Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago: Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarianHaight, Canniff
History
Country Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago: Personal recollections and reminiscences of a sexagenarian
Haight, Canniff
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Ontario -- Social life and customs
Another incident connected with the afternoon's work in robbing the
bees. It was quite early in the spring, and though the snow had pretty
much disappeared from the fields, yet there was some along the fences
and in the woods. We left the house after dinner with a yoke of oxen and
wood-sleigh freighted with pails and tubs to bring back our expected
prize, and the afternoon was well spent before John--our hired man--had
felled the tree, and by the time we had got the comb into the vessels it
was growing dark. Just as everything had been got into the sleigh, and
we were about to leave, we were startled by a shrill scream on one side,
something like that made by a pair of quarrelsome tom-cats, only much
louder, which was answered immediately by a prolonged mew on the other.
The noise was so startling and unexpected that John for a moment was
paralyzed. Old Ring, a large powerful dog, bounded away at once into the
woods, and Buck and Bright started for home on the trot. I was too sick
to care much about wild cats, or in fact anything else, and lay on my
back in the straw among the pails and tubs, but I heard the racket, and
what appeared a struggle with the dog. We did not see Ring until next
morning, and felt sure that he had been killed. The poor old fellow
looked as though he had had a hard time of it, and did not move about
much for a day or two. The wild cat or Canadian lynx is a ferocious
animal. The species generally go in pairs. I have frequently heard them
calling to one another at apparently long distances, and then they would
gradually come together. A man would fare very badly with a pair of
them, particularly if he was laid on his back with a fit of colic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account