Part 25 (1/2)
”At this juncture we heard Frank calling out to his brother to , he poised himself upon his skates, until Harry had passed; and then dashed off, followed by the whole pack Another slight turn brought hie hole broken through the ice close by the shore; andthat, unless he turned again, he would skate into it! We thought he atching the wolves too intently to see it, and we shouted to warn him Not so: he knew better than hat he was about When he had reached within a few feet of the hole, he wheeled sharply to the left, and ca up to the point where we stood to receive hi in a close clu else, went sweeping past the angle; and the next ed into the broken ice!
”Cudjo and I ran shouting forward, and with the heavy rail and long spear coh exciting scene Five of them were speared and drowned; while the sixth succeeded in crawling out upon the ice, and was ot I thought he was going to escape us, but at that moment I heard the crack of a rifle fro like a shot hound On turning around, I saw Harry withthe encounter, and which she had intrusted to Harry as a better marksman than herself
The as still only wounded, kicking furiously about upon the ice; but Cudjo now ran out, and, after a short struggle, finished the business with his spear
”That was a day of great excitement in our little coh he said nothing, was not a little proud of his skating feat And well ht be, as, but for his manoeuvres, poor Harry would undoubtedly have fallen a prey to the fierce wolves”
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
TAMING THE GREAT ELK
”In the third year our beavers had increased to such numbers, that as ti up our store of furs They had grown so tame that they would take food from our hands
We had no difficulty, therefore, in capturing those we intended to kill, without giving alarm to the others For this purpose we constructed a sort of penn, or bye-pool, with raised ate leading into it Here ere accustomed to feed the animals; and whenever a quantity of roots of the swae nu else to do but shut down the sluice-gate, and catch them at our leisure We accomplished all this very quietly; and as none that we trapped were ever allowed to go back and 'tell the tale,' and as at all other seasons the trap was open and free, of course the surviving beavers, with all their sagacity, never knehat became of their companions, and did not even appear to suspect us of foul play, but remained tame as ever
”In our first crop of skins we laid by, at least 450 pounds worth, with more than 50 pounds worth of 'castoreum' In our second year ere enabled to do still better; and the produce of that season we esti a place to dry and store our furs, we built a new log-cabin, which is the one we are now living in The old one beca was quite as productive as the second; and so with the fourth and fifth Each of them yielded, at least, 1000 pounds worth of furs and 'castoreum;' so that our old cabin now contains 4500 pounds of property, which we have taken care to keep in good condition Besides, we estimate our livestock in the dam, which we can trap at any time, at 2500 pounds more; so that, you see, we are worth in all 7000 pounds at this moment Do you not think, my friends, that we have realised the prediction of my wife, and _an to collect these valuable furs, a new train of thought was suggested to us--when and hoe should bring therand difficulty that stared us in the face Without a market in which to dispose of theold would be to a h surrounded with plenty for all our wants and necessities, ere still, in a manner, imprisoned in our little valley oasis We could no more leave it, than the castaway sailor could leave his desert island With all the animals that were subject to us, none of theht--that is, except Pompo He was old at the time that these reflections first occurred to us; and e should be ready to leave our valley in a few years more, poor Pompo would be still older; in fact, barely able to carry himself, let alone a whole family of people, with several thousand beaver-skins to boot
”Although quite happy where ere--for ere always too hts would intrude upon us every now and then, and they gave us a good deal of anxiety
”As for Mary and myself, I believe we should have been contented to remain where ere, and lay our bones in this lovely, but lonely spot
But we had others to think of--our children To them we had a duty to perfor the them to such a wild and ard fate as would be theirs These reflections, I have said, at times pressed heavily upon us
”I proposed to my wife that I should take Pompo, and endeavour to penetrate the settlements of New Mexico--where I could obtain eitherback to our valley, and keep the us out of the Desert
Mary would not listen to this proposal She would not consent that we should be separated 'We ain' She would not allow o
”Indeed, when I reflected seriously on this matter I saw that it would have been useless for me to make the attempt Even could I have crossed the Desert in safety, where was the h to buy either ox or ass The people of New Mexico would have laughed at me
”'Let us be patient,' advised my wife 'We are happy where we are
When the tio forth, trust that the hand which brought us here _can_ and _will_ guide us safely back again'
”With such words of consolation my noble wife always ended our conversation on that subject
”I looked upon her words as almost prophetic; and so they proved in this case, as on many other occasions
”One day--it was about the fourth year of our sojourn in the valley--ere talking on this very theme; and Mary, as usual, had just expressed her firm reliance upon the hand of Providence to deliver us froe captivity, when our conversation was interrupted by Harry, who ca into the house breathless with haste, and with looks full of triu elks--taken in the trap!
Cudjo is bringing the as year-old calves'