The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-08-25

| Il .ock here. you must tell me the truth
ahr.t this.r' said the treasurer, severelv.
I'm telling you the truth replied the
boy, with clear-eyed honesty. Her and
| Inc ketched EN- and grandpa made pills
fer en-. fer us
But tell me how you caught these
| wolves" exclaimed the treasurer, still
| unconyinccd.
We ketched 'em in the shack
What shack? Where?'
"Grandpa's old shack, where he used
to live, Oh t'other side of the crick".
Yes, but how did you catch wolves
in this shack questioned the treasurer
How came the wolves in the shack?.'
"They went i'll to get the boss head
and the steer bones"
| Bones that you put there for bait ::
But what kept the wolves from coming
out?'
The boy explained that "her''-meaning
Rose, whose black eyes blinked rapidly
when the treasurer looked at her-had
made kind Of spring catch from dry
ashWood and leather string, attached
! to which was a stone for weight. The
door of the shack, or small log shanty
| was left aJar about ten inches, SO that a
wolf, lion, or any other creature ap-
| preaching the empty structure could put
| it's head in and look about the interior.
10 all appearance the door was unfas-
| tened, swinging free, and the wolf OF
other wild beast was not alarmed by
anything that it saw either within or
without. To get the bones it had but
to walk in; yet when it did so, the larger
! part of its body pushed the door back a
little farther, and then the ashen spring
| at the top, bending slightly, released the
weight attached to the spring. Then-as
the creatures body passed in-the door
was pulled to with just sufficient force
to latch it. The animal was thus en-
trapped, and all SO quietly that it scarce
| ly felt any alarm at first
How the girl had learned so cunning
a stratage-n was not explained; perhaps
from her Indian mother. There was very
niue 10 1T Of gear or mechanism, and
n91tnlng whatever in the way of metal;
otherwise It would have failed, since if
is now almost impossible to take these
wolves IN steel traps, or even in log
traps such as white hunters sometimes
construct.
Yet to this primitive device, contrived
py the hand of an 11-year-old child, five
large gray wolves had. one after another
fallen victims Two. indeed. had heen
cntrapped at once the second having an
parently pushed into the shack with the
first
The shack itself was simply a little low
log, house without windows, and having u
sod roof. When once the door had
swung to and latched behind the wolf, it
was prisoner.
and told how the spring and weight were
adjusted, the treasurer became convinced
II his truthfulness. He brought out his
punch and hammer, and proceeded to
make holes in the ears of the skins, as
by law directed, wild Rose cycling his
every movement with attention to de-
tails.
How did you know when YOU had
wolf?' the treasurer asked
"Her went up to look every morning.
said the boy.
What did you do when you found you
had caught a wolf?' the treasurer asked
the girl; but she only blinked half a
dozen times in a second, and it was still
the boy who replied for her that she ran
home to get Grandpa Hogan to make
pill' for it.
The old man had been a wolf hunter in
his day, and knew that to shoot a wolf
inside the shack would spoil all chance of
trapping another there. He enclosed
enough strychnine to kill a wolf in bit
of tallow, the size of hens egg. This
the children carried to the shack and
poked in through chink between the
logs, and after they had gone the VOLTS
hunger soon did the rest
Toward evening the two small hunters
were wont to return. and in no case had
failed to find the wolf dead. They then
opened the door. and attaching a bit of
rope to the animals hind legs, hauled it
home in triumph.
Although too infirm to go abroad in thu
snow, the old man was able to skin the
wolves when brought to him.
The treasurer paid the children the
bounty money-$19 in all-and with an
amused smile watched them drive to the
store to buy grub stuff" of which the
forlorn family was no doubt in need II
was likely that they would be able to sell
the skins for as much more. however, and
the treasurer concluded that there was
no immediate cause for alarm concerning
the Toulkrods as long as they had little
Rose to trap for them and Custer to do
the talking.-Youth's Companion.