Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-05-20
THE DEATH or THE WOLF.


And to the horizon the woods were
black.
Silent VIC walked over tho humid grass,
Through the close briers, and the tall
thick heath,
When under pines Ike those upon
the Landes.
We saw the impress by Tho great
paws marked
OF the fierce travelling wolve, that Va
had tracked.
We listened. standing with su.p.nded
breath
nor plain
alone
The tortured weather-vane screamed 70
tho sky;
wind
towers;
the rocks.
asleep.
Nothing was stirring, when. with low
cred head
ne OIOeSl or tNe hunters IN the quest
Bent DER the sand and gazed at It.
And soon,
He. who had never yet been found to
err.
In a low voice declared that recent
marks
Showed the long stepping and the
powerful claws
| OF two great wolves and Of their two
wolfcubs.
SO We at once made ready each his
knife.
And hiding the bright cleaning -
our guns,
Walked step by step. pushing aside
| the boughs.
/ Three Of us stopped and. seeking what
they saw,
T. all at once, perceived two flaming
eyes.
And. on beyond them, saw n,mbis
| forms.
Which danced under the moon among
the briers
As noisy hounds each day, before our
eyes.
Leap with delight when home the mas
ter comes
Like was their form and similar tho
dance.
But the young wolves played In All ST.
lence there,
Well knowing that near by. but half
asleep,
Within his walls lies man their
enemy.
Tho wolf stood nrm-Beyond against
tree
TIL. she-wct rested like tn. marble
wolf
Adored In Rome,-that one whose
hairy TANKS
Nursed Romulus and Remus. Dem..
gods.
The wolf came on and crouched. two
legs outstretched
With crooked claws sunk deep into
the sand:
He thought him lost, since he had
been surprised.
His pathways taken, his retreat cut
of.
At once he seized with his fierce
fiery mouth
The throat still gasping Of the boldest
Nor were those iron jaws ever un.
locked
Spite Of our shots which pierced h!p
through and through.
And our sharp knives whose blades
like p.ncers crossed,
AS they were plunged deep, deep into
his sides.
Till the last moment, when the
strangled dog,
Dead long before him. rolled beneath
his feet.
The wolf then left him and gazed up
at US.
The knives were in his sides up to
the guard.
And nailed him to the turf hathed with
his blood.
Round him In an ill-omened crescent
aimed our guns.
He looked at us again. then laid him
, down,
Licked the dark blood whose stain
was round his mouth.
And. without caring by what death ~
died.
Closed his great eyes and died with
out sound.
H.
Ny head rested on my empty gun,
Seized by a thought: and I could not
resolve
To chase the she-wolf and her cubs,
who all
Had waited for him; and. as be.
ieve.
But for those cubs, the widow fierce
and dark
Would not have let him meet his fate
alone.
But twas her duty TO get them away
That she might teach them hunger's
pain to meet,
And ne'er to join In that vile pact
Of towns
Which man has made with servile
animals,
That they for him shall hunt, for bed
and board.
The nrst possessors OF the vosA and
: Alas. thought I, spite Of our name Of
! Men"
What shame I feel for us. weak as We
: IT'S you who know, oh! Animals sub
lime
How one should part from life and all
Its Ills.
In sight Of what one was and what one
leaves
, Silence alone Is great The rest ID
weak.
: All! I have understood. wild traveli.
And thy last look hAs touched ma "a