Year: 1867

growing belder, she crept out to a clump of
little bushes near by, through which she
could plainly zee them. For by this tiIne
il had ceased showing, and the moon was
shining, though the wind still blow. She
lcvelled her gun at them two or three times
before she could get courage enough to fire.
At the first shot she killed one, and the
pack scattered little, but the smell of
the fresh blood of the dead wolf brought
them back again. Several times SHE fired
with like success. But one of the wolves
IN moving round caught sight Of her
When wolf sees any living object he i'm.
mediately endcavors to get to the leeward
OF il, in order to tell by the scent what Il
is. A wolf depends on his nose in such
matters, and not all upon his eyes. This
| ore, when he caught sight of Polly, COM
menced to mako circle in order TO get
where his nose would inform him what
kind of an animal sho was. Crowding the
ball down quickly, sho fired just in time to
keep the wolf from finding her out, ana
calling the rest Of the pack with his howl
Tho wolf rolled over in the snow.
| Another one came near running right on
her, but she fired in time to save herself.
But this last fright alarmed her so that she
did not dareiire again, until she had climbed
tree. From this point she kept upa fire
upon them until daylight, When they left
AS the result of theH nights work, Polly
found that she had killed nineteen wolves
aud frozen ono OF her fingers almost off
Two Of the wolves had been torn by the
others, but there were seventeen tolorably
good skins. u


Before she dared undertake to skin them,
she found it necessary TO have fire to
keep her hands from freezing. BY whit
Ting thin bass.wood shavings from her
came paddle, aud taking cotton from hof
clothing she was able to start fire by
striking percussion cap in tAe midst of u
bunch Of cotton with little powder scat.
tered through it. 1t took her till noon to
! take the skins from tho wolves. aud 10y tho
middle of the afternoon the severe cold had
| frozen the lake in itW narrowest. part so
| that she ventured to cross. In order to
take her wolf skins across, she was obliged
| to makoa little sledge of the crotch of a
small tree. OF course there had been great
distress AT home on account OF her absence,
and great was the JOY ut her return.


A day or two later she put her furs on a
sled and started to st. Paul. When she
| got to MHnhato she took a load of wheat
for ST. Paul, getting good ound price for
| hauling it. When she arrived in the city.





t-hm up, which she did most effeclualy.
lie said her merry laugh was better than
all the tonics in the drug stores She told
Harry if she could get load back, she
thought her furs would he sufficient to pay
for forty acres, and the other one hundred
and twenty they would have to let old
Van Dyke" as she called him, have
And 80 you've turned teamstcr, havo
you, little woodchuck -? I" said Harry rails.
ing himself up in bed. f'' A@


Anything TO save you and the old home,
Harry"


That day she sold her furs. What was
her surprise to find that tho rare aud beau
| tiful silver black fox was worth, not ten
dollars, bat sixty.fve. For the average
value Of black or silver gray skins is fifty
dollars, and hers was au uncpmmonly fine
one. And then, too, the extraordinary de
mand for minks had carried them up to
three times the price offered by Van Dyke,
aud eveither musRrats were twice what he
offered, and she got well paid for her wolf
skins And to this Harry's back pay, that
he had just received, was added, aud there
was more than. enough TO enter the whole
claim!


When Polly got home, she did not tell
any Of her neighbors that she had stopped
at the land Office at st. Peter, on her way
back, and entered the claim, Aud Van Dyke,
who did not know that she had taken load
both ways, nor how many furs she had
came over to see Harry, who was now able
10 walk about.


"Mr. Strader,' said he, 81 suppose
you'll be able to pre-empt forty acres of
this, and mean to buy the other three for.
ties. Your sister has been little saucy,
but want TO oblige you, aud if you'll let
ME bny in this forty with the house on,
don't mind paying you little something to
start you on new claim"


couldn't make such an arrangement,
sir" said Harry.


Why?" said Van Dyke.


Because my sister, whom you tried to
swindle, entered tho whole claim on her
way back from st. Paul. And now, there
is the door,"


And the crestfallen land shark" left.