Mary of Plymouth: A Story of the Pilgrim SettlementOtis, James
History
Mary of Plymouth: A Story of the Pilgrim Settlement
Otis, James
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691 -- Juvenile fiction; Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony) -- Juvenile fiction
We have many fox skins, for father has shot large numbers of foxes, and
in what seems to me a curious fashion. He saves all the fishes' heads
that can be come at, and on moonlight nights throws them among the
trees, where the foxes, getting the scent, give him a fair opportunity
for shooting.
Once he killed four in less than two hours, and we have hung them in
that corner of the kitchen which we call mother's. Thus it is that she
can sit leaning her shoulders against the warm fur, through which the
wind cannot come.
There is no need for me to tell you that we have more wolf skins than
any other kind, for our people find it necessary to kill such animals
in order to save their own lives. One night before all the snow had
melted from the ground, Degory Priest was coming through the forest
after attending to his traps, and was followed by five hungry wolves,
who kept close at his heels, and would have eaten the poor man but for
his industry in swinging a long pole that he carried to help himself
across the streams.
[Illustration]
Fortunately for Degory Priest, Captain Standish heard his outcries
while he was yet a long distance from the village, and went out with
three armed men to give him aid.
TRAPPING WOLVES AND BAGGING PIGEONS
Our fathers dig deep pits, which are covered with light brushwood, in
such portions of the forest as the wolves are most plenty, and many a
one has fallen therein, being held prisoner until some of the people
can kill him by means of axes fastened to long poles. Father has built
many traps of logs; but I cannot describe how because of never having
seen one.
[Illustration: Wolf Head Decoration on the Meeting-House]
Thomas Williams killed seven wolves in four days by tying four or
five mackerel hooks together, covering them with fat, and leaving them
exposed where the ravening creatures could get at them.
Twice before the snow was melted, the men of the village had what they
called a "wolf-drive," when all made a ring around a certain portion
of the forest where the animals lurked, and, by walking toward a given
center, drove the creatures together where they could be shot or killed
with axes.
Sarah and I do not dare venture very far from the village because
of the ferocious animals, and if the time ever comes when we are no
longer in deadly fear of being carried away and eaten by the dreadful
creatures, this new world of ours will seem more like a real home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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