THE GHAT WOLF. 159 



" What was a causin' of all this commotion I was not 

 long in seein'. Thar, in the middle of the great convention 

 of hogs, stood a big oak stump, about five feet high, and in 

 the centre of the stump stood a big gray wolf, as gaunt, 

 hungry-lookin' a critter as ever I seed. 



" He was handsomely treed, and wasn't in a very pleas- 

 ant fix, as he was beginnin' to find out. All about him was 

 a mass of oneasy hair, fiery eyes, frothin' mouths, gleamin' 

 teeth. Poor critter ! thar he stood his tail tucked close 

 between his legs and his feet all gathered into the exact 

 centre of the stump and Jerusalem! wasn't he a sick- 

 lookin' wolf? He seemed to be thinkin' that he had sold 

 himself awful cheap. 



"Right close about the stump and rairin' up against it 

 was a crowd of some of the biggest and most onprincipled 

 old sows I ever sot eyes onto. Every half-minit one of 

 these big old she-fellows would rair up, git her fore feet on 

 top of the stump, and make a savage snap at one end or 

 t'other of the wolf, her jaws comin' together like a flax- 

 brake. 



"The wolf would whirl round to watch that partickerler 

 sow, when one on t'other side of the stump would make a 

 plunge for his tail ; an' so they kept the poor, cowardly, 

 cornered critter whirlin' round and round, humpin' up his 

 back, haulin' in his feet and tail, and in every possible way 

 reducin' his general average. I'll bet his entire innards 

 was drawed up into a bunch not bigger'n my fist ! 



"Almost every instant thar was a charge made on him 

 from some quarter, an' sometimes from three or four direc- 

 tions at once. Jewhittaker, wasn't it hurry in' times with 

 him then ! 



" When he had a moment to rest an' gaze about, all he 

 saw was them two acres of open mouths, restless bristles, 

 and fiery eyes. His long red tongue hung out of his open 

 jaws, find, as he moved his head from side to side, he 

 seemed to have about the poorest conceit of his smartness 

 of any wolf I ever seed. He had got himself into a nice 

 pickle by tryin' to steal a pig, and he knowcd it jist as 



