Now days we see instead of drying pelts, posters and sign boards, which obstruct the view. In the winter months, the man of the house made the tanned leather into boots and moccasins for the members of the family.
During unusually cold winters, when game was scarce, the hungry timber wolves became more bold and approached our home. The dog had to stay indoors most of the time. Usually, about supper time, the wolves would get a whiff of the odor of frying meat and the pack would circle the house, being careful to stay at a safe distance. What a yipping four or five wolves could make. One might imagine that there were at least twenty-five wolves instead of the few there really were.
We children were so accustomed to the racket that we ate our supper and played our games, paying no attention to the wolves. One of our near neighbors built a trap in which he caught many wolves during those years. In constructing the trap, he laid, first, a row of logs side by side on the ground, making a strong floor. Then he built a square block house on top of this floor. The lower four logs were twelve feet long; the next four logs, eleven feet long ;
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the next four, ten feet long and so on to the top, where he left an open space or hole large enough for the wolf to jump down inside. This block house was easy for the wolf to walk up on as the logs were graded like steps, but once inside, it was impossible for him to get out again. Sufficient space was left between the logs so that one could look in and see what was going on. The trap finally built, a live sheep was lowered inside. Enough fodder to last several days was put in for the sheep. The sheep was left in there a week or ten days, once for twenty days, before the wolves jumped in.
The wolves were suspicious the first few days, then evidently thinking that the sheep was lost or left there, they gained enough courage to jump in. Strange to relate, after jumping in, the wolves immediately began to hunt for a place to get out. Finding no place, they ran frantically round and round, paying no attention to the frightened sheep. This sort of a trap was no place for a sheep with heart trouble.
I am usurping the “deacon’s chair” and cheating you fellows as there is a shanty full of better liars and story tellers than I am, but to get back to where I started, next to
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