River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-07-11

bare hard room, whose austerity the
moon made more austere, he gczed
I into trundIe-bed where yellow.
haired, round-faced 10y slept. with
the chubby, sprawling legs and arv,s
of perfect security. The lads face
looked pale to his troubled eyes.
ITS fresh meat they want, the boil
of em," he muttered to himself
''They can't live and thrive on pork
an molasses. nohow,"
His big fingers. clumsily gentle.
| played for a moment with the child's
| yellow curls. Then he pulled a thick
gray homespun hunting shirt over his
head, hitched his heavy trousers m
under his belt, clothed his feet in
three pairs of home-knit socks and
heavy cowhide moccasins, took down
his rifle, cartridge pouch, and snow
| shoes from the nails on the moss
chinked wall, cast one tender look on
the sleepers' faces, and slipped out of
the cabin door as silent as shadow.
"Ill have fresh meat for them he
fore next sundown," he vowed to
! himself.
Outside, amid the chips of his chop
ping, with a rough well-sweep on one
hand and a rougher barn on the
other, he knelt to put on his snow.
shoes. The cabin stood, a desolate.
silver-gray dot in the waste of snow.
naked to the steely skies of winter.
With the curious improvidence of the
Ioo 81
every tree in the neighborhood of the
cabin, and the thick woods which
might so well have sheltered him,
stood acres distant on every side.
When the woodsman had settled the
thongs of his snowshoes over his moe
casins quite to his satisfaction. he
Strengthened himself with a deep
breath, pulled his cap well down over
his ears, slung his rifle over his shout
der, and started out with the white
moon in his face.
His long strides carried him swift
ly through the glimmering glades.
Journeying to the north OF east, as
the gray wolf had to the north of
west, he, too, before long, struck the
trail of the moose, but at a point
far beyond that at which the wolf
had come upon it. So trampled and
confused a trail it was, however, that
for a time he took no note of the
light wolf track among the heavy
footprints of the moose. Suddenly it
caught his eye-one print on a
smooth spread of snow, emphasized
in a pour of unobstructed radiance
He stopped, scrutinized the trail min
utely to assure himself he had but a
single wolf to deal with, then re-
sumed his march with new zest and
SPRINGER pace. Hunting was not
without its relish for him when it ad-
mitted some SAVIOUR of the combat.
The cabin stood in the valley lands
just back of the high plateau, and so
it CHANGED that the backwoodsman
had not far to travel that night.
Where the trail broke into the open
he stopped, and reconnoitered eau
tiouS1y through a screen of hemlock
boughs. He saw the big gray wolf
sitting straight up on his launches,
ing securely his intended prey. He
saw the dark shape of the COW moose,
obstinately confronting her foe, her
headquarters backed close up to the
edge of the gully. He caught the
fierce and anxious CLEAN of her eyes
as she rolled them backward for an
instant's reassuring glance at her
young one. And though he could not
see the calf in its prisoning pit, he
understood the whole situation.
Well, there was a bounty on wolf
shouts, and this fellows pelt was
worth considering. AS for the moose,
he knew that not a broadside of can
non would scare her away from that
hole in the rocks SO long as the calf
was in it. He took careful aim from
his covert. At the report the wolf
shot into the air, Strengthened out,
and fell upon the snow, kicking
dumbly, a bullet through his neck.
As the light faded from his fierce
eyes, with it faded out vision of
the cave in the painted rocks. In
half a minute he lay still; and the
COW moose, startled by his convulsive
leaps more than by the rifle shot,
blew and snorted, cycling him with
new suspicion. Her spacious flank
was toward the hunter. lie, with
cool but hasty fingers, slipped fresh
cartridge into the breech, and aimed
with care at spot low down behind
the fore-shoulder.
Again rang out the thin, vicious
report, slapping the great silences in
the face. The woodsman's aim was
true With a cough the moose fell
forward on her knees. Then, with a
mighty, shuddering effort, she got
up, turned about, and fell again with
her head over the edge of the crevice.
Her awkward muzzle touched and
twitched against the neck of the
frightened calf and with heavy sigh
she lay still.
The settler stepped out from his
hiding place, and examined with deep
satisfaction the results of his nights
hunting. Already he saw the color
coming back into the pale cheeks of