Their cries were echoing in the far timber. We all rose and listened. In a moment my father came hurrying back with his pail of water. "D'ri," said he, quietly, as he threw some wood on the fire, "they smell mutton. Mek the guns ready. We may git a few pelts. There's a big bounty on 'em here 'n York State." We all stood about the fire listening as the wolves came nearer. "It 's the sheep thet brings 'em," said my father. "Quite a consid'able number on 'em, tew," said D'ri, as he stood cleaning the bore of his rifle. My young sisters began to cry. "Need n't be scairt," said father. "They won't come very near. 'Fraider of us 'n we are o' 'em, a good deal." "Tow-w-w!" said D'ri, with a laugh. "They 'll be apt t' stub ther toes 'fore they git very nigh us." This did not quite agree with the tales he had previously been telling. I went for my sword, and buckled its belt about me, the scabbard hanging to my heels. Presently some creature came bounding over the brush. I saw him break through the wall of darkness and stop quickly in the firelight. Then D'ri brought him down with his rifle. "Started him up back there 'n the woods a few mild," said D'ri. "He was mekin' fer this 'ere pond--thet 's what he was dewin'." "What for?" I inquired. "'Cause fer the reason why he knowed he would n't mek no tracks 'n the water, ner no scent," said D'ri, with some show of contempt for my ignorance. The deer lay floundering in the briers some fifty feet away. My father ran with his knife and put him quickly out of misery. Then we hauled the carcass to clear ground. "Let it lie where 't is fer now," said he, as we came back to the fire. Then he got our two big traps out of the cart and set them beside the carcass and covered them with leaves. The howling of the wolves had ceased. I could hear only the creaking of a dead limb high above us, and the bellow of frogs in the near pond. We had fastened the trap chains and were coming back to the fire, when the dog rose, barking fiercely; then we heard the crack of D'ri's rifle. "More 'n fifty wolves eroun' here," he whispered as we ran up to him. "Never see sech a snag on 'em." The sheep were stirring nervously. Near the pen a wolf lay kicking where D'ri had dropped him. "Rest on 'em snooked off when the gun hollered," he went on, whispering as before. My mother and grandmother sat with my sisters in the cart, hushing their murmurs of fear. Early in the evening I had tied Rover to the cart-wheel, where he was growling hotly, impatient of the leash. "See?" said D'ri, pointing with his finger. "See 'em?--there 'n the dark by thet air big hemlock." We could make out a dim stir in the shadows where he pointed. Presently we heard the spring and rattle of a trap. As we turned that way, the other trap took hold hard; as it sprang, we could hear a wolf yelp.