The Washington herald., 1915-11-28
The Wolf Trap
By MICHAEL KENNEDY.

Thirty years ago the 100 acres of
land belonging to the Widow Skinner
in Western Nebraska went by the
name of the Plum Tree Ranch. In the
Middle States or the East the name of
farm would have been used. II was
good land. and it was worked as well
as the widow and her son Joey. a lad
of Il. could do it. They were pioneers
and that meant hard work. poor living
and a long wait before things began
IL come their way.
The claim TO the north OF the Skim
ners had been settled on by a man Of
the name OF Carter. He was OF middle
age. and had he been the right sort
of a neighbor things would have been
very agreeable. But he was sUrly and
bad tempered. and after a time II be-
came plain that he wanted to drive the
SINNERS off their land and get possess
sion himself. II was the land that he
had just been too late to get in the
first place.
In a pioneer country neighbor de-
ponds on neighbor. They have to. A
bad neighbor is worse than a wolf. The
man Carter had only a woman and a
boy to fight. and while they wanted
peace and put up with his many mean
things. he did not cease to prosecute
them in many little ways. Had there
been a MIR. Skinner to take him in
hand. things would have been differ
emit.
Mother and son. working early and
late. were much disturbed by Carter's
doinGs when something new turned up
to worry them. The partial settling
up of the country had driven the
wolves back. but now and then q lone
one appeared and worked havoc for a
week or two before he could be killed
or frightened back. Sue a beast had
now made its appearance. On the
night of his arrival in this particular
locality he had broken his way into
the cowshed on the Carter place and
killed and dragged away a calf. The
next night Carter put out poisoned bats.
but the wolf passed them all by and
killed three or four fowls. Then farm
ers living three or four miles away were
summoned. and a wolf hunt took place.
The country was beat up for miles. but
no wolf was sighted. The sight of men
and dogs had. however. given the animal
a scare. end for the next three nights |
nothing was heard Of him
The coming OF the wolf gave Carter
cause for further hatred Of the Skin
ners, and also gave him an idea of
how to get revenge. The wolf had not
visited the Skinner place, though he
could have found prey there. He had
spared them and injured Carter. Now
that II was known there was a destruc-
tive animal about It would be all right
to set traps for his capture. From the
sod house in which mother and son lived
back to the creek from which they got
their drinking water was distance Of
A quarter OF a mile. A hsrd-beaten
path lay between. Joey generally
brought the water, but sometimes his
mother went.
After the wolf had recovered from
his scare he came to Carter's for the
third time and killed a pig. The next
lay the man rode twelve miles and Dor !
owed a bear trap to carry out his {
plans. He knew full we'll that there
vas not one chance in a hundred of
lis being able to entice the wolf into
he trap, but as a matter of fact he 9
wasn't going to try very hard. At night,
Ifter midnight, with spade In hand and
rap over shoulder. he made his wayi