Year: 1872




Just one more story, grandma,
about when you was little girl and
lived in the woods" said Frank


And grandma drew OFF her specta-


Cles and shut her book. She leaned


ber head back against the large
[ eaES ehAir, and shut her eyes think
+ member as if il was yester-


She said, raising her head and
31Gsk5hg at the children, who had
gathered around her: 81 was only
fseTen and my little baby wasn't a


year old"


1; --11Ak going TO the spring-house."


saidFnotheT, ''and you must stay in


the room and rock the baby If he
| wakes So took my knitting, for


had learned 10 knit, and was very
| proud of the stocking that was grow
/ ing under my arm.


1T was a cool day, late in the Fall,
| and the doors were all shut Baby
slept and l knitted for an half hour.
Then he awoke and began TO cry
| As got down from mothers great
| easy chair, where had been sitting,
thought | heard a strange noise
outside. 1t wasn't Lion, for he had
gone OF with father TO mill. Some


thing rubbed against the door and
made the latch rattle. l felt afraid,
and went to the door and fastened
the bolt. / stood still listening, with


the baby in my arms-he had stop
ped crying-and l could hear my
heart thump, thump, thumpl


"All at once there came short,
cruel kind Of a bark, and then a


snarl. a moment after the window


broke with loud crash, and L saw


the long head, open jaws and fiery
eyes OF q wolf glaring in upon me
An angel sent by our Father in
Heaven must have told me what TO
do. The wOlfwas Ginning in through
the small window, and TO have lin
gered but a second or two would
have been death. Moved as if by a
power not by my own, and without
thinking what to do, l ran, with the
baby in my arms, to the stairs that
went into the loft. Scarcely had my |
foot left the last step ere he was in |
the room beloW.-With = savage |
growl he sprang after me. AS he |
did so, / let the door, which shut |
like a cellar-dOor, fall over the stair |
way, and it struck him on the nose |
and knocked him back. y chest /
stood near, and something told me /
to pull this over the door. So | laid |
the baby down and dragged at the I
chest with all my strength. just as /
l got one corner over the door, the /
VOLTS head struck it and knocked it /
up a little. But before he could /
strike it again had the chest clear
across. This would not have kept /
him back if had not dragged an
other chest over the door, and piled /
ever so many things on top of these.
How savagely he did grOWl and
snarI But l was safe


"And now l grew frightened a.
bout mother. Ii she should come 1
back from the spring-hOuse, the
wolf would tear her TO pieces.
There was only one window or
opening in the loft, and that did not
look towards the spring-house; and
so there was no way III which l
could give her warning, or let her
know, if she had seen the wolf, that
we were safe.


For long time The wolf tried
and tried TO get at US, but at last
could hear him going down stairs.
He moved about in the room below,
knocking things around for ever so
long, and then heard him spring up /
to the window. At the same mo-
ment / heard my fathers voice /
shouting not far off. o how my |
heart did leap for gladness! Then |
came Lions heavy bark, which /
grew excited, and l soon heard him /
Yelling down the road in the wild /
est way.-The wolf was still in the /
window. l could hear him strug- /
Cling and breaking pieces Of glass.
Lion was upon him when my father
called him OFF in command. All was |
silent now, but the silence was /
quickly broken by the sharp crack /
of my fathers rifle, which sent q
ouIIeJ lnJO the wVif's hUad, killing
him instantly.


''Father! Fatherl'! l cried from the
loft window. He told me afterward
that my voice came to him as from
the dead. He ran around to that |
side of the house. Mother was with
him looking as white as sheet. l
saw them both clasp their hands to-
gether, then lift their eyes in thank
fulness to God.


When l tried to pull the chests a.
way l could not move them an inch.
In my great danger God had given
me strength to drag them over the
door, but, now that the danger was
past, my little hands were too weak
to remove them. So father had to
climb up by a ladder to the loft
window to release baby and me
from our place of refuge.


Mother did not know anything of
our danger until she had finished
her work in the spring-hOuse. Just
as she came out she saw the VOLTS
head at the window, and at the
same moment father and Lion ap-
peared in sight.


H. L q rArr.rr tI,nt u ,.nirn. thn