CHAPTER XVII. 



THE DARKIE FIDDLER AND THE WOLVES. 



Poor Dan Henrie's adventure with the wolves has reminded 

 me of one or two other incidents sufficiently characteristic of 

 the habits of that remarkable animal to be worthy of relation 

 here, by way of interlude. 



The wolf, besides being the most ubiquitous of our 

 predatory animals, is the most active, tenacious and difficult 

 of extirpation. It is everywhere. It fills-in the chinks of 

 desolation. Its savage, grinning head peers through all the 

 broken glooms of our stern wildernesses — a ghoul-like presence 

 — hideous, gaunt and fierce ! It knows no sympathies, and 



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