Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-06-30
Grandma's Wolf Story.

''Only one more story, about when yol
were little gIrl, and lived in the woods,
said Frank.
Grandma drew off her spectacles anC
shut her book. She leaned her head bach
against the large easy char and shut hel
eyes. thinking.
! II remember, as if it were yesterday,
she said, raising her head and looking at
the children who had gathered around her.
Il was only seven and my little brother
wasn't a year old. Pm going to the
Spring-house, said mother, and you must
stay in the room and rock the baby if he
wakes So took nv knitting, for | had
learned TO knit, and was very proud of the
stocking that | was growing under my arm.
1t was cold day, late in the Fall, and all
the doors were shut. Baby slept and /
knitted for half an hour. Then he awoke
and began to cry. As | got down from
mothers great easy-chair thought hear d
a strange noise outside. 1t wasn't Lion,
for he had gone OF with father to the mill.
Something rubbed against the door and
made the latch rattle. / felt afraid, and
went to the door and fastened the bolt. |
stood st Il, listening, with baby in my arms
he had stopped crying-and could hear
my heart thumb, thumb, thumbl
-'All at once there came cruel kind of
bark, and then a snarl. a moment after
the window broke with loud crash. and I
saw the long head, open jaws, and fierce
eyes of a wolf glaring in upon me. An
angel sent by our Father in heaven must
have told me what to do. The wolf was
climbing in through the small window, and
to have fingered but second would have
been death. Moved as if by a power not
my own. and without thinking what was
best to do ran, with baby in my arms, to
the stairs that went into the loft. Scarcely
had | reached the last step ere he was in
the room below. With a savage growl he
sprang after me. As he did so | let the
door, which shut like a cellar door, fall
over the stairway, and 1t struck him on the
nose and knocked him back. A chest
stood near, and something told me to pull
this over the door. So l laid the baby
down and dragged at the chest with all nv
strength. just as got one corner over the
door the VOLTS head struck it and knocked
it up a little. But before he could strike
it again had the chest clear across. This
would have kept him back if had dragged
another chest over the door, and piled ever
so many things on top Of these How
savagely he did growl and snarll But |
was safe.
''And now thought about my mother.
III she shOu d come back from the Spring
house the wolf would tear her to pieces.
There was only one window or opening in
the loft, and that did not look toward the
Spring house; and no wav in which |
could give her warning, or let her know.
if she had seen the wolf, that we were safe.
For long time the wolf tried and tried to
get at US, but at last | could hear him going
down the stairs. He moved about in the
room below, knocking things around for
ever so long, and then heard him spring
up to the window. At the same moment
heard my fathers voice shouting not far
off. Oh, how my heart did leap for glad
ness! Then came Lions heavy bark,
which grew excited, and / soon heard him
yelling down the road in the widest way.
The wolf was still in the window. |
could hear him struggling and breaking
glass. Lion was upon him, when my father
called him of IN command. All was silent
now, but the silence was quickly broken
by the sharp crack of rifle, killing him in
stantly.
Father, father," | cried from the loft
window. He told me afterward that my
voice came TO him like one from the dead.
lie ran around TO that side of the house.
Mother was with him, looking as white as
a sheet. l saw them both clasp their hands
together and lift their eyes in thankfulEess
to God. When tried to put the chests
away could not move them an inch. So
father had to climb up by ladder to the
loft window to release baby and me from
our place Of refuge. Mother did not know
anything Of Onr danger until she had finish
ed her work at the spring house. just as
she came out and saw the VOLTS head at
the window, az the same moment father
and Lion appeared in sight"
ii wonder the wolf didn't get you, ''said
Frank, with wide-open eyes, breathing
deeply.