St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-03-23
MRS. AMES AND THE LIONS.
Also Three Little Pigs, Baby, and
the Owner of the Pigs.

the Owner of the Pigs.
There had been for days great fire in
the forest up toward Onion Peak, and
strong wind was driving it so far toward
the settlement on the Upper Nehalem
that some of the people watched it with
fear. But to Tered Ames it was bringing
a small harvest of silver, for he was
guide as well as a freighter on the river,
and fire on the Oregon heights meant
game on the lower, accessible levels.
Tered had taken two parties OF hunters
IN the river already. Today he was
away with the third, and on his return
he must deliver three pigs sent to him Tor
a settler named Keegan
Usually Jered's young wife did not fret
at being left alone with the year-old
baby. but now the heat and smoke OPP
pressed her Imagination, and made her
think of the end OF the world, and set her
wishing for some neighbor to talk with.
The baby, too, was i'll at ease in the
sultry, smoke-scented air, and cried fret
fully as she tried to rock it to sleep alter
the early supper.
From her seat, which was under pine
behind the cabin, the little woman could
see a long stretch of the path on which
her husband must return from his boat,
but she could not see his boathouse nor
the river. 1t was possible that he might
come home that evening and her heart
was sore with longing to see his tall form
striding toward her. 1t was possible,
too, that somebody, some messenger or
hunter, might come up the path to en-
gage him as guide or freighter, and she
watched the path lest some stranger
should take her by surprise.
While she rocked the little one and
sang to it letting it lie unhugged on her
lap that it might be the cooler. its crying
ceased, and it seemed about to sleep with
its face turned from her. But suddenly it
shrieked asif from some instructive alarm,
and turned to her, clutching with its fee
BILE little hands and burying its face in
her lap. The mother, wondering what
had affrighted the child stared down
the path and there saw a moving thing
which instantly disappeared.
"a dog" she thought. Somebody's
dog-its owner is coming for Tered. Who
ever it is will have to stay all night, for
it's too late now to go back to the set
Element. must hurry in-the man will
want supper"
She clutched the baby, and at her
grasp it screamed as If in the widest ter
ror-a note which made her again Won
der what allied it. Into the kitchen she
ran, put the kettle again on the stove
and thrust in some kindling Then she
went into her bedroom, just off the
kitchen and tried to brush her hair and
tidy" herself with one hand while she
held the crying baby with the other.
1t struck her, alter a little while, that
she ought to have heard the footstep or
voice or knock of the stranger, and she
turned from her room, beyond which
was the open door of the kitchen. There
stood full-grown cougar, or moutaln
lion!
She recognized the beast at the first
glance, although she had never seen one
before, and in that one dazed glance she
wondered if all wild beasts were so gaunt
and rusty looking.
The next instant the wild shrek of her
baby reused her to action and she threw
her shoulder against the door just as the
rusty, tawny, long body crouched. The
latch snapped down; then the door
shook as If from one blow OF a heavy
wadded mallet, and the thin partition o
upright boards ratified and creaked. The
little woman stood in mortal terror and
the baby, which had instinctively ceased
to cry, pressed its head to her bosom and
clutched with trembling hands.
For an instant the partition seemed
likely to be pushed down; then th'
mother heard the fierce sweep Of wilt
claws across the boards, and then there
was a great crash in the kitchen. Moth
ing but a fall OF crockery could account
for such noise, and Mrs. Ames knew
that her plates and cups and saucers, hel
preserve dishes, her admired glas:
pitcher, and probably her syrup jug, will
the German silver top, had all tumblet
at once from the shelves fastened to tn,
partition. In an instant she wa al
angry as if Tered had upset her cherished
things her courage came back in full
force, and she pulled open the door reck
lessly to scold at the cougar.
He had been frightened badly already
he had leaped like frightened cat out o
the kitchen at bound, but he had no
leaped out Of the house. He had gon
the other way. His head had been to
ward an open interior door when tn
precious crockery fell, and his leap hat
sent him into the front room" wher
he stood surprised, alarmed, awaitin,
something dreadful.
AS angry Mrs. Ames. her baby fright
ened into silence by tie noise, opened tn
bedroom door, she saw in the kitche
looking.glass the reflection Of the couga
in the front room cycling her, and sh
screamed at it with such shrilness tina
the scared beast shrank into the dar
space between the "chest of drawers
and the north corner. The small woma
understood instantly that the couga
was frightened and in the same instan
slipping forward boldly, she shut til
door OF the front room with slam.
The other door and the windows
that room were all closed, and now Mr.
Ames felt that she was mistress OF tt
situation. The cougar seemed to feel s.
too; while she listened and peeped at Il
keyhole the wild creature shuffled arour
uneasiy inside.
Eyes, you can snoop round in Their
knocking my things over" said Mr.
Ames aloud. and vengefully, but wht
Tered comes home he will teach you I
snoop!"
She gazed about at the relics of her b
loved crockery. That awful spectac
made her angrier than ever, and tn,