St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-10-21

Il
attached to which was a stone for
weight. The door of the shack. or smal
log shanty, was left ajar about tcl
inches, so that wolf, ''lion," or an
other creature, approaching the empt
structure, could put its head in and Loo
about the interior.
To all appearance the door was un
| fastened, swinging free, and the vol
! or other wild beast was not alarmed
by anything that ii saw either within Q
| without. To get the bones it had bu
to walk in; yet when it did SO, the larg
er part of its body pushed the door bacl
little farther, and the ashen sprin.
at the top, bending slightly, released
the weight attached to the spring
Then-as the creatures body passed il
the door was pulled to with just suffi
cient force to latch it. The animal wa
! thus entrapped. and all SO quietly tina
it scarcely felt any alarm at first.
How the girl had learned so cunning
a stratagem was not explained; perhaps
from her Indian moth.r. There wa.
very little to it II gear or mechanism
and nothing whatever in the way o.
metal; otherwise it would have failed
since i. is now almost impossible to tax,
these wolves in steel traps, or in loE
traps such as white hunters sometimes
construct.
Yet to this primitive device, contrive6
by the hand of an 11-year-old child. five
large gray wolves had, one after an.
other, fallen victims. Two, indeed, ha6
been entrapped at once, the second hav-
ing apparently pushed into the shacl
with the first.
The shack itself was simply little
low log house without windows, ano
having sod roof. When oncesthe doc,
had swung to and latched behind the
wolf, it was prisoner.
By the time the boy had explained it
and told how the spring and weigh,
were adjusted, the treasurer became
convinced of 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 lit
tie Rose eying his every movement witt
attention to details.
How did you know when you ha6
caught a wolfe" the treasurer asked.
"Her went up to look every morning.
said the boy.
'What did you do when you found
you had a wolff" the treasurer asket
the girl; but she only blinked half
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-hunteI
in his day, and knew that to shoot
wolf inside the shack would spoil al
chance of trapping another there. He
inclosed enough strychnine to kill
wolf in q bit of tallow, the size Of
hens egg. This the children carried tc
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 hunt
ers were wont to return, and in no case
had failed to find the wolf dead. They
then opened the door, and attaching
bit of rope to the animals hind legs
hauled it home in triumph.
Although too infirm to go abroad il
the snow, the old man was able to skiI
the wolves when brought to him.
The treasurer paid the children the
bounty money-s19 in all-and with an
amused smile watched them drive tc
the store to buy. grub stuff" }" of which
the forlorn family was no doubt in need
It was likely that they would be able tc
sell the skins for as much more, how
ever, and the treasurer concluded that
there was no immediate cause for alarm
concerning the Foulkrods as long as
they had little Rose to trap for them
and Custer to do the talking.-Youth's