Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-08-23

When Polly opened the letter, all
her hopes we're dashed TO the ground,
IL was from Harry. He was very i'll at
st. Paul, and begged Polly 10 come to
him, otherwise he thought he should
| die.
"Well," said Polly, elf we must
give up all hopes of buying the farm,
or even forty acres, | suppose well
have TO. It'll take good part Of what
1 have to get Harry home, and it'll
take more than week to go and come,
and New Year isn't far off. Every day
is precious. But we must save Harry's
life, for the poor fellow will get well II
we once get him home"
And so, without regarding her moth
er's warning that there was q storm
brewing, she started out in her canoe
to go down the lake to get team
with which to go for Harry. Her own
was an OK team, and to go in the stage
was costly, and besides Harry couldn't
stand the day and night riding in the
stage, for the distance was a hundred
and forty miles. She hired u team for
trip to st. Paul. She could not get
it until the Monday following, and so
she wrote letter to Harry, telling him
that she was coming, and then started
to paddle around the shore and look at
her traps. When she had got to q
place which she and Harry had called
Rocky Harbor, on the opposite side of
the lake, she found dead deer, partly
eaten by wolves, and knowing the
wolves would return after dark, she set
several traps for them. Then she
hastened back to her canoe, for it was
now late, and there could be no doubt
that the November storms with which
the winter almost always begins in that
climate, were now at hand.
But before she could set foot in her ca
noe the storm came, ,andi in an instant the
air was so filed with snow that an OBJ
ject twenty feet away was invisible. 1t
took but moment for Polly to appre-
ciate her situation. To paddle across
the lake in such storm was out of
the question. The wind was coming
up, and it would be alike impossible to
coast around the shore. Besides it was
n great distance, and ice would begin
to form before she could get half way.
There were no families living on that
side of the lake. Her only course was
to stay where she was. Her spirit
sunk for moment, but she dashed
away the tears that came up from u
desolate heart, and set about making
the best of il. She found large log
lying in ravine. Dragging her canoe
from the water, she laid it upside
down parallel with the log, about three
feet away from it, She then cut brush
and laid across them, to form n roof.
Creeping under this shelter, she was
soon buried beneath two feet of snow,
and so felt sure of not freezing. There
is no better protection from cold chan
the snow.
1t was a lonely place She could
hear her heart beat. But when the
wolves commenced to gather for their
midnight repast, and when they set. up
their frightful howls, she could feel the
hair rise up on her head. She would
have been brave enough if she could
have fought with the wolves, but to
lie there and listen to their unearthly
yelling, not knowing how soon the hun
cry pack would find her, WAS more than
she could endure. And then she
thought of poor Harry, and of the
land sale, and she wished for the skins
of the wild beasts that were so
near her. For though the wolf skin
is of little or no value for the ordi-
nary purposes to which furs are ap-
piled, it is in considerable demand for
lap-robes. And remembering that she
was on the leeward side of the wolves,
she dug away the snow at one end of
her burrow and looked out. Then,
growing bolder, she crept out to a
clump of little bushes near by, through
which she could plainly see them. For
by this time it had ceased showing, and
the moon was shining though the wind
still blew. She leveled her gun at them
two or three times before she could get
courage enough to fire. At the first
shot she killed one, and the pack scat
tered little, but the smell of the fresh
blood of the dead wolf brought them
back again. Several times she fired
with like success. But one of the
wolves, in moving round, caught sight
of her. When a wolf sees any living
object he Immediately endeavors to get
to the leeward of it, in order to tell by
the scent what it is. A wolf depends
on his nose in such matters, and not al
together upon his eyes. This one,
when he caught sight of Polly, COM
to make circle in order to get
where his nose would inform him what
kind of an animal she was. Crowding
the ball down quickly she fired Just in
time to keep the wolf from finding her
out, and calling the rest of the pack with
his howl. The wolf rolled over in the
snow.
Another one came near running right
on her, but she fired in time to save
herself. But this last fright alarmed
her so that she did not fire again until
she had climbed tree. From this
point she kept up fire upon them till
daylight, when they left. AS the result
of the nights work, Polly found that
she had killed nineteen wolves, and
frozen one of her fingers almost off.
Two of the wolves had been torn by
the others, but there were seventeen
tolerably good skins.
Before she dared undertake to skin
them, she found it necessary to have
fire to keep her hands from freezing.
By whiting thin bass-wood shavinSs
from her canoe-paddle, and taking cot
ton from her clothing, she was able to
start fire by striking a percussion cap
in the midst of bunch of cotton with
little powder scattered through it. 1t
took her till noon TO take the skins
from the wolves, and by the middle of
The afternoon the severe cold had frozen
Ihe lake In its narrowest part, so that
she ventured to cross. In order to take
her wolf-skins across, she was obliged
10 make little sledge of the crotch of
A small tree, OF course there had been
great distress at home on account of
ler ABSENCE and great was the joy at
ler return.
On the next Monday she put her furs
IN a sled and started to st. Paul. |
When she got to Mankato, she took a
Dad of wheat for st, Paul, getting a
rood round price for hauling it. Ar |
L. III. 4