The Opelousas courier., 1889-01-12

dead one and tore him to pieces and de
| voured him in a few seconds. By thi
time I had loaded the gun and free
again into the struggling, bowling
mass.
IT must have hit one of them, TO,
they all set upon another one of the:'
number and soon had his bones picked
clean. I fred three shots more, ane
each time I hit one Of them, and every
one was eaten as quickly as the first
I could have killed them all, perhaps,
but unfortunately in loading the gun thu
sixth time I got a bullet fast near thu
muzzle of the gun, and this stopped my
shooting until I could get it out. While
1 was taking the gun to pieces the
wolves turned their attention to the
barn, and it wasn't long before they
found the opeBb37 in the door. soon
found that they had got into the barn;
in fact, I could see them struggling
zeal the door, as though they were try
ing to force their way in ahead of each
other. Pretty soon / heard tho chickens
and turkeys squawkiag, and the coy
bawling above the sounds of the snarl-
ing and swapping of the wolves. 1t was
horrible to listen to the poor COW, but
there was no help for it.
could do nothing but stand at
the window and listen and be-
moan the fate of our poor animals. In
a very short time I noticed that all of
the wolves had disappeared through the
hole under the door into the stable,
where they were either feasting upon
poor Betty, the COW, n chasing and
tearing the turkeys and chickens, which
still kept up a terrific clatter. The
thought struck me that l might, while
the wolves were engaged in their feast,
slip out of the house and close the hole
under the door with the log which lay
just outside, so looking around again
and seeing nothing more Of the bfgtes
opened the door aud slipped quietly up to
the barn, and selling the wedge-shaped
log jammed it into the hole just as the
nose of a big gray fellow appeared.
struck him with the end Of it and forced
him back into the stable, and then
pushed the log in uatil it fitted SO
tightly that it couldn't DO moved, and
then I ran buck to the house, fearing
there might b, more wolves vt on the
outside, but l didn't sec any more, al
though I stood at the window half an
hour.
Having satisfied myself that they
were all dead or fastened up in the
stable, I stole out again and peeped
through the cracks between the logs.
The sight was awful; the floor was COW
cred with feathers of the chickens and
turkeys, with here and there q bone OF
cur poor old cow. In n end of the
stable eleven wolves were huddled up,
glaring at me with their big yellow
eyes and snarling with great open bloody
mouths, but they didn't spring at me;
somehow they appeared to know they
were prisoners, and that they couldn't
get o j, and all their courage seemed to
have left them. Well, I went back to
the house, determined to get the bull
let out Of the gun and to shoot them all,
but it was STUCK so tight tharI couldn't
move it; and. in fact, didn'tgebr out until
Uncle Jimmy came back, four days latw,
when he soon made short work of the
brutes.
Nov, there was something strange
in the action of the wolves after they
were fastened up. From that time I'm
til Uncle Jim's arrival they didn't touch
the remains of the COW, 0 did they
leave the corner of the stable where ]
first saw them after I had fastened them
in, SO far as 7 could tell. Uncle jim
shot them all and skinned them, and in
the spring got the bounty for theil
scalps and sold the hides for enough to
buy another COW AMI lot of poultry.
That was the only time the wolves ever
msde a Wholesale raid on US although
they often afterward stole n sheep,
pigs and small stock. "-ECincinnati En-
quirer.