St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-12-18

/ tbC hVuoS WIS SURROUNDED Dy wolves,
We heard them come to the very door
made bold by their hunger. Every
sound from the outside was an agony.
At every renewed sound old Troll
would circle round us with smothered
| growls, as we stood clinging togeth r,
occasionally tapping our hands and
tapping the tears off our faces when we
cried, as if he knew he was the only
protection we had.
I'VE heard slumpiug. stealthy foot
steps several times on the banked -uu
snow outside the cabin, but we never
thought of the windows. Old Troll,
however, was more alert his quick
ear detected the approach of an ami
mai to the window. A crash came at
| the fraii window frame. With Il growl
and bound he landed in the chair that
Uriah had left by the window, and
before we could realize what had hap
pened, he had grappled with the in
! truder at the light.
''How grand he looked, stretched up
to his full length, all his black shaggy
hair standing out as if lie were filing
himself with couragei What an enemy
he looked Troll had seized the wolf
under the jaw, and as long as he conld
hold on he had all the advantage. The
struggle was frightful, the wolf pulling
to get away, and Troll pulling to get
nearer his foe. Sometimes lie would
drag him in so far that we could see
his staring yellow blood shot ewes and
lolling tongue.
"The hoarse growls and yells of rage
and pain filed the cabin with a fearful
din, aud our screams cut through the
sound like IA knife. Troll did not let
go his hold till the flesh actually tore
through his teeth, and, as a final hor-
ror, the blood from the torn throat of
the wolf spurted across the floor The
wolf wls gone, but the blood still
trickled down from the window-cut.
Nothing was afterward seen of the wolf
but the blood marks. He was proba-
bly, e Iten by the pack. Troll looked
out the window with savage growl or
two, as warning to his enemy, and
then jumped down, still growing, and
tapping his bloody chops, as if he were
trying to bite off his anger, since he
could no longer get ut his foe.
'We huddled down, trembling with
fatigue and fright, in the farthest cor
ner from the window, while old Troll
kept faithful watch. Baby Huldah
cried herself TO sleep in my lap, and
thus we sat till the howling stopped.
Uriah and talked in bushed tones,
yet neither of us dared speak what was
most in our thoughts, that we had no
father or mother! For we well imag-
ined we knew what it meant when the
wolves were still They had finished
their horrid work of death
eve sat there an hour or more with
our gIief pressing us hard down. We
did not think what we should do to-
morrow, OF what we should ever do
for i'll our short lives, father and moth
er had been all i'll all to us.
81 was SO tired that dozed off for "A
moment, | think, for | jumped up
quickly when Troll gave loud bark
aud ran to the door. He commenced
frisking and scratching, unmistakable
signs of JOY, but some moments passed
before we could see what it meant, for
the frights of the day gave rs Int little
chance to judge of the nature of
sounds. Baby Huldah was screaming
loudly from being SO suddenly awak-
ened. When she stopped to catch her
breath, we heard outside
'Uriah, open the door,
nth GREATNESS haste we rushed to
the door, and there, sure enough, were
father and mother. When they gath
cred us, poor frightened little things,
i'll their arms, | think | must have
tainted. When | came to, | was on
fathers lap, and he was saying to
mother, Poor little things, it must have
been horribler
"Mother was crying with her face on
baby Huldah's hair, as she stood hug
ging her up tight in her arms, while
Uriah was clinging to her dress.
''lt seems that father and mother
heard nothing of the gathering of the
wolves until they started for home,
when some of the settlers on the
branch nearest here, who had not been
to church. told them of it. When they
were told the direction of the sound,
they were very much alarmed. They
hurried the old horse up the hill us fast
rs they could; and, poor mother-I
don't think she ever spoke of that ride
without crying. -....
"Now the strangest part of the story
is that after that day there were never
seen for years any more wolves in
these parts. Some hunters went out
into the woods and found where they
met. They said there must have been
an immense number, for the snow was
filled with their tracks for acres
around."- Youths Companion.