Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-13
!. CHAPTER XVII (continued)
PET'lEi'Y, DINK

At last Kazan halted before Gray
Wolf. The first agony of hundred
little needles piercing his flesh had
deadened into q steady burning pain.
Gray Wolf went over to him and inyes-
tigated him cautiously. With her teeth
she seized the ends of two or three of
the ouills and pulled them out.l Kazan
was very much dog now.a& He gave
a yelp, and whimpered as Gray Wolf
ierked out a second bunch OF qullls.
Then he hattened himself on his belly,
stretched out his forelegs, closed his
eyes, and without any other sound ex-,
cept an occasional yelp OF pain allowed
Gray Wolf to 60 On with the opera
ton. Fortunately he had escaped SGT,
ting any of the quilts in his mouth ana
tongue. But his nose and jaws were
soon red with blood. For an hour
Gray Wolf kept faithfully at her task
and by the end of that time had sue
ceeded in pulling out most OF the
uuills. A few still remained, too snort
and too deeply Embedded for her to ex'
tract with her teeth. -
After this Kazan went down TO the
creek and buried his burning muzzle
n the cold water. This gave him some
relief. but only for short time. Inc
mills that remained worked their way
deepAr and deeper into his flesh, like
living things. Nose and lips began to
swell Blood and saliva drlpped from
his mouth and his eyes grew red. Two
hours after Gray Wolf had retired to
her nest under the windfall quill had
completely pierced his lip and began
to pick his tongue In desperation kazan
chewed viciously upon piece OF WOOD.
This broke and crumpled the quill and
bestowed it's power to do further harm.
Nature had told him the one thlng 10
do 10 save himself Most of that day
day he spent in gnawing at WOOD ana
crunching mouthfuls Of earth and mold
between his Jaws. In this way the
barbtoothed points of the ouills were
'ulled and broken as they came
trough, At dusk he crawled under
se Swindfall, and Gray Wolf gently
cked his muZzle with her soft cool
3 .onpue Frequently during the night
Kazan went to the creek and found re-
lief In its ice cold water.
a The next day he had what the forest
people call "porcupine humps" His
3.ace was swollen until Gray Wolf
would have laughed if she had been
uman, and not Blind. His chops bulg-
I'D like cushions. His eyes were mere
Sits When he went out into the day
8,e blinked. for he could see scarcely
letter than his sightless mate. But the
pain was mostly gone. The night mat
followed he began to think OF hunting
and the next morn1g before 1t was yet
dawn he brought rabbit into their
DEN, A few hours later he would have
brought spruce partridge to Gray
Wolff but just as he was about to
spiine upon his feathered prey the soft
chatter. of a porcupine a few yards
awAy brought him to sudden stop.
FeW things could make kazan drop his
tall But that inane and incoherent
praftle of the little spiked beast sent
him off at double quick with his tail
between his legs. AS man abhors and
evades the creeping SERPENT. so ka7an
woulG hereafter evade this little crea-
ture pf the forests that never IN AMI
NAL history has been known to lose its
goods humor or pick a quarrel.
Two weeks of frightening days OF
increasing warmth. of sunshine and
hunting, followed Kazans adventure
with the porcupine. The last of the
snow went rapidly Out of the earth
began to snring tips of green. The
bakneesh vine glistened redder each
day. the poplar buds began to split.
and in the sunniest spots between the
rocks of the ridges the little white
snow flowers began to give a final
proof that spring had come. 4 For the
Arst OF those two weeks Gray Wolf
tied frequently with Kazan. They
go far. The swamp was alive
game and each day or night