160 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



well as if he'd bin human, and was ashamed of himself 

 accordin'. No quarter could he expect anywhere in all 

 that sea of open, roarin' mouths. 



" Sich was the noise, and chargin' and plungin' and surg- 

 in' to and fro, that I hardly felt safe behind my tree one 

 hundred yards away. 



"I determined to try an experiment on that wolf. I 

 raised my gun and fired into the air. At the report the 

 critter forgot himself. He bounded from the stump with 

 the crack of the gun, but he never tetched ground. Half 

 a dozen open mouths reached up for him, and in them he 

 landed. There was jist one sharp yell, then for a rod 

 around was seen flyin' strips of wolf-skin, innards, legs, and 

 hair ; for half a nrinit was heard a crunchin' of bones, and 

 then them old sows were lickin' their chops, rairin' up 

 onto that thar stump and prospectin' about for more wolf. 



"'Bout that time I concluded the neighborhood was 

 likely to prove onhealthy, and I got up and peeled it for 

 the nearest clearin's." 



