52 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



wolves are deprived of their anticipated prey. At other 

 times the adventure terminates in a tragical manner. Aft- 

 er the pursuit of some hours, the team, exhausted and in- 

 capable of proceeding farther, is overtaken ; the sledge is 

 surrounded and carried by assault ; the rest may be imag- 

 ined ! " 



5. " In 1739, Israel Putnam, who afterward became 

 so well known as General Putnam, of the Revolutionary 

 War, began life as a farmer in the town of Pomfret, Con- 

 necticut, forty miles east of Hartford. That part of the 

 State was then quite wild, and the wolves were so trouble- 

 some that they killed seventy of his sheep in one night. 

 The mischief was all done by one old she-wolf and her 

 cubs, who had lived in the woods near there for several 

 years. The hunters killed the cubs, but the old one was 

 too wary to be caught. She was at last driven by blood- 

 hounds into a den about three miles from Putnam's house. 



6. " The hunters tried to smoke her out by burning 

 straw and brimstone in the mouth of the cave, but the 

 wolf would not come out, and Putnam, tired of waiting 

 any longer, for it was then ten o'clock at night, took a 

 blazing torch in his hand and went down the hole, which 

 was only high enough for him to crawl on his hands and 

 knees. He had a rope tied round his legs, and told his 

 friends to pull him up when he gave the signal. 



7. " He crawled along more than thirty feet without 

 seeing anything ; but all at once he saw at the end of the 

 cave the glaring eyeballs of the wolf. She gnashed her 

 teeth and gave a sudden growl, and his friends, who heard 

 it, pulled him out so quickly that his shirt was torn to 

 strips and his skin badly cut. 



8. " He then loaded his gun with buck-shot, and, tak- 

 ing it in one hand and a torch in the other, went down 

 again. As soon as he came near the wolf she growled and 



