WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 55 



Wild beasts of all kinds were driven from the forests, 

 frantic with hunger. It appeared that the boy's mother 

 had gone to Oleona to spend the day, leaving" the fu- 

 ture Nimrod in charge of the shanty. The ground was 

 covered with snow, and it was bitterly cold. The lad, 

 who was looking out of the window, noticed a large 

 animal walking about at the edge of ,the brook. Boldly 

 he came out of the house, as he thought that the crea- 

 ture, to judge from its color, was some one's stray calf. 

 When he got within twenty feet of it he saw, to his dis- 

 may, that it was a gigantic grey wolf He did not 

 falter ; turning on his heel, he fled up the slippery bank 

 and into the house, never once looking back. As he 

 turned to slam the heavy plank door he saw that the. 

 brute had been at his heels. He had never heard of 

 such conduct on the part of a wild beast, and deter- 

 mined to be avenged. Slamming and bolting the door, 

 he took down his late father's firearm, which hung over 

 a small ferrotype of that worthy gentleman. It was 

 always kept loaded for just such an emergency, and 

 now it had come. Softly opening the window he took 

 aim at the wolf, which stood sniffing at the door-sill. 

 There was a loud report, and the savaage beast turned 

 a back somersault into the yard — dead. The tiny boy 

 had shot it through the jugular vein. Tying it up by 

 its hind feet to the clothes-line, he left it until his 

 mother's return. Accompanied by several redskins — 

 among them Old Nichols, Tall Chief and Dr. Johnny 

 Shongo, she reached the shanty about nightfall. Im- 

 agine her horror to see the hideous carcass hansfinof 



