sure to find it. In
fact, he made a business of robbing storehouses, and the habit of
greediness became so strong that he would stuff himself at one
storehouse and immediately start for another. When it did happen that he
couldn't eat all he found and yet didn't want to stay until he could
finish it, he would tear to bits all that remained and scatter it all
about. You know I told you he had a mean disposition.

"Even when good times returned and there was no possible excuse for
such greed, Mr. Wolverine continued to stuff himself until it seemed
that instead of eating in order to live, as the rest of us do, he lived
in order to eat. Of course it wasn't long before some one called him a
glutton, and presently he was named Glutton, and no one called him
anything else. Glutton by name and a glutton in habit he remained as
long as he lived. Both name and habits he handed down to his children
and they to their children. So it is that today there is no more cunning
thief, no greedier rascal, and no one with a meaner disposition in all
the Great Woods of the Far North than Glutton the Wolverine."

"Queer how a habit will stick, isn't it?" said Peter thoughtfully.

"Particularly a bad habit," added Honker.




VII