I A Gossip on a Sutherland Hill-side 229 



' After attentively looking for such marks of the 

 animal he was in search of as his experience had 

 taught him to distinguish as such, Poison discovered 

 a narrow opening or fissure, in the midst of large 

 pieces of fallen rock, which he felt certain led to a 

 larger opening or cavern below, and which it was 

 very probable a wolf or a fox had been in the habit 

 of frequenting. Stones were thrown in, and other 

 means taken to rouse any animal that might be 

 lurking within the opening, and then the two young 

 lads contrived to force themselves through this hole 

 in order to examine the interior parts of it, while 

 Poison remained on the outside. The boys soon 

 discovered that the cavern into which the passage 

 conducted them was a wolf's den, bestrewn with the 

 bones and horns of animals, feathers and eggshells, 

 and enlivened by five or six active wolf-cubs. This 

 intelligence being communicated to Poison, he 

 directed his son to destroy the cubs with all possible 

 haste, and to return up again ; but in his anxiety to 

 give these directions, and, if possible, to see the 

 interior of the cavern, he looked down into the 

 passage, and his head thus deprived the persons 

 below of the faint light afforded by the open mouth 

 of the den. They therefore directed him not to 

 obstruct the light, and Poison thereupon stepped a 

 few paces aside. In an instant thereafter he heard 

 the feeble howl of the young whelps as they were 

 attacked below, and, to his great horror, saw at the 

 same time a furious full-grown wolf, evidently the 



