The big gray thing must have thought
something evil was coming, for he sprang back, and then jumped over in
the bushes and did not show himself again. Rollo came home at an awful
pace; but I looked back once and saw, standing in the road near the
bushes, five timber wolves, evidently watching us. Just where the
other two had been I will never know, of course.
We have ridden and driven up that road many, many times, and I have
often ridden through those rosebushes, but have never seen wolves or
coyotes. Down in the lowland on the other side of the post we
frequently see a coyote that will greet us with the most unearthly
howls, and will sometimes follow carriages, howling all the time. But
everyone looks upon him as a pet. Those big, gray timber wolves are
quite another animal, fierce and savage. Some one asked me why I
screamed, but I could not tell why. Perhaps it was to urge the
horse - perhaps to frighten the wolf - perhaps to relieve the strain on
my nerves. Possibly it was just because I was frightened and could not
help it!
FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY,
May, 1888.
SUCH upheaval orders have been coming to the post the past few days,
some of us wonder if there has not been an earthquake, and can only
sit around and wait in a numb sort of way for whatever may come next.
